Editing Mario Puzo (section)

==Personal life==
Puzo was born in the [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] section of [[New York City]] to Italian immigrants from the [[Province of Avellino]]; his father was from [[Pietradefusi]] and his mother from [[Ariano Irpino]].<ref>Homberger, Eric (July 5, 1999). [https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/05/guardianobituaries "Mario Puzo: The author of the Godfather, the book the Mafia loved"], ''[[The Guardian]]''. Accessed August 10, 2009.</ref> When Puzo was 12, his father, who worked as a trackman for the [[New York Central Railroad]], was committed to the [[Pilgrim Psychiatric Center|Pilgrim State Hospital]] for [[schizophrenia]],<ref name="independent">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/mario-puzo-at-100-the-godfather-author-never-met-a-real-gangster-but-his-mafia-melodrama-remains-timeless-b863424.html|title=Mario Puzo at 100|website=independent.co.uk|date=October 15, 2020}}</ref> and his wife Maria was left to raise their seven children.<ref name=death/> 

Mario Puzo served in the [[United States Army Air Forces]] in Germany in [[World War II]], and later graduated from the [[City College of New York]].<ref name=death/> Puzo married a German woman, Erika Lina Broske, with whom he had five children.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/08/garden/it-all-comes-back-to-family.html|title=It All Comes Back To Family|first=Camille|last=Paglia|date=May 8, 1997|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> When Erika died of breast cancer at the age of 57 in 1978, her nurse, Carol Gino, became Puzo's companion.<ref name=death/><ref name="nytimes"/>