Howard Langer grew up on the west side of Man­hat­tan. He grad­u­at­ed CCNY in 1973. He is a lawyer and has taught law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia for the last twen­ty years. He began The The Last Dekrep­tiz­er, his first nov­el and an NJBA win­ner, when he was sev­en­ty. Howard and his wife live in Philadel­phia. He has two adult sons.