Best known as the longtime companion of writer Gore Vidal, Austen worked at an advertising agency before becoming a stage manager for Broadway productions.
"[2] Austen had recently graduated from New York University and was struggling to find work writing advertising copy when he met writer Gore Vidal in 1950.
[4] At Vidal's suggestion, he changed his surname from "Auster" to "Austen" "after advertising firms refused to hire him because he was Jewish".
[6] Austen would go on to become the stage manager for the Broadway theater play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
[10] Austen recalled to biographer Fred Kaplan:I guess I ended up being a permanent playmate, Greek chorus, and Jewish mother.
[3] In 1972, Vidal purchased a villa called La Rondinaia in Ravello, Italy on the Amalfi coast.
[8] Austen was flown back to the United States for treatment from Rome by Vidal, who chartered a private plane.