 Solomon is the oldest son of Carolyn Bower Solomon and Howard Solomon, former chairman of Forest Laboratories and founder of Hildred Capital Partners; he is brother to David Solomon, also of Hildred Capital Partners.Solomon described the experience of his family's presence at his mother's planned suicide at the end of a long battle with ovarian cancer in an article for "The New Yorker"; in a fictionalized account in his novel, "A Stone Boat"; and again in "The Noonday Demon".Solomon's subsequent depression, eventually managed with psychotherapy and antidepressant medications, inspired his father to secure FDA approval to market citalopram (Celexa) in the United States.