|
 American
writer whose bestseller Exodus (1958) was immediately translated
into some 50 languages. Uris is known for his panoramic, action-filled
novels, which often depict determined individuals during the most
dramatic periods of modern history. His central themes are the indomitabile
nature of the human spirit and the restorative capacity of romantic
love.
"This was what I came to find. The conquest of loneliness
was the missing link that was, one day, going to make a decent
novelist out of me. If you are out here and cannot close off the
loves and hates of all that back there in the real world, the
memories will overtake you and swamp you and wilt your tenacity.
Tenacity, stamina... close off to everything and everyone but
your writing. That's the bloody price. I don't know, maybe it's
some kind of ultimate selfishness. Maybe it's part of the killer
instinct. Unless you can stash away and bury thoughts of your
greatest love, you cannot sustain the kind of concentration that
breaks most men trying to write a book over a three- or four-year
period."
(from Mitla Pass, 1988)
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of William and
Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish immigrant, was a paperhanger
and later a storekeeper. Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia,
and Baltimore, failing his English exam on three occasions, and
never graduated from high school. At the age of seventeen Uris joined
the United States Marine Corp and from 1942 to 1945 served in the
South Pacific at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand. He was sent
to recuperate from malaria in San Francisco, where he met Betty
Beck, a Marine sergeant. They married in 1945.
In the late 1940s Uris was a newspaper driver for the San Francisco
Call-Bulletin. He had been writing stories since his childhood,
but his first attempts at publication were not successful. In 1950
Esquire bought an article on football. He began to work intensively
on a novel about the Marine Corp, based on his experiences during
training and combat, often writing 18 hours a day. From 1950 he
became a full-time writer. Although several publishers first rejected
the manuscript, it finally appeared in 1953 and was sold to Hollywood.
Uris's debut novel Battle Cry (1953) is a story about a
battalion of Marines during World War II. It received favourable
reception from both critics and readers. In 1953 Uris went to Hollywood
to write the screenplay of the novel and subsequently wrote an original
screenplay western, Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957). The
film depicts the defeat of the Clanton Gang by Wyatt Earp and Doc
Holliday. It was directed by John Sturges, starring Burt Lancaster
and Kirk Douglas.
The Angry Hills (1955) is an account of the Jewish brigade
from Palestine that fought with the British army in Greece. It received
less praise than Battle Cry and Uris had difficulty getting
it published. The spy-chase story drew on the actual experiences
of Uris's uncle, who had fought as a volunteer in the campaign.
 In
1956 Uris covered the Arab-Israeli conflict as a war correspondent.
Two years later Exodus was published, which became an international
publishing phenomenon, the biggest bestseller in the United States
since Gone with the Wind. It deals with the struggle to establish
and defend the state of Israel. The birth of a new nation was depicted
through several characters but the story of an American nurse and
an Israeli freedom fighter formed the nucleus of the work. Otto
Preminger, who directed the film based on the book, considered it
anti-British and anti-Arab. He also thought that his picture avoided
propaganda and was much closer to the truth than the book. However,
Uris publicly declared that the director had ruined his work, a
situation Preminger had already experienced when he directed The
Man with the Golden Arm, based on Nelson Algren's novel. Naturally
the large historical sections in Exodus, dealing with the
origins of ghetto system, pogroms in Russia, the ideas of Theodor
Herzl, the birth of kibbutzs, and such issues, were not in
the film.
Most scenes of the film were made in locations where the original
events had occurred. The historic prison break was shot in the fortress
of Acre, and Israeli statesman Meyer Weisgal played the part of
David Ben-Gurion in exchange for $1 million for the Weizmann Institute
of Science. Almost the only genuine Jew in the entire line-up of
show folk was Preminger himself. "Otto, let my people go," said
satirist Mort Sahl as he watched the film's 220-minute preview.
Ernest Gold won an Academy Award for his musical score.
The film begins when some thirty thousand Jews who have fled from
Europe, are interned by the British on the island of Cyprus and
denied entry into Palestine. In the book an American journalist,
Mark Parker comes to Cyprus to see Kitty Fremont, an American nurse.
Kitty has lost her husband in the war.
After preparations made by Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a young
officer of the Palestine's Jewish Underground, three hundred refugees,
mostly orphaned children, escape from the internment camp. They
board an old freighter called the "Exodus" and go on a hunger strike
in protest at the British destroyers blocking their path. Kitty
(Eva Marie Saint) is also aboard the ship. She becomes attached
to a refugee girl named Karen (Jill Haworth). Dov Landau, a survivor
from Auschwitz, befriends Karen. Influenced by the intervention
of the island commander, General Sutherland (Ralph Richardson),
the British permit the "Exodus" to sail for Haifa. In Palestine
a strong bond of affection develops between Ari and Kitty. Ari's
uncle Akiva (David Opatoshu) and Dov are members of the Irgun, a
terrorist organisation. Ari joins the Irgun, which executes a mass
breakout of Jews from the Acre prison. Though the escape is successful,
Akiva dies and Ari is wounded.
When the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine, hostilities
increase. Kitty remains by Ari's side. During a Syrian raid Karen
and Ari's Arab friend Taha (John Derek) are killed. Ari delivers
an impassioned eulogy at their grave and goes off to continue the
fight for his country. - In the book Taha's and Ari's friendship
have already ended in a quarrel. Karen and Dov Landau plan their
future. Karen wants to continue her work in a kibbutz. Ari
and Kitty wait for Karen to attend the seder. When she fails
to arrive, Ari discovers that terrorists from Gaza have killed her,
and crying tells the news to Kitty.
After Exodus Uris travelled throughout Eastern Europe. For
the new book he collected material from the Memorial Archives in
Warsaw and interviewed the survivors of the Holocaust. Mila 18
(1961) is set in the midst of the Warsaw ghetto uprising against
the Nazis in 1943. In 1964 a German doctor sued Uris and his British
publisher for libel. He claimed that Uris had mentioned him by name
as one of the surgeons who had committed atrocities against the
Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz. The incident provided the basis for
the novel QBVII (Queen's Bench Seven), which was published
in 1970 and deals with British legal practices.
After divorce in 1965 Uris married Margery Edwards in 1968; she
died the following year. In 1970 Uris married the photographer Jill
Peabody; they had three children. She became his chief editor and
published in collaboration with Uris two books, IRELAND: A TERRIBLE
BEAUTY (1975) and JERUSALEM: SONG OF SONGS (1981).
 The
real life background to Topaz (1967) belongs in a spy novel.
An exiled French diplomat, who did not support DeGaulle's foreign
policy, approached Uris with papers containing information about
the French Intelligence Service. The publication of Topaz caused
a serious conflict inside the French government. When Alfred Hitchcock
decided to adapt the book for screen, Uris wrote the screenplay.
Samuel A. Taylor, who had worked with the director in Vertigo, wrote
the final scrip. The location filming in Paris was delayed. André
Malraux, the French Minister of Culture, withdrew the crew's shooting
permit as he felt the film was anti-French. At least three different
versions for the ending were shot and later Hitchcock regarded the
film as a complete disaster.
Trinity (1976) was based upon Uris's Irish experiences.
While living in Dublin he had written a photo-essay entitled Ireland,
a Terrible Beauty (1975). Trinity is a chronicle of a
Northern Irish farm family from the 1840s to 1916, whose fate is
connected with two other families, one representing the British
aristocracy and the other coming from Scotland. The central characters
are a young Catholic rebel and a Protestant girl, who try to find
their own place in a country divided by religion and wealth. The
story of the Larkin family continued in The Redemption (1995).
In The Haj (1984) Uris returns to the lands of Palestine.
It depicts the lives of Palestinian Arabs from World War I to the
Suez war of 1956. Some extremist Arab groups threatened Uris although
this time the tragedy in the Middle East was seen through the experience
of the Arab nations.
Mitla Pass (1988) is a semi autobiographical account of
the Sinai campaign of 1956. The protagonist is Gideon Zadok, a gifted
young author of a successful World War II novel. He travels to Israel,
determined to find material for a new book. There he meets Natasha
Solomon, a survivor of the Holocaust. Gideon is torn between Natasha
and his love for his wife, who supported him when he was an aspiring
writer. On the eve of the '56 Sinai War, Gideon joins the Israeli
forces and is parachuted to the key junction of Mitla Pass, deep
behind enemy lines. - Uris's latest novel, A God in Ruins,
appeared in 1999. The story is narrated in flashbacks and set in
the United States on the eve of the 2008 presidential election.
For further reading: Leon Uris, A Critical Companion by
Kathleen Shine Cain (1998); Contemporary Popular Writers, ed.
by David Mote (1997); World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman
(1975)
|
