Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books including '' Exodus'' (published in 1958) and ''

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

'' (published in 1976).

Life and career

Uris was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, the son of Jewish American parents Wolf William and Anna (née Blumberg) Uris. His father, a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. His mother was first-generation

Russian American Russian Americans ( rus, русские американцы, r=russkiye amerikantsy, p= ˈruskʲɪje ɐmʲɪrʲɪˈkant͡sɨ) are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United Stat ...

. William spent a year in Palestine after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

before entering the United States. He derived his last name from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

". (His brother Aron, Leon's uncle, took the name Yerushalmi.) "He was basically a failure", Uris later said of his father. "I think his personality was formed by the harsh realities of being a Jew in

Czarist Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

. I think failure formed his character, made him bitter." At age six, Uris reportedly wrote an operetta inspired by the death of his dog. He attended schools in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, and failed English three times. When he was 17 and in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

and he enlisted in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. He served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment, where he was stationed in New Zealand, and fought as a radioman in combat on Guadalcanal and

Tarawa Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati
''

from 1942 through 1944. He was sent to the US after suffering from dengue fever,

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and a recurrence of

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...

that made him miss the devastation of his battalion at Saipan, which was featured in '' Battle Cry''. While recuperating from

in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945. Released from service he worked for a newspaper, and wrote in his spare time. '' Esquire'' magazine bought an article in 1950, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa, he produced the best-selling ''Battle Cry'', a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

in Hollywood helping to write the eponymous movie which was extremely popular with the public, but not the critics. He went on to write '' The Angry Hills'', a novel set in war-time

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. His best-known work may be '' Exodus'', which was published in 1958. Most sources indicate that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

and by writing newspaper articles about the

Sinai campaign The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 W ...

,
/ref>
/ref> which is said to have involved two years of research, and thousands of interviews. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a Exodus (1960 film), feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical, ''Ari'', in 1971, for which Uris wrote the book and lyrics. ''Exodus'' illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948. ''Exodus'' was also extraordinarily influential among Russian

Refuseniks Refusenik (russian: отказник, otkaznik, ; alternatively spelt refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authori ...

. Two typewritten Russian translations were circulated as samizdat – illegal, hand-copied works that were passed secretly from hand to hand – and the story was retold orally in the prison camps, with the oral version eventually being written in a notebook which was passed from one generation of prisoners to the next. Uris's 1967 novel '' Topaz'' was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969. His subsequent works included '' Mila 18'', about the

Warsaw ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

uprising; '' Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin'', a chronicle which ends with the lifting of the Berlin Blockade in 1949; ''

'', about

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

, and the sequel, '' Redemption'', covering the early 20th century and

. ''

QB VII ''QB VII'' by Leon Uris is a dramatic courtroom novel published in 1970. The four-part novel highlights the events leading to a libel trial in the United Kingdom. The novel was Uris's second consecutive #1 ''New York Times'' Best Seller and th ...

'', about the role of a Polish doctor in a German

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

, is a dramatic four-part courtroom novel published in 1970, highlighting the events leading to a libel trial in the United Kingdom. It is loosely based on a court case for defamation ('' Dering v Uris'') that arose from Uris's earlier best-selling novel '' Exodus'', and was Uris's second consecutive #1 ''New York Times'' Best Seller. '' The Haj'' was set in the history of the Middle East. He also wrote the screenplays for '' Battle Cry'' and ''

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a thirty-second shootout between law enforcement officer, lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cochise County Cowboys, Cowboys that occurred at about 3: ...

''. His work on the subject of Israel has been criticized for being biased against Arabs.

Personal life

Uris was married three times. His first wife was Betty Beck, whom he married in 1945. They had three children before divorcing in 1968. He then married Marjorie Edwards in 1968, who committed suicide by gunshot the following year. His third and last wife was photographer Jill Peabody, daughter of Frances Gleason and Alfred Peabody of Boston. They had two children, Rachel and Conor. They married in 1970, when she was 22 years old and he was 45. He and wife Jill worked together on his book ''Ireland: A Terrible Beauty'', for which she provided illustrations and on ''Jerusalem: A Song of Songs''. They divorced in 1988, and soon after Uris settled in New York City.

Death

Leon Uris died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

at his Long Island home on Shelter Island in 2003, aged 78. His papers can be found at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in Austin, where the

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books and journals in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texan ...

published a literary biography about him. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of ''The Haj'' and ''Mitla Pass'', as well as manuscripts for the screenplay, ''Gunfight at the O.K. Corral''. He was survived by his five children and two grandchildren.

Selected titles

*'' Battle Cry'', 1953 *'' The Angry Hills'', 1955 *'' Exodus'', 1958 *''Exodus Revisited'', 1960 (GB title: ''In the Steps of Exodus'') *'' Mila 18'', 1961 *'' Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin'', 1963 *'' Topaz'', 1967 *''The Third Temple'' (with ''Strike Zion'' by William Stevenson), 1967 *''

'', 1970 *'' Ireland, A Terrible Beauty'', 1975 (with Jill Uris) *''

'', 1976 *'' Jerusalem: A Song of Songs'', 1981 (with Jill Uris) *'' The Haj'', 1984 *''

Mitla Pass The Mitla Pass ( ar, ممر متلة, he, מיתלה) is a pass snaking in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, wedged between mountain ranges to the north and south. It is located about east of Suez. It is the monotonous ride through here and N ...

'', 1988 *'' Redemption'', 1995 *'' A God in Ruins'', 1999 *'' O'Hara's Choice'', 2003

Notes

References

External links

Inventory of Leon Uris novel and screenplay manuscripts and other documents
*
Leon Uris Papers
at the

Jill Uris
at LC Authorities, with 3 records {{DEFAULTSORT:Uris, Leon 1924 births 2003 deaths American historical novelists Novelists from New York (state) Writers from Baltimore People from Shelter Island, New York American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American writers of Russian descent United States Marines Jewish American military personnel Baltimore City College alumni United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Deaths from kidney failure Burials at Quantico National Cemetery Jewish American novelists American war novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Maryland 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers American expatriates in New Zealand 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews