Dorothea Krook-Gilead (; b. 11 February 1920 d. 13 November 1989) was an Israeli literary scholar, translator, and professor of English literature at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

and at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

Biography

Krook was born in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

at the age of eight. She earned a degree in English literature at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

. In 1946 she was awarded a scholarship to

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, at the

, where she earned her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

and spent 14 years as a research fellow and assistant lecturer. Among her students there was the poet

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

, who wrote that Krook was her ideal of a successful career woman and wonderful human being. While at Newnham, Krook published her first major critical work, ''Three Traditions of Moral Thought''. In 1960, she emigrated to Israel and began teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Department of English Literature. Krook married the poet Zerubavel Gilad in 1968 and became a member of

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Ein Harod Ein Harod () was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Israel's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz HaMeuhad. In 1923 part of the ...

. She translated many of his poems into English. Krook died on 13 November 1989.

Awards and honours

* In 1973, Krook was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

in the humanities.Dorothea Krook-Gilead: Mentor of Unfailing Grace ''Jerusalem Post''by V. Eden Nov 16, 1989 p.0
abstract
/ref> * In 1974, she became a member of the

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...

Published works

*''Three traditions of moral thought'' New York, Cambridge University Press, 1959 *''The Ordeal of Consciousness in Henry James'' Cambridge, England 1962 *''Elements of tragedy'' Yale University Press, 1969 *''John Sergeant and his circle: a study of three seventeenth-century English Aristotelians'' (with Beverly C. Southgate) E.J. Brill, 1993

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krook-Gilead, Dorthea 1920 births 1989 deaths Latvian Jews Latvian emigrants to South Africa South African Jews South African emigrants to Israel South African expatriates in the United Kingdom South African people of Latvian-Jewish descent 20th-century Israeli Jews University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Israel Prize women recipients Israel Prize in humanities recipients Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 20th-century Israeli women writers 20th-century Israeli translators

Biography

Awards and honours

Published works

See also

References