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{{Short description|American author (1924–2003)}}
'''Leon Marcus Uris''' ([[August 3]] [[1924]] - [[June 21]] [[2003]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[writer|novelist]], known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were ''[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]'', published in 1958, and ''[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]'', in 1976.<ref>"Author Leon Uris Dies at 78" ''The Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle Telegram'', June 25, 2003, page A8.</ref>
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Leon Uris
| image = Leon Uris (cropped).jpg
| caption = Uris in 1989
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1924|08|3}}
| birth_place = [[Baltimore, Maryland]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2003|6|21|1924|08|3}}
| death_place = [[Shelter Island (town), New York|Shelter Island, New York]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Quantico National Cemetery]]
| occupation = Author
| genre = Historical fiction
| notableworks = ''[[Exodus (Uris novel)|Exodus]]'' (1958)<br/>''[[Mila 18]]'' (1961)<br/>''[[QB VII]]'' (1970)
| spouse = {{plain list|
* {{marriage|Betty Beck|1945|1968|reason=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Marjorie Edwards|1968|1969|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|Jill Peabody|1970|1988|reason=divorced}}
}}
| children = 5
}}


'''Leon Marcus Uris''' (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books, including ''[[Exodus (Uris novel)|Exodus]]'' (published in 1958) and ''[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]'' (published in 1976).<ref>"Author Leon Uris Dies at 78", ''The Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle Telegram'', June 25,
==Life==
2003, p. A8.</ref>
Leon Uris was born in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], the son of [[Jew]]ish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a [[Poland|Polish]]-born immigrant, was a paperhanger and then later a storekeeper. William spent a year in [[Palestine]] after [[World War I]] before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of [[Jerusalem]]." "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."


==Life and career==
Uris attended schools in [[Norfolk, Virginia]] and [[Baltimore]], but never graduated from high school, having failed English three times. At the age of seventeen Uris joined the [[United States Marine Corps]]. He served in the [[Pacific War|South Pacific]] as a radioman at [[Guadalcanal]], [[Tarawa Atoll|Tarawa]], and [[New Zealand]] from [[1942]] to [[1945]]. While recuperating from [[malaria]] in [[San Francisco]], he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant. They married in [[1945]].
Uris was born in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], the son of [[Jewish American]] parents Wolf William and Anna (née Blumberg) Uris. His father, born in Volkovysk in the Russian Empire (now [[Vawkavysk|Vawkavysk, Belarus]]), was a [[wallpaper|paperhanger]], then a storekeeper. His mother was first-generation [[Russian American]].<ref>Congressional Record, p. 16911</ref> William spent a year in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] after [[World War I]] before entering the United States. He derived his last name from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of [[Jerusalem]]". (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 [[Russian Jews|Jew in]] [[Russian Empire|Czarist Russia]]. I think failure formed his character, made him bitter."<ref name="AP">{{cite news |first=Hillel |last=Italie |date=June 2003 |title=Leon Uris, author of 'Exodus', novel of founding of Israel, and other best sellers, dies at 78 |url=https://www.deseret.com/2003/6/24/19730865/leon-uris-author-of-exodus-novel-of-founding-of-israel-and-other-best-sellers-dies-at-7/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref>


[[File:Leon Uris with patrol.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Uris in Israel in the 1950s]]
In [[1950]], "[[Esquire Magazine|Esquire]]" magazine bought an article from him and this encouraged him to work on a novel. The result was the best seller "[[Battle Cry (Leon Uris novel)|Battle Cry]]," graphically showing the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific and "[[The Angry Hills]]," a novel set in war-time [[Greece]].
[[File:Leon Uris visit to Israel (997009326974505171).jpg|thumb|alt=Leon Uris during a 1967 visit to Israel|Leon Uris during a 1967 visit to Israel]]


At age six, Uris reportedly wrote an operetta inspired by the death of his dog. He attended schools in [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], [[Virginia]], 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 [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]] and he enlisted in the [[United States Marine Corps]]. He served in the [[Pacific War|South Pacific]] with the [[2nd Battalion, 6th Marines|2nd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment]], where he was stationed in New Zealand, and fought as a radioman in combat on [[Guadalcanal]] and [[Tarawa Atoll|Tarawa]]<ref name="NYTBio">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/section/movies|title=Movies|work=The New York Times |access-date=February 10, 2018|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> from 1942 through 1944. He was sent to the US after suffering from [[dengue fever]], [[malaria]] and a recurrence of [[asthma]] that made him miss the devastation of his battalion at the [[Battle of Saipan]], which was featured in ''[[Battle Cry (Leon Uris novel)|Battle Cry]]''.<ref>Nadel, Ira B. ''Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller'' University of Texas Press, September 24, 2010</ref> While recuperating from [[malaria]] in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] sergeant; they married in 1945.
As a screen writer and a newspaper correspondent, he became intensely interested in Israel which led to his best-known work, "[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]," which is about Jewish history from the late 19<sup>th</sup> century through the founding of the state of [[Israel]] in [[1948]]. "[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]" was a worldwide bestseller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in [[1960]], starring [[Paul Newman]], as well as a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in [[1971]].


Released from service he worked for a newspaper, and wrote in his spare time. ''[[Esquire Magazine|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]] in Hollywood helping to write the [[Battle Cry (film)|eponymous movie]] which was extremely popular with the public, but not the critics.<ref name="NYTBio"/> He went on to write ''[[The Angry Hills]]'', a novel set in war-time Greece.
Later works include "[[Mila 18]]," a story of the [[Warsaw ghetto]] uprising, "[[Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin]]," which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post [[World War II|WWII]] [[Germany]], "[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]," an epic novel about [[History of Ireland (1801-1922)|Ireland]]'s struggle for independence, "[[QB VII]]," a chilling novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]], and "[[The Haj (novel)|The Haj]]," with insights into the history of the [[Middle East]] and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.


His best-known work may be ''[[Exodus (Uris novel)|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]] and by writing newspaper articles about the [[Suez Crisis|Sinai campaign]],<ref>[http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/062503NYTimes_Uris.shtml ''Leon Uris, 78, Who Wrote Sweeping Novels Like "Exodus,"'' Dies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100101155202/http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/062503NYTimes_Uris.shtml |date=January 1, 2010 }} [[New York Times]] – June 25, 2003</ref><ref name="Fujiwara">{{cite book |author=Chris Fujiwara |title=The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-86547-995-1 |page=255}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=lM-8-isjOYgC&dq=Leon+Uris+-inauthor%3A%22Leon+Uris%22&pg=PA255]</ref><ref name="Erens">{{cite book |first=Patricia |last=Erens |title=The Jew in American Cinema |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=1988 |isbn=978-0-253-20493-6 |page=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-v2Di_5ShGMC&dq=Leon+Uris+-inauthor%3A%22Leon+Uris%22&pg=PA217}}</ref> which is said to have involved two years of research, and thousands of interviews.{{efn|Thirty years after the publication of ''Exodus'', public relations man Edward Gottlieb claimed to have commissioned the novel to make the American public sympathetic toward Israel; however research by [[Martin Kramer]], a Middle East scholar, found no evidence that Gottlieb's claim was true.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/martinkramer/files/exodus_conspiracy.pdf |title=The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East; The Exodus Conspiracy |last=Kramer |first=Martin |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New Brunswick, NJ |pages=245–252 |isbn=978-1412864992}}</ref>}}<ref name="Shatzky">{{cite book |title=Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook |url=https://archive.org/details/contemporaryjewi00shat |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporaryjewi00shat/page/n472 440]|first1=Joel |last1=Shatzky |authorlink1=Joel Shatzky |first2=Michael |last2=Taub |isbn=0-313-29462-3|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press}}</ref> 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]], as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical, ''Ari'', in 1971, for which Uris wrote the book and lyrics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=3579 |title=Ari |work=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref>
He also wrote the screenplays for "[[Battle Cry (film)|Battle Cry]]" and "[[Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (movie)|Gunfight at the O.K. Corral]]."


''Exodus'' illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of [[Israel]] in 1948.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-exodus-effect-the-monumentally-fictional-israel-that-remade-american-jewry-1.476411 |title=The 'Exodus' Effect: The Monumentally Fictional Israel That Remade American Jewry|first=Bradley|last=Burston|date=November 9, 2012|access-date=February 10, 2018|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jun/25/guardianobituaries.books|title=Obituary: Leon Uris|first=Eric|last=Homberger|date=June 25, 2003|website=The Guardian|access-date=February 10, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://martinkramer.org/sandbox/2011/10/exodus-myth-and-malpractice/|title=Exodus, myth and malpractice – Martin Kramer on the Middle East|website=martinkramer.org|date=October 11, 2011 |access-date=February 10, 2018}}</ref> ''Exodus'' was also extraordinarily influential among Russian [[Refuseniks]]. 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.<ref>Beckerman, Gal, When They Come for Us We'll Be Gone, pp. 27-29</ref>
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his [[Long Island]] home on [[Shelter Island (town), New York|Shelter Island]], aged 78.<ref>[http://movies.nytimes.com/person/114920/Leon-Uris/biography Leon Uris Biography at nytimes.com]</ref>


Uris's 1967 novel ''[[Topaz (novel)|Topaz]]'' was [[Topaz (1969 film)|adapted for the screen]] and directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]] in 1969.<ref name="Ransom">{{cite web|url=http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ransomedition/2003/fall/exodus.html|title=Leon Uris's Exodus |department=Obituary |publisher=Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin|work=Fall 2003 Newsletter|first=Travis |last=Willmann |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501003708/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ransomedition/2003/fall/exodus.html|archive-date=May 1, 2009|access-date=January 16, 2010}}</ref> His subsequent works included ''[[Mila 18]]'', about the [[Warsaw ghetto]] uprising; ''[[Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin]]'', a chronicle which ends with the lifting of the Berlin Blockade in 1949; ''[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]'', about [[History of Ireland (1801–1922)|Irish nationalism]], and the sequel, ''[[Redemption (Uris novel)|Redemption]]'', covering the early 20th century and [[World War I]].
Uris was married three times. First with Betty Beck in [[1945]], with whom he had three children, and divorced in [[1968]], then with Margery Edwards in [[1969]], who died of an apparent suicide a year later, and finally with Jill Peabody in [[1970]], with whom he had two children, and divorced in [[1989]]. They remained friends.


''[[QB VII]]'', about the role of a Polish doctor in a German [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]], is a dramatic four-part courtroom novel written by Uris that was 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 (Uris novel)|Exodus]]''. It was Uris's second consecutive #1 [[New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Best Seller]]. ''[[The Haj (novel)|The Haj]]'' was set in the history of the Middle East. He also wrote the screenplays for ''[[Battle Cry (film)|Battle Cry]]'' and ''[[Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film)|Gunfight at the O.K. Corral]]''.
==Trivia==
*In some of his books a likeable character is associated with the number 359195: for example, Danny Forrester's (''[[Battle Cry]]'') and Clinton Loveless' (''[[Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin|Armageddon]]'') service numbers and the number tattooed onto Dov Landau's (''[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]'') forearm as his registration number in [[Auschwitz]].


== Personal life ==
*He was born on the day on which [[Joseph Conrad]] died. Both writers had strong Polish connections.
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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900718,00.html#ixzz19wiMRMdm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214153122/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900718,00.html#ixzz19wiMRMdm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 14, 2008|quote=Marjorie Uris, 26, former New York fashion model who married Author Leon Uris (Exodus, Topaz) six months ago; apparently by her own hand (.38-cal. revolver); in Aspen, Colo.|work=Time magazine|date=February 28, 1969|access-date=January 3, 2011|title=Milestones: Feb. 28, 1969}}</ref><ref name=Blagden1976>{{cite news |url=https://people.com/archive/to-jill-and-leon-uris-our-marriage-is-like-the-melding-of-two-generations-vol-5-no-1/ |title=To Jill and Leon Uris, 'Our Marriage Is Like the Melding of Two Generations' |first=Nellie |last=Blagden |journal=People |date=January 12, 1976 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref>

His third and last wife was photographer Jill Peabody, daughter of Frances Gleason and Alfred Peabody of Boston.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/16/archives/jill-peabody-married-here-to-leon-uris.html |title=Jill Peabody Married Here To Leon Uris |date=February 16, 1970 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=December 1, 2018 |page=41}}</ref> They had two children. They married in 1970, when Jill was 22 years old and he was 45.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/06/25/writer-leon-uris-dies/70147f44-3476-4475-a073-8c3317ce0899/?noredirect=on |title=Writer Leon Uris Dies |last=Bernstein |first=Adam |date=June 25, 2003 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/leon-uris |title=Leon Uris (1924–2003) |work=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> 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''.<ref name=Blagden1976 /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://authorscalendar.info/uris.htm |title=Leon (Marcus) Uris )1924–2003) |work=Authors Calendar: Books and Writers |first1=Bamber |last1=Gascoigne |first2=Petri |last2=Liukkonen |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> They divorced in 1988, and soon after Uris settled in New York City.<ref name=Harrell2003>{{cite news |url=https://www.aspentimes.com/news/author-leon-uris-dies/ |title=Author Leon Uris dies |last=Harrell |first=Eben |newspaper=Aspen Times |date=June 24, 2003 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref>

==Death==
Leon Uris died of [[kidney failure]] at his [[Long Island]] home on [[Shelter Island (town), New York|Shelter Island]] in 2003, aged 78.<ref name="NYTBio"/> His papers can be found at the [[Harry Ransom Center]], [[University of Texas]] in Austin, where the [[University of Texas Press]] published a literary biography about him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nadel |first1=Ira B. |title=Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller |date=October 2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin, TX |isbn=978-0-292-70935-5 |edition=First |url=https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/nadleo |access-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612194929/https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/nadleo |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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''.<ref name="Ransom"/> He was survived by his five children and two grandchildren.<ref name=Harrell2003 />


==Selected titles==
==Selected titles==
*''[[Battle Cry (Leon Uris novel)|Battle Cry]]'', 1953
*''[[Battle Cry (Leon Uris novel)|Battle Cry]]'', 1953
*''[[The Angry Hills]]'', 1955
*''[[The Angry Hills]]'', 1955
*''[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]'', 1958
*''[[Exodus (Uris novel)|Exodus]]'', 1958
*''Exodus Revisited'', 1960 (GB title: ''In the Steps of Exodus'')
*''Exodus Revisited'', 1960 (GB title: ''In the Steps of Exodus'')
*''[[Mila 18]]'', 1961
*''[[Mila 18]]'', 1961
*''[[Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin]]'', 1963
*''[[Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin]]'', 1963
*''[[Topaz (novel)|Topaz]]'', 1967
*''[[Topaz (novel)|Topaz]]'', 1967
*''The Third Temple'' (with ''Strike Zion'' by William Stevenson), 1967
*''The Third Temple'' (with ''Strike Zion'' by William Stevenson), 1967
*''[[QB VII]]'', 1970
*''[[QB VII]]'', 1970
*''Ireland, A Terrible Beauty'', 1975 (with Jill Uris)
*''[[Ireland, A Terrible Beauty]]'', 1975 (with Jill Uris)
*''[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]'', 1976
*''[[Trinity (novel)|Trinity]]'', 1976
*''Jerusalem: A Song of Songs'', 1981 (with Jill Uris)
*''[[Jerusalem: A Song of Songs]]'', 1981 (with Jill Uris)
*''[[The Haj (novel)|The Haj]]'', 1984
*''[[The Haj (novel)|The Haj]]'', 1984
*''Mitla Pass'', 1988
*''[[Mitla Pass (novel)|Mitla Pass]]'', 1988
*''[[Redemption (novel)|Redemption]]'', 1995
*''[[Redemption (Uris novel)|Redemption]]'', 1995
*''[[A God in Ruins]]'', 1999
*''[[A God in Ruins (Uris novel)|A God in Ruins]]'', 1999
*''O'Hara's Choice'', 2003
*''[[O'Hara's Choice]]'', 2003


==See also==
==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[List of bestselling novels in the United States]]
* ''[[Dering v Uris]]''
* [[List of bestselling novels in the United States]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}


==References==
==References==

{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Ira Nadel. ''Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller'' (University of Texas Press; 2010) 376 pages; scholarly biography


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/uris.html Inventory of Leon Uris novel and screenplay manuscripts and other documents]
* [http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00241 Inventory of Leon Uris novel and screenplay manuscripts and other documents]
* [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00241 Leon Uris Papers] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [http://www.exodus1947.com Exodus1947.com] PBS Documentary Film focusing on the secret American involvement in real life Exodus, narrated by Morley Safer
* [http://lccn.loc.gov/n80139250 Jill Uris] at LC Authorities, with 3 records

{{Leon Uris}}
{{Leon Uris}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Uris, Leon}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uris, Leon}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Deaths from cardiovascular disease]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Historical novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:Maryland writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:New York writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland]]
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from Long Island]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:United States Marines]]
[[Category:American expatriates in New Zealand]]
[[Category:American historical novelists]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American war novelists]]
[[Category:American writers of Russian descent]]
[[Category:Baltimore City College alumni]]
[[Category:Baltimore City College alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at Quantico National Cemetery]]

[[Category:Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state)]]
[[cs:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:Jewish American military personnel]]
[[de:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:Jewish American novelists]]
[[es:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:Novelists from Maryland]]
[[fr:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[gl:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:People from Shelter Island, New York]]
[[it:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II]]
[[he:ליאון יוריס]]
[[Category:United States Marines]]
[[hu:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:Writers from Baltimore]]
[[nl:Leon Uris]]
[[Category:American Zionists]]
[[ja:レオン・ユリス]]
[[pt:Leon Uris]]
[[ru:Юрис, Леон]]
[[fi:Leon Uris]]
[[sv:Leon Uris]]

Latest revision as of 17:01, 9 December 2024

Leon Uris
Uris in 1989
Uris in 1989
Born(1924-08-03)August 3, 1924
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedJune 21, 2003(2003-06-21) (aged 78)
Shelter Island, New York, U.S.
Resting placeQuantico National Cemetery
OccupationAuthor
GenreHistorical fiction
Notable worksExodus (1958)
Mila 18 (1961)
QB VII (1970)
Spouse
Betty Beck
​
​
(m. 1945; div. 1968)​
Marjorie Edwards
​
​
(m. 1968; died 1969)​
Jill Peabody
​
​
(m. 1970; div. 1988)​
Children5

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 (published in 1976).[1]

Life and career

[edit]

Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish American parents Wolf William and Anna (née Blumberg) Uris. His father, born in Volkovysk in the Russian Empire (now Vawkavysk, Belarus), was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. His mother was first-generation Russian American.[2] William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his last name from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem". (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. I think failure formed his character, made him bitter."[3]

Uris in Israel in the 1950s
Leon Uris during a 1967 visit to Israel
Leon Uris during a 1967 visit to Israel

At age six, Uris reportedly wrote an operetta inspired by the death of his dog. He attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia, 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 and he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. 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[4] from 1942 through 1944. He was sent to the US after suffering from dengue fever, malaria and a recurrence of asthma that made him miss the devastation of his battalion at the Battle of Saipan, which was featured in Battle Cry.[5] While recuperating from malaria 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 in Hollywood helping to write the eponymous movie which was extremely popular with the public, but not the critics.[4] He went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.

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 and by writing newspaper articles about the Sinai campaign,[6][7][8] which is said to have involved two years of research, and thousands of interviews.[a][10] It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical, Ari, in 1971, for which Uris wrote the book and lyrics.[11]

Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.[12][13][14] Exodus was also extraordinarily influential among Russian Refuseniks. 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.[15]

Uris's 1967 novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969.[16] His subsequent works included Mila 18, about the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, a chronicle which ends with the lifting of the Berlin Blockade in 1949; Trinity, about Irish nationalism, and the sequel, Redemption, covering the early 20th century and World War I.

QB VII, about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp, is a dramatic four-part courtroom novel written by Uris that was 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. It 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.

Personal life

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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.[17][18]

His third and last wife was photographer Jill Peabody, daughter of Frances Gleason and Alfred Peabody of Boston.[19] They had two children. They married in 1970, when Jill was 22 years old and he was 45.[20][21] 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.[18][22] They divorced in 1988, and soon after Uris settled in New York City.[23]

Death

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Leon Uris died of kidney failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island in 2003, aged 78.[4] His papers can be found at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin, where the University of Texas Press published a literary biography about him.[24] 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.[16] He was survived by his five children and two grandchildren.[23]

Selected titles

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See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Thirty years after the publication of Exodus, public relations man Edward Gottlieb claimed to have commissioned the novel to make the American public sympathetic toward Israel; however research by Martin Kramer, a Middle East scholar, found no evidence that Gottlieb's claim was true.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Author Leon Uris Dies at 78", The Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle Telegram, June 25, 2003, p. A8.
  2. ^ Congressional Record, p. 16911
  3. ^ Italie, Hillel (June 2003). "Leon Uris, author of 'Exodus', novel of founding of Israel, and other best sellers, dies at 78". Deseret News. Associated Press. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Movies". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  5. ^ Nadel, Ira B. Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller University of Texas Press, September 24, 2010
  6. ^ Leon Uris, 78, Who Wrote Sweeping Novels Like "Exodus," Dies Archived January 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine New York Times – June 25, 2003
  7. ^ Chris Fujiwara (2009). The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger. Faber & Faber. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-86547-995-1. [1]
  8. ^ Erens, Patricia (1988). The Jew in American Cinema. Indiana University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-253-20493-6.
  9. ^ Kramer, Martin (2016). The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East; The Exodus Conspiracy (PDF). New Brunswick, NJ: Routledge. pp. 245–252. ISBN 978-1412864992.
  10. ^ Shatzky, Joel; Taub, Michael (1994). Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Press. p. 440. ISBN 0-313-29462-3.
  11. ^ "Ari". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  12. ^ Burston, Bradley (November 9, 2012). "The 'Exodus' Effect: The Monumentally Fictional Israel That Remade American Jewry". Haaretz. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  13. ^ Homberger, Eric (June 25, 2003). "Obituary: Leon Uris". The Guardian. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  14. ^ "Exodus, myth and malpractice – Martin Kramer on the Middle East". martinkramer.org. October 11, 2011. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  15. ^ Beckerman, Gal, When They Come for Us We'll Be Gone, pp. 27-29
  16. ^ a b Willmann, Travis. "Leon Uris's Exodus". Obituary. Fall 2003 Newsletter. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on May 1, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  17. ^ "Milestones: Feb. 28, 1969". Time magazine. February 28, 1969. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2011. Marjorie Uris, 26, former New York fashion model who married Author Leon Uris (Exodus, Topaz) six months ago; apparently by her own hand (.38-cal. revolver); in Aspen, Colo.
  18. ^ a b Blagden, Nellie (January 12, 1976). "To Jill and Leon Uris, 'Our Marriage Is Like the Melding of Two Generations'". People. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  19. ^ "Jill Peabody Married Here To Leon Uris". The New York Times. February 16, 1970. p. 41. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  20. ^ Bernstein, Adam (June 25, 2003). "Writer Leon Uris Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  21. ^ "Leon Uris (1924–2003)". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  22. ^ Gascoigne, Bamber; Liukkonen, Petri. "Leon (Marcus) Uris )1924–2003)". Authors Calendar: Books and Writers. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  23. ^ a b Harrell, Eben (June 24, 2003). "Author Leon Uris dies". Aspen Times. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  24. ^ Nadel, Ira B. (October 2010). Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller (First ed.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-70935-5. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.

Further reading

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  • Ira Nadel. Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller (University of Texas Press; 2010) 376 pages; scholarly biography
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