Uris, Leon

(US, 1924– )

Uris, born in Baltimore, Maryland, was the son of Jewish parents of Russian-Polish origin. He spent most of his youth in a poor suburb but left by joining the Marine Corps. His experiences are conjured in a vivid account of the Second World War entitled Battle Cry (1953). His most famous work is Exodus (1958), an epic novel which is both an intimate love-story and a harrowing and gripping account of the Jewish struggle to establish the homeland of Israel. The novel also focuses on the international treatment of Jews during the Second World War. In Mila 18 (1961) Uris takes one episode from Exodus, which deals with the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust, and expands this terrible segment of Jewish history into a novel.

John Steinbeck, Howard Fast  CJ