The Doubts and Loves of Yehuda Amichai

Israeli, European, and International Poet

Ido Bassok, Mark Joseph

• Publisher: Hamilton Books
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9780761879404
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

The Doubts and Loves of Yehuda Amichai: Israeli, European, and International Poet presents the life and works of Yehuda Amichai, born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Würzburg, Germany. The book is based on copious material from Amichai's personal archive in the Beinecke Library at Yale University, other archives and numerous interviews with family members and others who knew him well. Each phase of the biography is linked to its overarching historical context and provides a literary analysis of the key features of his writing. What emerges is a multifaceted picture of a crucial period in the 20th century in which Amichai was both a witness and an actor, without ever taking a simplistic, direct position in his poetry.
Amichai, an engaged political poet, was an enlightened, humanitarian European while remaining an authentic Israeli who loved his country and was deeply involved finding solutions to its problems. Amichai was also a great admirer of women. The analysis of his tempestuous love life helps shed light on important aspects of his prose and poetry. Several chapters are also devoted to the background and influence of Amichai's works in genres other than poetry including his two novels and a collection of short stories, his radio plays, and his children's poetry.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: 1924-1936: Childhood in Würzburg, Germany
• Chapter 2: 1936–1942: Teenage Years in Petach Tikva and Jerusalem
• Chapter 3: 1942–1946: Military policeman and soldier in the British Army
• Chapter 4: July 1946–April 1948: Teachers’ College and the Beginning of Amichai’s Teaching Career
• Chapter 5: April 1948–Summer 1949: The War of Independence; Marriage to Tamar
• Chapter 6: 1949-1955: University Education, the Trip to the US, Amichai’s First Book
• Chapter 7: 1955–1958: Responses to his Book, First Award, Separation from Tamar, the Stormy Affair with Clarice
• Chapter 8: 1957–1959: Two More Volumes of Poetry; Clarice Leaves Israel
• Chapter 9: 1958–1963: Clarice in Amichai’s Poetry, the Birth of Roni, Publication of Stories and a Novel
• Chapter 10: 1962–1964: Plays and Radio Scripts, Publication of Poems 1948-1962
• Chapter 11: 1964–1968: A Year in New York, Friendship with Ted Hughes, Return to Israel after the Six Day War
• Chapter 12: 1968–1971: Publication of Now in the Storm, the Mashkof Group, Visits from Major Poets
• Chapter 13: 1970–1990: Volumes of Poetry in Hebrew and in Translation, Major Prizes at Home and Abroad, becoming the Middle-Aged Father of Young Children
• Chapter 14: Amichai’s Last Volume of Poetry: the Eve of his Death and Posthumous Projects of Remembrance
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author