Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel's National Poet [Paperback]

Yehuda Amichai is one of the twentieth centurys (and Israels) leading poets. In this remarkable book, Nili Scharf Gold offers a profound reinterpretation of Amichais early works and reconstructs his poetic biography. Her close reading of his oeuvre, untapped notebooks, and a cache of unpublished letters to a woman identified as Ruth Z. that Gold discovered convincingly demonstrates how the poets German past infused his work, despite his attempts to conceal it as he adopted an Israeli identity.

NILI SCHARF GOLD is a professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Not Like a Cypress (Hebrew) and Haifa: City of Steps.

Preface Introduction: Camouflage as the Key to the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai Childhood in Wuerzburg: A Dubious Paradise The Murky Mirror of Wuerzburg in Amichais Work Hiding between the Languages: The German Mother Tongue in Amichais Universe Growing Up in Palestine And the Migration of My Parents Has Not Subsided in Me The Love Story The Literary Legacy of the Love Story: Binyamina, 1947 and We Loved Here The Lovers in the Public Garden The Haifa Letters: The Making of an Israeli The Making of a National Poet Conclusion: Retrieving the Abandoned Landmarks Appendix A: Texts of Poems Discussed in Their Entirety Appendix B: Map of Wuerzburg and Legend Notes Select Bibliography Index