‘Exodus’ author Leon Uris is dead
Novelist was first-generation American; his most famous work is referred to as bible of Jewish dissidents in Russia
NEW YORK, June 24 — Author Leon Uris, an immigrant’s determined son who made it big with the best-selling “Exodus” and other hugely popular novels, has died, his ex-wife said Tuesday. He was 78. Uris died Saturday of natural causes at his home on New York’s Shelter Island, photographer Jill Uris said from her home in Aspen, Colo.
PUBLISHED IN 1958, the 600-page “Exodus” was a sensation as millions read Uris’ detailed, heroic chronicle of European Jewry from the turn of the century to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The novel was translated into dozens of languages and was even distributed secretly in communist countries.
“‘Exodus’ has been the Bible of the Jewish dissident movement in Russia,” Uris told The Associated Press in a 1988 interview. “It’s referred to as ‘The Book.’”
Energetic and unafraid, the author was as much an adventurer as a writer, traveling tirelessly and sometimes risking his life. In researching “Exodus,” he logged thousands of miles and ended up reporting on the 1956 conflict in the Middle East.
Uris also endured some of his own battles, feuding with directors Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock, and fighting lawsuits for both “Exodus” and the thriller “Topaz.”
“I used to think of myself as a very sad little Jewish boy, isolated in a Southern town, undersized, asthmatic,” Uris told the AP.
“When I read all my correspondence again, I realized I was a hustler,” he said. “I was tough. I used everything to my advantage. I could be very ruthless. I hurt a lot of people on the way up.”
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Wow, I started reading Exodus dozens of times, and each time I didn't. Is it worth the investment in time?
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