Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller

The first biography of the massively popular author of Exodus and Trinity, who “was as feisty as any of his fictional creations” (Publishers Weekly).   As the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Exodus, Mila 18, QB VII, and Trinity, Leon Uris blazed a path to celebrity with books that readers couldn’t put down. Uris’s thirteen novels sold millions of copies, appeared in fifty languages, and were adapted into equally successful movies and TV miniseries. Few writers equaled his fame in the mid-twentieth century. His success fueled the rise of mass-market paperbacks, movie tie-ins, and author tours. Beloved by the public, Uris was, not surprisingly, dismissed by literary critics. Until now, his own life—as full of drama as his fiction—has never been the subject of a book.   Now Ira Nadel traces Uris from his disruptive youth to his life-changing experiences as a marine in World War II. These experiences, coupled with Uris’s embrace of his Judaism and desire to write, led to his unprecedented success and the lavish excesses of a career as a best-selling author. Nadel reveals that Uris lived the adventures he described, including his war experiences in the Pacific (Battle Cry), life-threatening travels in Israel (Exodus), visit to Communist Poland (Mila 18), libel trial in Britain (QB VII), and dangerous sojourn in fractious Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic (Trinity). Nadel also demonstrates that Uris’s talent for writing action-packed yet thoroughly researched novels meshed perfectly with the public’s desire to revisit and understand the tumultuous events of recent history—making him far more popular (and wealthier) than more literary authors—while paving the way for future blockbuster writers such as Irving Wallace and Tom Clancy.