The Doubts and Loves of Yehuda Amichai

The Doubts and Loves of Yehuda Amichai: Israeli, European, and International Poet presents the life and works of Yehuda Amichai, born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Wuerzburg, 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.