Boucquey Thierry (General Editor). Encyclopedia Of World Writers. 3 volumes
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Other Works by Jorge Amado
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands: A Moral and
Amorous Tale. Translated by Harriet De Onis. New
York: Avon, 1998.
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. Translated by William
Grossman. New York: Bard Books, 1998.
Showdown. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. New
York: Bantam Books, 1989.
The War of the Saints. Translated by Gregory Rabassa.
New York: Bantam Books, 1995.
Works about Jorge Amado
Brower, Keith H., Earl E. Fitz, and Enrique Martínez-
Vidal, eds. Jorge Amado: New Critical Essays. New
York: Routledge, 2001.
Chamberlain, Bobby J. Jorge Amado. Boston: Twayne,
1990.
Amalrik, Andrey (1936–1980) publicist,
dramatist
Andrey Amalrik, a playwright who had achieved
modest success, caused an enormous scandal for
the government of the Soviet Union when his
essay, Will the Soviet Union Survive to 1984? (1969)
was published in the West. Andrey Amalrik was
sentenced to three years of hard labor on charges
of “parasitism.” On the day of his release, the So-
viet officials added another three years to his sen-
tence. The extended sentence caused an uproar
around the world, and Amalrik went on a hunger
strike for 117 days. In light of the protests,
Amalrik’s sentence was reduced to two years of
exile in Siberia.
Will the Soviet Union Survive to 1984? painted a
realistic and gloomy picture of Soviet reality.
Amalrik recognized that the Soviet government’s
policies encouraged in the Soviet people a per-
verted psychology of mediocrity, in which the
main goal was not to stand out from one’s peers.
He predicted that the Soviet Union would fall as a
result of a great war with China and a massive re-
volt by different ethnic groups within Russia.
Many of his predictions were realized when the So-
viet Union finally collapsed in 1991.
On his release from exile, Amalrik emigrated to
Western Europe in 1976, settling in Spain, where
he died in a car accident in 1980. His other work
of great importance, Involuntary Journey to Siberia
(1971), describes the hardships that he faced in the
Soviet labor camp for political prisoners.
Andrey Amalrik was one of the first Soviet dissi-
dents to be seen on U.S. television when an inter-
view he and his colleagues Vladimir Bukowsky and
Pyotr Yakir gave to a United States correspondent
was broadcast in July 1970. He is remembered today
as one of the dissidents who exposed the dark side
of the Soviet system to people around the world.
Other Works by Andrey Amalrik
Nose! Nose? No-Se and Other Plays. New York: Har-
court Brace, 1973.
Notes of a Revolutionary. Translated by Guy Daniels.
New York: Knopf, 1982.
Amichai, Yehuda (1924–2000) poet, novel-
ist, short-story writer, playwright
Yehuda Amichai, one of Israel’s most widely es-
teemed poets in modern Hebrew, was born in
Wurzburg, Germany, into a religiously observant
family. By the time he and his family emigrated to
Palestine (now Israel) in 1935, Amichai was able
to read Hebrew fluently. He settled in Jerusalem
but left to fight with the Jewish brigade of the
British army in World War II. When he returned,
he joined the elite Palmach unit to fight with the
Israeli defense forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war.
He also attended Hebrew University, where he
studied literature and biblical studies and trained
as a teacher.
Amichai is best known for his revolutionary
style that helped create modern Israeli poetry. He
evoked contemporary images—tanks, airplanes,
and fuel—and used an accessible, nontraditional
voice—charged with puns, idioms, and colloqui-
alisms—that was new to Hebrew verse in the 1950s.
With his first volume of poetry, Now and in
Other Days (1955), Amichai began to establish
himself as a leading contemporary Hebrew poet
18 Amalrik, Andrey
and national treasure. His poems are now recited
at weddings and funerals and by schoolchildren.
He has published volumes of poetry, novels, a
book of short stories, and a number of plays that
have been produced in Israel. His poetry has been
translated into more than 30 languages, including
Chinese and Arabic, and, in 1982, Amichai re-
ceived the prestigious Israel Prize for poetry.
Other Works by Yehuda Amichai
Amen. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Even a Fist Was Once an Open Palm with Fingers. New
York: Harper Perennial, 1991.
Songs of Jerusalem and Myself. New York: Harper &
Row, 1973.
Works about Yehuda Amichai
Abramson, Glenda. The Writing of Yehuda Amichai:
A Thematic Approach. Albany: State University of
New York Press, July 1989.
Cohen, Joseph. Voices of Israel: Essays on and
Interviews with Yehuda Amichai, A.B. Yehoshua,
T. Carmi, Aharon Applefeld, and Amos Oz.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.
Anand, Mulk Raj (1905– ) novelist,
short-story writer, essayist
Mulk Raj Anand was born in Peshawar, in what is
now Pakistan. Educated in Lahore, Pakistan, and in
London, Anand’s fiction has been influenced by the
literary traditions of both countries. Anand first
began writing while in England as a book critic for
T. S. Eliot’s Criterion. After spending a number of
years in England, he returned to India in 1945.
Anand used the structural techniques of the
Western novel to write about India’s social issues.
He is often compared to R. K. NARAYAN, but Anand
is different because of his choice of subject, which
was the poor communities of rural India. His deci-
sion to write in English about people who could
not read the language is the basis of much criticism
against him. Anand claims, however, that he had to
write in English because of practical necessity.
Punjabi and Hindustani (his mother tongues)
publishers would not accept his books because of
their “unpopular” themes; English language pub-
lishers were far more supportive.
His novels Untouchable (1935) and Coolie
(1936) represent the struggles of the poor and un-
derprivileged in British India. Coolie explores the
life of an indentured laborer, Munoo, as he must
travel across northern India to keep a job. Untouch-
able approaches the national problem of “untouch-
ability” as it is revealed in a day in the life of an
18-year-old man, Bakha. Symbolically, the charac-
ters’ growth in these narratives catalogues human-
ity’s struggle against social abuse and represents the
underprivileged state of an oppressed nation, such
as India under British colonialism.
Untouchable leads up to a moment in Bakha’s
life when class and caste barriers cease to matter.
This occurs when Bakha climbs up a tree to listen
to
GANDHI’S speech. Slowly gathering courage to
enter the crowd, his fears of touching other people
evaporate. As the novel progresses, Bakha finds
that he must decide between Christianity and fol-
lowing Gandhi if he is to be free from social injus-
tices. It becomes clear, however, that these choices
do not offer Bakha any real escape from the evils of
his own life. Either option would only negate the
specificity of Bakha’s struggles. Through Bakha,
Anand tries to show that untouchability is not just
a problem of casteism in India but a global prob-
lem whenever a powerful force seeks to oppress a
weaker one.
Along with Munshi
PREMCHAND, Anand was in-
volved in forming DALIT literature, a genre ad-
dressed exclusively to the oppressed sections of
Indian society. Because he wrote exclusively in
English, his unwavering focus on the downtrodden
helped bring their social issues into the interna-
tional literary world for the first time in Indian lit-
erary history. In 1971, Anand was awarded India’s
National Academy of Letters Award for his novel
Morning Face (1968).
Other Works by Mulk Raj Anand
The Road. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1974.
Two Leaves and a Bud. New York: Liberty Press, 1954.
Anand, Mulk Raj 19
Works about Mulk Raj Anand
Cowasjee, Saros. So Many Freedoms: A Study of the
Major Fiction of Mulk Raj Anand. Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1977.
Dhawan, R. K. The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand. New
York: Prestige Books, 1992.
Andersen, Hans Christian (1805–1875)
fiction writer, poet, dramatist
It is believed that Hans Christian Andersen was born
near Odense, Denmark. His father, Hans Andersen,
was a poor shoemaker, and there is no record of his
mother’s name or occupation. Despite poverty and
harsh living conditions, Andersen’s father devoted
much of his time to his son: He made him a wooden
theater and other toys and read to him every
evening. The time Andersen spent with his paternal
grandmother also provided some of his most im-
portant childhood experiences, including going with
her to Greyfriars Hospital, an asylum for the elderly,
where she worked as a gardener. Andersen listened to
the traditional stories of Denmark told by the old
women in the spinning rooms of the hospital.
Andersen was as apt and studious a student as
he was a voracious reader. Although his family
could not afford books, Andersen borrowed them
from the people in his neighborhood. He was fas-
cinated by theater, reading Shakespeare and Dan-
ish dramatists. In 1819, he left Odense for
Copenhagen in hopes of becoming an actor. He
held various minor acting jobs at the Royal The-
ater, performing as a ballet dancer and a singer in
an opera choir. He was dismissed by the manage-
ment after three years. His years as an actor were
not a complete failure: He attended the theater
every night, acquired a knowledge of drama, and
was befriended by several important figures of the
Danish cultural community. He began writing
plays, and his talent was recognized by Jonas
Collin, a senior civil servant in the Danish govern-
ment, who arranged a grammar-school scholar-
ship for Andersen. At age 17, Andersen was placed
in a class with 10-year-old students. He studied
hard and passed his final exams in 1828.
Andersen began his literary career as a poet. Be-
tween 1827 and 1828, he published minor poems
in newspapers and periodicals and won public
favor. By 1832, he had produced two collections of
poems, written lyrics for two operas, and created
adaptations of two French plays for the Danish
stage. In 1831, he traveled to Germany, where he es-
tablished contacts with some of the leading figures
of the romantic movement (see
ROMANTICISM). In
1833, he received a grant from the Danish govern-
ment that allowed him to travel throughout Europe.
Andersen wrote three novels between 1835 and
1837: The Improvisator (1835), O.T. (1836), and
Only a Fiddler (1837). Surprisingly, Andersen’s
works were better received in Germany and France
than they were in Denmark. Although his novels
were popular, he achieved his status as a great figure
of world literature by writing his famous fairy tales,
the first volume of which was published in 1835.
Written at the height of the romantic movement,
Andersen’s fairy tales were praised throughout Eu-
rope. He was treated as an equal by Victor HUGO
and Alexandre DUMAS. In Germany, the reading
public raved over Andersen’s latest works, and pub-
lishing companies engaged in bidding wars over the
rights to them. In 1844, Andersen finally received
recognition in Denmark: He was personally invited
to be the guest of King Christian VIII. In 1845, he
visited England, where his works were enormously
popular. He made numerous acquaintances, in-
cluding a lifelong friendship with Charles Dickens.
During the late 1840s, Andersen wrote some of
his best fairy tales, including “The Nightingale,”
“The Ugly Duckling,”“The Snow Queen,” and “The
Story of a Mother.” In his tales, Andersen often cel-
ebrated the common people, whom he portrayed as
ingenious, diligent, and brave. The fantastic ele-
ment accentuated emotion and imagination, qual-
ities cherished by romanticism. In conjunction
with his work on the fairy tales, Andersen also
wrote numerous travel books and plays.
By the time of his death in 1875, Andersen was
considered a national monument. He enjoyed per-
sonal visits from the king, numerous public
awards, and appreciative letters from readers
20 Andersen, Hans Christian
throughout the world. His fairy tales are as popu-
lar today as they were during his lifetime, and they
have been translated into virtually every major
language. As one obituary remarked, Andersen had
known how “to strike chords that reverberated in
every human breast.”
Another Work by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales
and Stories. Translated by Erik Christian Hau-
gaard. New York: Anchor, 1983.
Works about Hans Christian Andersen
Lederer, Wolfgang. The Kiss of the Snow Queen: Hans
Christian Andersen and Man’s Redemption by
Woman. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1990.
Wullschlager, Jackie. Hans Christian Andersen: The
Life of a Storyteller. New York: Knopf, 2001.
Andrézel, Pierre
See DINESEN, ISAK.
Andric, Ivo (1892–1975) novelist, poet,
short-story writer
Ivo Andric was born in Doc, near Travnik, Bosnia,
to a family of artisans. As a college student, he
worked to help achieve unity and independence for
the South Slavic peoples by joining Mlada Bosnia
(Young Bosnia), a revolutionary nationalist student
organization. During World War I, Andric was ar-
rested and spent three years in prison, where he read
the works of Sören Kierkegaard and Fyodor
DOS-
TOYEVSKY. After his release, Andric held a number of
diplomatic posts for the Yugoslav government. He
was the ambassador in Berlin when World War II
broke out, narrowly escaping when the city was
bombed by German planes.
In the shadow of war, Andric wrote the historical
series for which he received the Nobel Prize for lit-
erature in 1961. Commonly referred to as the Bosn-
ian Trilogy, The Bridge on the Drina (1945;
translated 1959), Bosnian Story (1945; translated
1959), and Woman from Sarajevo (1945; translated
1965) examine life in a country where multiple na-
tionalities and religions meet and often clash. Influ-
enced by both the war and a Kierkegaardian sense of
isolation and pessimism, Andric wrote primarily
about the misery of man and his struggle to main-
tain his existence. The Bridge on the Drina, Andric’s
most famous work, for example, tells the history of
Bosnia from 1516, when the bridge was first built, to
1914, when it was partially destroyed in World War
I. The bridge is Andric’s metaphor for sorrow born
out of struggle, particularly that between Christians
and Muslims. Although the bridge was originally
built to connect the eastern and western sides of the
Ottoman Empire, in actuality it both united and di-
vided people along cultural, religious, and genera-
tional lines. As the novel shows, it was Andric’s
hope, like the original purpose of a bridge, that peo-
ple would someday live in peace.
After World War II, Andric continued to write
short stories, essays, and travel memoirs about
Bosnia. He wrote continuously until his death in
Belgrade on March 13.
Another Work by Ivo Andric
The Day of the Consuls. Translated by Celia Hawkes-
worth. New York: Defour Editions, 1993.
A Work about Ivo Andric
Vucinich, Wayne, ed. Ivo Andric Revisited: The Bridge
Still Stands. Berkeley Calif.: UC Regents, 1996.
Anouilh, Jean (1910–1987) playwright
Jean Anouilh, one of the most popular French
dramatists of the post-World War II era, was born
on June 23 in Bordeaux, France. Anouilh began
writing plays at age 12. He briefly studied law at the
Sorbonne while writing comic scenes for the cinema
and working as a copywriter. In 1929 he collabo-
rated with Jean Aurenche on his first play, Humulus
the Mute, and by age 25 dedicated himself to a ca-
reer as a writer. His best-known plays are Antigone
(1944) and Becket (1959), both of which explore the
individual’s resistance to state oppression.
Anouilh, Jean 21
Anouilh’s works, ranging from serious drama to
absurdist farce, are too diverse to be considered a
part of any one literary movement, but he was in-
fluenced by both SARTRE’S existentialism and the
plays of Jouvet, COCTEAU, GIRAUDOUX and Molière.
He often blended choreography and music into his
plots, and used the theater itself as the setting of his
plays; yet, beneath the farce and spectacle, the tone
was almost always serious and pessimistic.
Anouilh titled the collections of his plays with
adjectives that described their dominant tone. The
“black” plays, such as Eurydice (1941) and
Antigone (1944), are his tragedies and realistic
pieces. The “pink” pieces are dominated by fantasy
and include Thieves’ Carnival (1938; translated
1952) and Time Remembered (1939; translated
1955). The “brilliant” pieces, such as Ring Round
the Moon (1947; translated 1950), Colombe (1951;
translated 1952), and The Rehearsal (1950; trans-
lated 1961), are a blending of both “pink” and
“black” plays set among the aristocracy. There are
only four “jarring” or “grating” plays, black plays
with bitter humor: Ardele (1949; translated 1959),
The Waltz of the Toreadors (1952; translated 1956),
Ornifle (1955; translated 1970), and Poor Bitos, or
The Masked Dinner (1956; translated 1963). His
“costumed” or “history” plays, including The Lark
(1953; translated 1955), about Joan of Arc, and the
Tony Award–winning Becket (1959; translated
1962), were especially popular in the United
States.
In 1936, Anouilh began to collaborate on
screenplays, directed two films, and wrote ballets.
In the 1980s, he directed productions of several
plays, both his own works and those of other au-
thors. He died in Switzerland on October 3.
Other Works by Jean Anouilh
The Collected Plays. London: Methuen, 1966.
Ornifle. Translated by Lucienne Hill. New York: Hill
and Wang, 1970.
A Work about Jean Anouilh
Falb, Lewis W. Jean Anouilh. New York: F. Unger,
1977.
Antschel, Paul
See CELAN, PAUL.
Anyidoho, Kofi (1947– ) poet
Anyidoho was born at Wheta, a small town on the
Keta lagoon in the Volta region of Ghana. His
mother, Abla Adidi Anyidoho, was a composer and
cantor of traditional poetry, as was his uncle, Kod-
zovi Anyidoho, who was responsible for the poet’s
early education. The region’s rich poetic tradition
became an important resource for Anyidoho’s
work. Anyidoho trained as a teacher at Accra
Teacher Training College, where he began to sub-
mit poetry for publication. He graduated with
honors in 1977 from the University of Ghana with
a degree in English and linguistics. He then left for
the United States to study at Indiana University for
an M.A. in folklore and later received a Ph.D. in
comparative literature from the University of Texas
at Austin. His experiences in America provided
material for A Harvest of Our Dreams with Elegy for
the Revolution (1984), a collection of poems writ-
ten as a series of letters home.
Although America may have served as subject
matter for a series of poems, Anyidoho’s work al-
ways seems to turn home. He uses the oral tradi-
tion of the Ewe people in many of his poems. He
retranslates English to fit the cadences and
rhythms of the Ewe people and uses many of the
images and idioms of traditional Ewe poetry in his
own verse. He draws on traditional poetic genres
such as the funeral dirge and the halo, the song of
abuse. He also uses the spiritual imagery of invo-
cation, a calling upon the spirits. Yet, his poetry is
aware of the fractures and challenges caused by
globalization. “Slums of Our Earth” (1983) in-
cludes the lines:
The darkness of the slums
is the shadow side of
proud structures on Wall Street
Anyidoho is committed to writing in both Eng-
lish and Ewe. He has won many awards: His first
22 Antschel, Paul
collection of poems, Earthchild, with Brain Surgery
(1985), won the Valco Fund Literary Award for Po-
etry in 1976 while still in manuscript, the BBC Po-
etry Award for “Arts in Africa” in 1981, and the
Poet of the Year in Ghana in 1984.
Other Works by Kofi Anyidoho
Ancestral Logic and Caribbean Blues. Trenton, N.J.:
Africa World Press, 1993.
Elegy for the Revolution. New York: Greenfield Review
Press, 1978.
Apollinaire, Guillaume (Wilhelm
Apollinaris de Kostrowitski)
(1880–1918)
poet
Guillaume Apollinaire was a major figure in early
20th-century French avant-garde literary move-
ments. He was one of the innovators of the THE-
ATRE OF THE ABSURD and as a critic, with his
publication of The Cubist Painters (1913), estab-
lished cubism as an artistic movement. He is best
known, however, for his poetry.
Most of Apollinaire’s personal history remains
unknown. He was most likely born in Rome, the il-
legitimate son of the Swiss-Italian aristocrat
Francesco Flugi d’Aspermont and Angelica de
Kostrowitzky, a notoriously rebellious and adven-
turous Polish girl. He was raised by his mother, a
heavy gambler, and they resided at various times in
Italy, in Monaco, on the French Riviera, and in
Paris.
A highly intelligent child, Apollinaire managed
to pursue a solid education at the Collège Saint-
Charles in Monaco and later at schools in Cannes
and Nice by assuming the identity of a Russian
prince. In 1900, he moved to Paris where he took a
position working in a bank and became friends
with artists such as Pablo Picasso and André De-
rain, playwright Alfred
JARRY, and painter Marie
Laurencin, who was also his lover. He traveled to
Germany in 1921, which was where he received his
introduction to two of his major influences: Ger-
man romantic poetry and the torments of unre-
quited love.
Bold, forward-thinking, and often controver-
sial, Apollinaire began his career as a writer by ed-
iting a number of reviews and publishing both
satirical and semipornographic texts. He quickly
gained a reputation as a dangerous foreigner and a
thief, and in 1911, he was imprisoned for a week
under suspicion of having stolen the Mona Lisa (it
was missing, but Apollinaire was not involved). As
a poet, Apollinaire began his career with the pub-
lication of a collection called L’enchanteur pourris-
sant (The Rotting Magician, 1909). The poems
depict a vision of Merlin the Enchanter who, en-
tombed by love, creates a new world of poetry
from the depths of his suffering. The work was il-
lustrated by André Derain.
It was not until the publication of Apollinaire’s
second collection, however, that he began to gain
true critical notice as a promising young poet.
Critical Analysis
Alcools (Alcohols, 1913) was a breakthrough work
in form and content, combining elements of clas-
sical verse with modern imagery. The poems were
transcriptions of overheard street conversations
and were often devoid of punctuation. The poem
“Zone,” for instance, which opens the collection,
focuses on a period of time in the life of a tor-
mented poet as he wanders through the streets,
lamenting the recent loss of his mistress.
The beginnings of the cubist movement had a
profound effect on Apollinaire. In The Cubist
Painters, a collection of essays, Apollinaire explores
cubism as a theoretical concept and as a psycho-
logical phenomenon. However, he was not one to
hold to any school of thought for long. Shortly
after the publication of his work on the cubists, he
deserted cubism altogether for orphism, a move-
ment which he created and described, as quoted by
William Bohn, as “the art of painting new struc-
tures out of elements that have not been borrowed
from the visual sphere but have been created en-
tirely by the artist himself, and have been endowed
by him with the fullness of reality.”
When World War I broke out in 1915, Apolli-
naire enlisted in the army. A wound he sustained
Apollinaire, Guillaume 23
left him in fragile health. Nonetheless, he kept
writing. The Poet Assassinated (1916), written from
his hospital bed, is a novella in the form of a trib-
ute to the life of the fictional great poet Cronia-
mantal, from his birth to his life as a poet and
ultimately his death at the hands of an angry mob.
Apollinaire’s one play, Les mamelles de Tirésias
(The Breasts of Tiresias), was staged in 1917. Apol-
linaire subtitled the work “Drame surréaliste”
(“surrealist drama”)—thus laying ground for yet
another avant-garde movement, surrealism. The
play combines the playwright’s own sexual obses-
sions with a satirical exploitation of Greek legend.
It also focuses, in a farcical manner, on the low
birthrate in France during the late 19th and early
20th centuries. It tells the story of Thérèse, a dis-
contented housewife who decides to give up being
a woman. She lets her breasts (red and blue bal-
loons) float out over the audience and becomes
Tiresias, named for the Greek seer who, in the leg-
end, was granted the opportunity to experience life
as a woman. In 1947, the play was made into an
opera by Francis Poulenc.
For several years beginning in 1913, Apollinaire
worked on a collection of experimental poems that
form visual images on the page. The result, Cal-
ligrammes, was published in 1918, shortly before
the poet’s death.
After a series of well-known and often high-
profile affairs, Apollinaire married Jaqueline Kolb
in 1918. He succumbed to influenza that same
year, dying on November 9 in Paris.
Other Works by Guillaume Apollinaire
Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913–1916).
Translated by Anne Hyde Greet. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1991.
Les onze mille vierges (The eleven thousand
virgins) and Les Mémoires d’un jeune Don
Juan (Memoirs of a young Don Juan). In
Flesh Unlimited. Translated by Alexis Lykiard.
London: Creation, 2000.
The Poet Assassinated. Translated by Matthew
Josephson. Cambridge, Mass.: Exact Change,
2000.
Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire. Translated
by Roger Shattuck. New York: Norton, 1971.
A Work about Guillaume Apollinaire
Bohn, William. Apollinaire and the International
Avante-Garde. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1997.
Appelfeld, Aharon (1932– ) novelist,
essayist, short-story writer
Aharon Appelfeld was born in Czernowitz, Roma-
nia (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine). When he was eight,
his mother was killed by the Nazis, and his father
was sent to a Nazi work camp. Appelfeld himself
was deported to a concentration camp but man-
aged to escape and spent the next three years hid-
ing and wandering in the nearby forests and
villages of the Ukraine on his own. In a 1998 in-
terview with the New York Times he said, “I lived
with marginal people during the war—prostitutes,
horse thieves, witches, fortune tellers. They gave
me my real education.”
Eventually, Appelfeld became a kitchen boy in
the Russian army. He found his way to refugee
camps in Yugoslavia and Italy and, in 1948, at age
16, went to the new state of Israel. It was there, at
age 28, that he reunited with his father and began
to teach at a kibbutz.
Much of Appelfeld’s writing explores themes
of the Holocaust. Yet, he says, “Mainly, I write
Jewish stories, but I don’t accept the label
Holocaust writer. Of my 20 books, perhaps
one-third are on the Holocaust period, one-
third on Israel, and one-third on Jewish life in
general.” In his highly acclaimed novels, such
as Badenheim 1939 (1979), Appelfeld rejects
literalism and instead uses abstract symbolism
—creating dreamlike scenes—and fable to
examine the inner workings of his characters. In
both Badenheim, and another novel, To the
Land of Cattails (1987), he employs an almost
hallucinatory sense of the Holocaust that is
evident in much of his work.
24 Appelfeld, Aharon
Appelfeld is one of Israel’s preeminent novel-
ists, largely due to his literary style of exploring
the Holocaust and his ability to bring the enor-
mous dimensions of the Holocaust to a human
scale. His works have received critical and popular
acclaim. He has served as professor of Hebrew Lit-
erature at Ben-Gurion University and has held vis-
iting professorships at Boston University, Brandeis,
and Yale. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford
and Harvard. Among his many awards and hon-
ors are the Bialik Prize, the Harold U. Ribelow
Prize, and the Israel Prize.
Other Works by Aharon Appelfeld
The Age of Wonders. Boston: Godine, 1990.
Katerina. New York: Norton, 1992.
To the Land of Reeds. New York: Grove Atlantic
Monthly Press, 1994.
TZILI: The Story of a Life. New York: Grove Press,
1996.
A Work about Aharon Appelfeld
Cohen, Joseph. Voices of Israel: Essays on and Inter-
views with Yehuda Amichai, A.B. Yehoshua, T.
Carmi, Aharon Applefeld, and Amos Oz. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1990.
Aragon, Louis (1897–1982) poet, novelist,
essayist
Louis Aragon was born in Paris. He studied medi-
cine at the University of Paris and served as an aux-
iliary doctor in World War I. During this time, he
met the poet André BRETON, who introduced him
to surrealism and DADA.
In 1919, Aragon, Breton, and fellow writer and
activist Philippe Soupault (1897–1990) founded the
literary review Littérature. Aragon wrote his first
collection of poems, Feu de joie (1920), to echo the
dadaist desire to destroy traditional institutions and
values. He also published Anicet; ou, Le Panorama
(1921), a novel that parodies Picasso’s success
through the career of its cynical hero, Bleu; Le Lib-
ertinage (1924), a surrealist short-story collection;
Le Mouvement perpetual (Perpetual Movement,
1925), a novel; and Le paysan de Paris (The Paris
Peasant, 1926), in which the city’s parks and cafés
are the setting for a series of intense encounters.
Aragon broke from Breton and Soupault in
1931 and joined the Communist Party. He visited
the Soviet Union and returned to France to write
“The Red Front,” a poem influenced by the Russian
poet Vladimir
MAYAKOVSKY that calls for revolution
in France. In the 1930s and 1940s, Aragon advo-
cated SOCIALIST REALISM in his works.
During World War II, Aragon was taken pris-
oner but managed to escape to the Unoccupied
Zone. When the Nazis occupied France, he became
a key figure in the resistance. Le Crève-Coeur
(1941) was one of five poetry collections Aragon
wrote, detailing the Nazi occupation of France. His
poetry took on a nationalistic sentiment, and he
helped form a network of writers for the Resis-
tance journals.
After the liberation, Aragon attempted a new
form of novel that was almost journalistic in style.
He also edited a French literary magazine and
served as a member of the French Communist
Party. In 1957, he was awarded the Lenin Peace
Prize. He began to express a dislike for socialist re-
alism and in 1968 attacked the Soviet Union for its
intervention in Czechoslovakia. His later works in-
clude criticism and several autobiographical poems
and novels. He died in Paris on December 24.
Other Works by Louis Aragon
The Adventures of Telemachus. Translated by Renee
Riese Hubert and Judd D. Hubert. Cambridge,
Mass.: Exact Change, 1997.
Le Con d’Irène. In Flesh Unlimited. Translated by
Alexis Lykiard. London: Creation, 2000.
Paris Peasant. Translated by Simon W. Taylor. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Exact Change, 1995.
Works about Louis Aragon
Adereth, Max. Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon: An Intro-
duction to Their Interwoven Lives and Works.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994.
Becker, Lucille F. Louis Aragon. Boston: Twayne,
1971.
Aragon, Louis 25
Arenas, Reinaldo (1943–1990) novelist,
poet, essayist, short-story writer, playwright
Reinaldo Arenas was born in Holguín, Cuba, to
Oneida Fuentes Rodríguez and Antonio Arenas
Machín. Because of his family’s impoverished con-
dition, Arenas received virtually no formal educa-
tion and had little access to books, but his active
imagination drove him to begin writing at an early
age. After joining Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army
at age 15 and serving for a short time, he com-
pleted a degree in agricultural accounting.
Published when he was 21, Arenas’s first book,
Singing from the Well, (the first of a series of auto-
biographical novels) brought him some recogni-
tion, but because relatively few copies were
printed, it remained unknown outside of Cuba. As
Arenas began to speak out in his writings against
Castro’s regime and about his own homosexuality,
his books were increasingly censored and sup-
pressed in Cuba. He was, however, able to publish
some works overseas, including The Ill-Fated Pere-
grinations of Fray Servando, which first appeared in
a French translation in 1968. A first-person ac-
count of the title character’s fantastic travels
through Europe and the Americas, the novel may
represent Arenas’s best-known and most widely
read book. Here and elsewhere, Arenas writes
about homosexuality, as well as the more encom-
passing issue of the individual’s right to self-deter-
mination and self-expression. After escaping Cuba
and establishing residence in the United States,
Arenas went on to publish an extensive amount of
fiction, drama, poetry, and criticism. Among the
works he wrote in exile are The Color of Summer
(1993) and The Assault (1994), both part of his fic-
tional autobiography and published posthu-
mously.
Arenas was and continues to be a controversial
but much celebrated author in Latin America and
the rest of the world. His confrontation of issues
related to sexuality and societal stereotypes and his
vivid depiction of life under the Castro regime set
him apart as one of the most important Cuban
writers of the 20th century. Terminally ill with
AIDS, he committed suicide on December 7.
Another Work by Reinaldo Arenas
Before Night Falls. Translated by Dolores M. Koch.
New York: Viking, 1993.
A Work about Reinaldo Arenas
Soto, Francisco. Reinaldo Arenas. Boston: Twayne,
1998.
Arghezi, Tudor (Ion N. Theodorescu)
(1880–1967) poet, novelist, nonfiction writer
Tudor Arghezi was born in Bucharest, Romania.
He took the pseudonym Arghezi because of its
similarity to Argesis, the ancient name of the river
Arges, of which he was very fond. As a teenager,
Arghezi was rebellious and was often involved in
political youth movements. He turned to writing
as a focus for his ideas and began to publish in
1896, signing his works as Ion Theo. In his early
20s, Arghezi began to travel abroad, spending four
years in the Cernica Monastery and a brief period
at a monastery in Paris, where he converted to
Catholicism. He ultimately moved to Geneva,
where he wrote poetry, much of which was influ-
enced by religion and Arghezi’s own thoughts on
the nature of life and death.
In 1912, Arghezi returned to Romania, where
he published pamphlets and lyrics, many of which
aggressively advocated the neutrality of Romania.
For this, Arghezi was imprisoned, along with 11
other writers and journalists, and spent from 1918
to 1920 at Vacaresti Penitentiary.
Arghezi’s first volume of poetry, Cuvinte Potri-
vite (Arranged Words), was published in 1927. This
work gained him celebrity status among the Ro-
manian people. He continued to publish other vol-
umes, including Flowers of Mould (1931), inspired
by his years in prison, Notebook for the Night
(1935), and Choirs (1939). The artistic novelty of
these collections shocked readers. Arghezi did not
conform to any preexisting poetic formulas. In-
stead, his writing showed a restlessness, and a bold
and innovative combination of often crude, force-
ful language, and a traditional reliance on folklore
and mythology. Mainly religious in theme, Arghezi
26 Arenas, Reinaldo
focused on life, love, humanity, death, and the na-
ture of God.
In 1931, the same year in which Arghezi pub-
lished Flowers of Mould, he turned his attention to
writing poetry and prose for children. Cartea cu
Jucarii (1931) was the first of several of his works
for children that are still used in Romanian schools
today. Between 1931 and 1967, Arghezi was at his
most prolific, writing, in addition to the children’s
works, the poetry collections Notebook for the
Night and Choirs, and three novels: Mother’s Love
and Filial Devotion (1934), Cimitrul Buna-Vestire
(1936), and Lina (1942), which was actually an ex-
tended poem in prose form.
Alongside his work as a writer, Arghesi also
managed the Romanian newspaper, Bilete de
Papagal. Because of the sarcastic and often satirical
political pamphlets it published, Arghezi once
again came under police scrutiny. The paper
was ultimately confiscated, and he was imprisoned
for a year in Bucharest.
After his release from prison, Arghezi was con-
sidered to be rehabilitated. Under the Communist
regime, he was awarded numerous prizes for his
work, was elected as a member of the Romanian
Academy, and twice was celebrated as the National
Poet of Romania. He began to collaborate with po-
litical officials, writing poetry that supported the
goals of the regime. He was buried in the garden
of his house, which is managed today as a museum
in his honor.
Other Works by Tudor Arghezi
Poems: Tudor Arghezi. Translated by Andrei Bantas.
Bucharest: Minerva Publishing House, 1983.
Selected Poems of Tudor Arghezi. Translated by
Michael Impey and Brian Swann. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1976.
Arnim, Bettina von (Catarina Elisabetha
Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, Bettine)
(1785–1859) poet, fiction writer
Bettina von Arnim was one of 20 children fathered
by the wealthy Italian merchant Peter Anton
Brentano. She was the seventh child of her mother,
Maximiliane von La Roche. Bettina was born in
the German city of Frankfurt am Main. Her early
influences included her grandmother Sophie von
La Roche and brother Clemens Brentano, both
well-known writers. Like her grandmother and
mother, Bettina developed a friendship with Jo-
hann Wolfgang von
GOETHE. In 1811, Bettina mar-
ried Clemens’s friend, Ludwig Achim von Arnim,
an editor of folk song collections. Although she
published a few songs for her husband’s company,
Bettina did not work full time as a writer until after
Achim’s death in 1831.
Bettina’s first book, Goethe’s Briefwechsel mit
einem Kinde (Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child,
1835), was based on her correspondence with
Goethe and his mother. Arnim edited these letters
and poems to provide a fictionalized description of
events, dreams, and thoughts. Although controver-
sial for its erotic content, the book was a literary
success. Arnim used her correspondence with two
friends and a brother to produce three more books
exploring the topics of love and friendship.
Arnim’s other writings include musical com-
positions and fairy tales that she wrote with her
daughters. As a widow, she was actively involved
in the political causes of opposing censorship and
governmental abuse. Arnim also used her works
to promote social reforms to help the poor and the
sick. Her biographers Arthur Helps and Elizabeth
Jane Howard explain that Arnim “had a talent for
social satire” and was “a penetrating observer” of
life in early 19th-century Europe.
Other Works by Bettina von Arnim
Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child. Boston:
Tichner and Fields, 1859.
The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse.
Gisela von Arnim Grimm, coauthor. Translated by
Lisa Ohm. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1999.
A Work about Bettina von Arnim
Helps, Arthur, and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Bettina: A
Portrait. London: Chatto and Windus, 1957.
Arnim, Bettina von 27