Jonathan Mirsky

Sales of the Century

Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller

By

University of Texas Press 352pp £18.99 order from our bookshop

Instantly famous in 1958 after the publication of his novel Exodus, and for years afterwards one of the bestselling celebrity authors in print, Leon Uris was in person awful. He was egomaniacal but insecure, bullying, misogynistic, an unfaithful husband, an inconstant (at best) father, venomously envious of many other writers, a celebrant of violence practised by those he admired – Jews, Marines and the IRA – and a relentless hater of Arabs and any individual, especially his wives and children, who defied his unbending will.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • RT : Founded in 1979, is a trusted independent source for reviews of new books across a variety of genres. A… ,
    • RT : Here we are - "Shelf Indulgence" by Ed Potten, a wonderful read, well worth your time: @Lit_Review,
    • 'Like going to a party hoping to get away as quickly as politeness allowed and at 4am finding myself still engrosse… ,
    • 'Neville never shed his sense of being the junior, and perhaps least-deserving Chamberlain.' From the archive, Mic… ,
    • 'The erecting and immediate destruction of a series of straw men rather detracts from what is for the most part an… ,
    • RT : A magnificent demolition job on this "acid laced tirade...unpleasantly self-obsessed...self pitying polemic...book… ,
    • 'Seventy years on, the time we have left to gather such first-hand testimony is running out.' John Keay on the sig… ,
    Follow Us