Works by Amos Oz: 1965-1979

Amos Oz.
Artsot ha-tan: sipurim. Yerushaliayim: Keter, 1996.
On verso of title page: "ha-sipurim nikhtevu ba-shanim 1962-1965 ve-tuknu bi-shenat 1975."
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 A87 1996

Oz began his career as an author of short fiction. His first book, a collection of short stories published by Massada in 1965, has been likened to a quilt, with the stories being individual pieces of cloth, but still coming together under the theme of universal redemption through suffering. Artsot ha-tan was first published in English in 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich as Where the Jackals Howl, and Other Stories.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
Elsewhere, Perhaps. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange in collaboration with the author. 1st Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
"A Helen and Kurt Wolff book." Translation of Makom aher.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 M313xOz’s first novel, and his second to be translated and published abroad, has been called the best Israeli-produced fictional representation of kibbutz life, and is praised for its realistic expression of the conflict between contradictory instincts in human personality: the wild and the untamed versus the lucid and the rational. It was originally published in Hebrew as Makom aher by Sifriyat Po’alim in 1966.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
My Michael. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange in collaboration with the author. 1st American Edition. New York: Knopf [Distributed by Random House], 1972.
Translation of Mikha'el Sheli.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 M53x

This was Oz’s third work of fiction, and the first to be translated into English. At its release, it was hailed as the best novel ever to come out of Israel. A review in New Republic called it "a brilliant and evocative portrait of a woman slowly giving way to schizoid withdrawal." When released in Israel by Am Oved in 1968, Mikhael sheli secured Oz’s reputation among his fellow Israelis and gave him entry into the international literary world.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
‘Ad mavet. Merhavyah: Sifriyat Po’alim, 1971.
In Hebrew characters. Label on verso of title page: Late love. Crusade; two stories.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 A66

Amos Oz.
Unto Death. Woodcuts by Jacob Pins. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange in collaboration with the author. 1st Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.
Translation of two stories: `Ad mavet and Ahavah me'uheret. "A Helen and Kurt Wolff book."
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 A663x

This work, consisting of two novellas, focuses intently on the heart of darkness within the human soul as expressed within the narrative context of a medieval voyage of crusaders. The inhumanity of antisemitism is also brutally explored in the stories. Both the Hebrew and English editions are illustrated with woodcuts by Jacob Pins.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
La-ga’at ba-mayim, la-ga’at ba-ruah. Tel-Aviv: Am Oved, 1973.
In Hebrew characters. On verso of title page: Touch the water, touch the wind; a novel.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 L3x

Amos Oz.
Touch the Water, Touch the Wind. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange in collaboration with the author. 1st Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
"A Helen and Kurt Wolff book." Translation of La-ga`at ba-mayim, la-ga`at ba-ruah.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 L313x Oz incorporates a sense of magical realism in this work. The underlying theme of Touch the Water, Touch the Wind, his third novel, is the constant desire to escape from a hostile world.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
Anashim aherim: mivhar. Tel-Aviv: ha-Kibutz ha-me’uhad, 1974.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 A5x

The title for this anthology means "different people."

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
Har ha-’etsah har-ra’ah: shloshah sipurim. Tel-Aviv: Am Oved, 1976.
On verso of title page: The hill of evil counsel.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 H3

Amos Oz.
The Hill of Evil Counsel. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange in collaboration with the author. 1st Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
"A Helen and Kurt Wolff book." Translation of Har ha-`etsah ha-ra`ah.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 H313x A set of three novellas set in Jerusalem during the fading days of the British Mandate. Two contrasting types confront each other in the stories: refugees drawn to Jerusalem for safety and shelter, and activists relentlessly preparing for the uprising, oblivious of risk. As in other works by Amos Oz, Hill of Evil Counsel focuses upon the everlastingly bitter struggle between distant, restrained rationality and turbulent, untamed emotions; in this case the male characters are usually associated with lucid rationality as well as with faded personality, while the female characters are portrayed as feeling suffocated, confined by narrow horizons, and are associated with the sensual, the erotic, and the eternal pining to reach beyond the mediocre.

General Collection, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
Soumchi. Illustrated by Quint Buchholz. Translated by Amos Oz and Penelope Farmer. 1st American Edition. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Author's signed presentation copy, 22 November 1999.
"A Helen and Kurt Wolff book."  Acquired with the support of the Sylvia and George Laikin Fund of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.
In Process: ANV1942

This novel novel for young adults takes place just after World War II in British-occupied Jerusalem. Soumchi, an eleven-year-old boy, receives a bicycle from his uncle. He decides to swap the bicycle for his friend Aldo’s train set, and a series of misadventures begins. Soumchi’s fresh, funny and engaging style has been compared to such memorable child characters as Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield. Soumchi was originally published in Hebrew by Am Oved in 1978. An earlier American edition, with illustrations by William Papas, was published by Harper & Row in 1980.

Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

Amos Oz.
Be-or ha-tekhelet ha-’azah: ma’amarim u-reshimot. Merhavyah: Sifriyat po’alim, 1979.
Title on added title page: Under This Blazing Light; essays.
Call Number: PJ 5054 .O9 A16 1979

General Collection, Golda Meir Library Amos Oz.
Under This Blazing Light. Translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange. Cambridge; New York, N.Y.: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1995.
Author's signed presentation copy to the Golda Meir Library, 22 November 1999.
Acquired with the support of the Sylvia and George Laikin Fund of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning.
Call Number: (SPL) DS 126.7 .O95 1995

Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

This compilation of essays focuses on two major themes: the challenges of achieving lasting compromise between Israel and its Arab neighbors and the revival of the Hebrew language and its literature. It was first published in English by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge in 1995 as Under this Blazing Light.