Smilansky, Yizhar

(1916-2006)

   Israeli writer generally known by his pen name S. Yizhar. He was raised in Rehovot, attended a teachers' seminary, and later taught. In the 1948 War of Independence, he served in an intelligence unit, and in 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset on the Mapai Party list and served in subsequent Knessets. He studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard University and received a Ph.D. He taught literature at both Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. He acquired his pen name in 1938 when poet and editor Yitzhak Lamdan published Yizhar's first short novella Ephraim Hozer Leaspeset (Ephraim Goes Back to Alfalfa). From then on, he used this new pen name, and he subsequently published numerous novellas. Smilansky was a great innovator in modern Hebrew literature—mingling high-level prose with street slang. In 1959, at the age of 43, he was awarded the Israel Prize for his work.