Nathan Alterman
| Nathan Alterman | |
|---|---|
Nathan Alterman in 1952
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| Born |
August 14, 1910 Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died | March 28, 1970 (aged 59) Tel Aviv , Israel |
| Occupation | poet, translator, playwright, journalist |
| Nationality | Israeli (since 1948) |
| Ethnicity | Jewish (Ashkenazi) |
| Literary movement | Yakhdav (led by Avraham Shlonsky) |
| Spouse | Rachel Marcus |
| Children | Tirtza Atarf |
Nathan Alterman (Hebrew: נתן אלתרמן, August 14, 1910 – March 28, 1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator who – though never holding any elected office – was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Nathan Alterman was born in Warsaw, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire). He moved to Tel Aviv with his family in 1925, when he was 15 years old, and continued his studies at the Herzliya Hebrew High School.
When he was 19 years old, he travelled to Paris to study at the University of Paris (a.k.a. La Sorbonne), but a year later he decided to go to Nancy to study agronomy. Though maintaining close contacts with his family and friends in Tel Aviv and visiting them on vacations, Alterman spent three years in France and was highly influenced by his occasional meetings with French artists and writers. When he returned to Tel Aviv in 1932, he started working at the Mikveh Yisrael agricultural school, but soon left it in favour of working as a journalist and publishing Hebrew poems.
Alterman is credited with bringing the seeds of the marmande tomato to Israel, where it was the main species cultivated in the country until the 1960s.
Alterman's first published book of poetry was Kokhavim Bakhuts ("Stars Outside"), published in 1938. This volume, with its "neo-romantic themes, highly charged texture, and metrical virtuosity," as Israeli critic Benjamin Harshav puts it, established him as a major force in modern Hebrew literature.
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