AMIR Pinkerfeld ANDA

AMIR (Pinkerfeld ), ANDA (1902–1981), Hebrew poet. She was born in Galicia, into an assimilated family. Her father worked as an architect for the Austro-Hungarian government. She completed secondary school in Lvov, and published a book of verse in Polish at the age of 18, her first poem being the prayer of a Polish child for the liberation of his country. After studying at the universities of Leipzig and Lvov, she immigrated to Palestine in 1923. In 1921 she published another volume of verse in Polish, Piesni źycia ("Songs of Life"). Thereafter, under the influence of Uri Ẓevi *Greenberg, she began writing in Hebrew. The themes of her verse are love of nature, romantic love, and the joys of motherhood. Her long poem "Aḥat" ("One," 1953) describes a young Jewish girl who immigrates to Israel after surviving the Holocaust and dies fighting for Israeli independence. Among her books are Yamim Dovevim ("Days Tell," 1929); Yuval (1932); Geisha Lian Tang Sharah (1935); Gittit (1937); Duda'im ("Mandrakes," 1943); Gadish ("Grain Heap," 1949); Kokhavim bi-Deli ("Stars in a Bucket," 1957).

Anda Amir was the first poet to write poetry in Hebrew specifically for children and distinguished herself in this field. Her first collection of such poetry, Al Anan Kevish (1933), was edited by H.N. Bialik, while her Shirei Yeladim (1934) was awarded the Bialik Prize for poems for children. In 1978 she received the Israel Prize for children's literature.

bibliography:

A. Cohen, Soferim Ivriyyim Benei Zemannenu (1964), 186–9; Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 560–1. add. bibliography: I. Yaoz-Kest, "Im Anda, Monolog bi-Shenayim," in: Z. Beilin (ed.), Anda (1977), 131–36; H. Hever, "Shirat ha-Guf ha-Le'ummi: Nashim Meshorerot be-Milḥemet ha-Shiḥrur," in: Te'oriyah u-Vikoret, 7 (1995), 99–123; Y. Oppenheimer, Nashim u-Le'ummiyut, Shirei Anda Pinkerfeld bi-Shenot ha-Arba'im; Y. Berlovitz, "'Me-Olam, Demuyot mi-Kedem' le-Anda Pinkerfeld Amir: Haẓa'ah le-Narativ Mikra'i Nashi," in: M. Shilo, R. Kerk, and G. Hazan-Rokem (eds.), Ha-Ivriyot ha-Ḥadashot (2002), 368–82.

[Yohanan Twersky]