Poetic Obituaries: After another voyage as a sailor,

he [Yoram Kaniuk] lived in the US for 10 years, and from there pursued adventure, searching for gold in Mexico and diamonds in Guatemala, and gambling in Las Vegas. He got involved in jazz and cinema circles, where he got to know Marlon Brando, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and the dancer and choreographer Lee Becker, who became his first wife. He described those years of the 1950s as, alongside the 1948 war, the most influential on his life and work. "It was the time of the revolution that changed America, and everybody paid for it. It was a powerful experience, the love of jazz, the efforts to become a writer and a poet, the encounters with all the people whom I have hurt, and who've hurt me," he told the daily Ma'ariv in 2003.

from The Guardian: Yoram Kaniuk obituary

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