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Dorothea Krook-Gilead

Dorothea Krook-Gilead was an Israeli literary scholar and translator who taught English literature at Cambridge, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, and won the Israel Prize in 1973.

1920 to 1989Studies of Henry JamesThe book Elements of TragedyTeaching Sylvia Plath at CambridgeTranslating Zerubavel Gilad's poems

Died: 13 November 1989, Ein Harod
Occupation: translator, lecturer, literary editor, literary theorist
Education: Newnham College, University of Cape Town

Dorothea Krook-Gilead was born in 1920 in Riga

Dorothea Krook was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1920. Her mother, Rachel Bergman, was a Yiddish poet. In 1928 the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where she grew up.

She studied philosophy and literature at the University of Cape Town and earned degrees in 1939, 1940 and 1941. In 1946 she began studying at Cambridge under the philosopher Michael Oakeshott and received her doctorate in 1952.

At Cambridge she was a research fellow at Newnham College and an assistant lecturer in English literature. The poet Sylvia Plath was among her students. She published Three Traditions of Moral Thought in 1959.

She moved to Israel in 1960 and joined the Hebrew University, where she headed the English literature department and became a full professor in 1971. In October 1973 she moved to Tel Aviv University. She was known for her studies of Henry James and of moral questions in literature.

In 1968 she married the poet Zerubavel Gilad and moved to Kibbutz Ein Harod, and she translated many of his poems into English. She died on 13 November 1989. A street in Be'er Sheva is named after her.