Ved Mehta
Ved Mehta | |
---|---|
British India | |
Died | 9 January 2021 Manhattan, New York, U.S. | (aged 86)
Occupation |
|
Language | English |
Nationality | Indian-American |
Education | Dadar School for the Blind Arkansas School for the Blind |
Alma mater | Pomona College (BA) Balliol College, Oxford (BA) Harvard University (MA) |
Years active | 1957–2004 |
Spouse |
Linn Cary (m. 1983) |
Website | |
vedmehta |
Ved Parkash Mehta (21 March 1934 – 9 January 2021) was an Indian-born writer who lived and worked mainly in the United States. Blind from an early age, Mehta is best known for an autobiography published in instalments from 1972 to 2004. He wrote for The New Yorker for many years.
Early life and education
Mehta was born on 21 March 1934 in
Ved lost his sight at the age of three due to cerebrospinal
Mehta received a BA from
Literary career
His first book, an autobiography called Face to Face, which placed his early life in the context of
A 1982 profile, published after Mehta was announced as a MacArthur Fellow, stated that he had "gained critical note as a weaver of profiles, as an interviewer who can interpret character and context in the exchange of words with a subject. He is scholarly and journalistic and, above all, a man who thinks things out."[14] In 1989, Jennet Conant produced an article for Spy reflecting on the alleged decline in quality of the New Yorker after the departure of editor William Shawn; recounting criticism of the new editor's "peculiar hobbies" including collecting "aluminium tumblers and plastic handbags", mockery and attacking of "previously untouchable" journalists including Renata Adler and Janet Malcolm, and the fact that "the legions of loyal, tight-lipped young women- the secretaries, typists, fact-checkers and editorial assistants" had begun to "talk. Well, moan, really. Sob. Whine. Wail and complain" about "old wounds and ... past injustices", particularly those who were employed to "painstakingly transcribe" what Conant considered the "long-winded, self-obsessed, Oxford-educated English prose" of Mehta, who the article also accused of being unduly demanding and critical of the young women thus employed, asking them personal questions about their habits and lives.[15] He left the magazine after, as he claimed, he was "terminated" by editor Tina Brown.[16]
One of the articles he wrote for The New Yorker in 1961 consisted of interviews with Oxford philosophers. A volume of the letters of one of those philosophers, Isaiah Berlin, contains an honest response to Mehta's inquiry about the reactions of his subjects: "You ask me what the reactions of my colleagues are to your piece on Oxford Philosophy... [T]hose to whom I have spoken are in various degrees outraged or indignant ... The New Yorker is a satirical magazine, and I assume from the start that a satire was intended and not an accurate representation of the truth. In any case, only a serious student of philosophy could attempt to do that."[17] The article was published as a book, now including other public intellectuals, as Fly and the Fly-Bottle: Encounters with British Intellectuals (1962).[18]
Mehta's autobiography, titled Continents of Exile, was published in 12 instalments between 1972 and 2004. Its first volume, Daddyji (1972), is part autobiography and part biography of Mehta's father.[19] Mehta became an American citizen in 1975.[2]
Personal life
In 1983 he married Linn Fenimore Cooper Cary, the daughter of William Lucius Cary and Katherine Lemoine Fenimore Cary;[20] his wife's mother was a descendant of James Fenimore Cooper and the niece of Mehta's former New Yorker colleague, Henry Sage Fenimore Cooper, Jr.[4]
A 1978 profile by Madhur Jaffrey wrote that Mehta regarded himself as "part Indian", "part English", "part American", and as an "expatriate".[21]
Mehta died on 9 January 2021, with complications from Parkinson's disease.[19]
Publications
Continents of Exile
- Daddyji. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1972.
- Mamaji. 1979.
- Vedi. 1982.
- The Ledge Between the Streams. 1984.
- Sound-Shadows of the New World. 1986.
- The Stolen Light. 1989.
- Up at Oxford. 1993.
- Haunted by Harvard. 2007 (written c. 1991).
- Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing. 1998.
- All for Love.
- Dark Harbor: Building House and Home on an Enchanted Island. 2003.
- The Red Letters: My Father's Enchanted Period. 2004.
Other books
- Face to Face: An Autobiography.
- Walking the Indian Streets. Little, Brown. 1959.
- Fly and the Fly-Bottle: Encounters with British Intellectuals. Little, Brown. 1962.
- The New Theologian.
- Delinquent Chacha. Harper & Row. 1966.
- Portrait of India. OCLC 1086768025.[31]
- John Is Easy to Please: Encounters with the Written and the Spoken Word.
- Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles. Penguin Books. 1977.
- The New India.
- The Photographs of Chachaji
- A Family Affair: India under Three Prime Ministers.
- Three Stories of the Raj
- Rajiv Gandhi and Rama's Kingdom
- A Ved Mehta Reader: The Craft of the Essay.
Awards and honours
Mehta received
In Popular Culture
The 2021 American anthology comedy film The French Dispatch by director Wes Anderson mentioned Ved Mehta as one of the inspirations for his film, among other writers & editors of The New Yorker in the film's final credit rolling scene.[40]
See also
- Indians in the New York City metropolitan region
- New Yorkers in journalism
References
- ^ Singh, Jai Arjun (February 2014). "Retracing Ved Mehta's long career". The Caravan. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "Mehta, Ved 1934–". Concise Major 21st Century Writers. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ a b Leland, John (22 May 2003). "At Home With Ved Mehta: In a Dark Harbor, A Bright House". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2009.
- ^ Justman 2010, p. 165.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-07184-4. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ a b Kendrick, Baynard (25 August 1957). "Seeking the Light". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 July 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
- ^ a b Slatin 1986, p. 178.
- ^ "When loss isn't' less". Financial Express. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-59194-095-1.
- ISBN 1-928653-01-4. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- )
- ^ Smith, Harrison (11 January 2021). "Ved Mehta, whose monumental autobiography explored life in India, dies at 86". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ISSN 0890-1759.
- from the original on 19 September 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4481-9134-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-280687-1.
- ^ from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "All for Love". Kirkus Reviews. 15 July 2001. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "All for Love". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "Face to Face". Kirkus Reviews. 1 August 1959. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- S2CID 234505734.
- ^ "Walking the Indian Street". Kirkus Reviews. 15 June 1960. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- The Literary Encyclopedia. Archivedfrom the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- S2CID 170253919.
- ^ "Delinquent Chacha". Kirkus Reviews. 1 April 1967. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- JSTOR 23329810.
- ^ "John Is Easy to Please". Kirkus Reviews. 1 May 1971. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- JSTOR 2757426.
- ISSN 0015-7120. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2021.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ "A Ved Mehta Reader". Kirkus Reviews. 1 August 1998. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "Ved Mehta". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "Ved Mehta". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
- ^ "The New Yorker Writers and Editors Who Inspired "The French Dispatch"". The New Yorker. 24 September 2021.
Sources
- Justman, Stewart (2010). "The Advertisement of Guilt". Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 93 (1/2): 163–173. S2CID 246640983.
- Slatin, John M. (1986). "Blindness and Self-Perception: The Autobiographies of Ved Mehta". Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal. 19 (4): 173–193. JSTOR 24777662.
External links
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