Ved Mehta

Writer Class of 1982
location icon Location
New York, New York
age iconAge
48 at time of award
age iconDate Deceased
January 10, 2021

About Ved's Work

Ved Mehta is a writer of autobiography, biography, journalism, and fiction.

In writings both personal and political, Mehta explores the dramatic changes his native India has undergone in the last century by tracing his family’s transformations and his own adaptation to the alien culture of America.  He has published numerous books and contributed hundreds of articles and stories to British, Indian, and American publications.  His books include Face to Face (1957), Portrait of India (1970), Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles (1977), and an autobiographical series, Continents of Exile, which includes The Ledge Between the Streams (1984), The Stolen Light (1989), Up at Oxford (1993), and The Red Letters (2004).  Among his other works are A Family Affair: India Under Three Prime Ministers (1982), Three Stories of the Raj (1986), and Rajiv Gandhi and Rama’s Kingdom (1994).

Biography

A staff writer for the New Yorker (1961-94), Mehta has served as a visiting professor at numerous institutions and held the Rosenkranz Chair in Writing at Yale University (1990-1993).

Mehta emigrated to the West in 1949.  He became a naturalized American citizen in 1975.  He received a B.A. (1956) from Pomona College, a B.A. (1959) and an M.A. (1962) from Balliol College, the University of Oxford, and an M.A. (1961) from Harvard University.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

Published on August 1, 1982

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