The Arkansas Traveler

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —Ved Mehta, an Indian essayist, journalist and autobiographer, will present the fall 2006 Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main. The title of his topic will be “The Arkansas Traveler,” which traces his time as a student from when he attended the Arkansas School for the Blind and his journey after graduation.

Mehta, the fifth of seven children, was born on March 21, 1934, in Lahore, India (now a part of Pakistan). At the age of three, he became blind after contracting spinal meningitis. His father, a doctor, tried in vain over the next 12 years to find a place suitable for young Ved to receive an education. An answer came in 1949 when Mehta came to the United States to attend the Arkansas State School for the Blind in Little Rock. Upon receiving his degree from the school in 1952, Mehta went on to receive a B.A. degree from Pomona College in California in 1956. He received his M.A. degree from Harvard in 1961 and embarked on a successful career as a writer.

Prior to his lecture on the UA campus, Mehta will meet with several classes to discuss his work.

Mehta served as a staff writer at the The New Yorker from 1961 to 1994. He has served as a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, visiting scholar at Case Western Reserve and visiting fellow of literature at Balliol College, Oxford. He was a visiting professor of English and history and Rosenkranz Chair in writing at Yale University and the Randolph Visiting Distinguished Professor of English and History at Williams College and Vassar College.

A naturalized citizen of the United States, Mehta and his wife live in New York City.

Among his many honors are MacArthur Prize Fellow (1982-87), Harvard Prize Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, Signet Medal (Harvard), New York City Mayor’s Liberty Medal and the South Asian Literary Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among his writings are the Continents of Exile Series which includes The Red Letters (2004), Dark Harbor (2003), All for Love (2001), Remembering Mr. Shawn’s New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing (1998), Up at Oxford (1993), The Stolen Light (1989), The Ledge Between the Streams (1984), Vedi (1982), Mamaji (1979) and Daddyji (1972). Other books include Three Stories of the Raj, A Family Affair, The Photographs of Chachaji, John is Easy to Please, Portrait of India, Delinquent Chacha, Fly and the Fly-Bottle and his first book, Face to Face (1957). He also wrote the documentary Chachaji: My Poor Relation (1978).