Michael Meyer

Michael Leverson Meyer (11 June 1921 – 3 August 2000) was an English translator, biographer, journalist and dramatist who specialised in Scandinavian literature.

Early life Meyer was born into a family of Jewish origin. His father Percy Barrington Meyer was a timber merchant. His mother Nora died of influenza in 1928. He was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire and Christ Church, Oxford where he read English. Initially a conscientious objector during World War II, he served as a civilian with Britain's Bomber Command for three years. He was lecturer in English at Uppsala University in Sweden from 1947 to 1950, and learnt Swedish.

Scandinavian literature His first translation of a Swedish work was the novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson (published by Collins) in 1954, leading BBC Radio to invite him to translate Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf, although his understanding of Norwegian was limited at the time of the commission. Meyer eventually translated all of Ibsen's 16 major plays, which overlapped with his 18 translations of August Strindberg's plays.

His biography of Strindberg was published in 1985, for which the Swedish Academy awarded him their Gold Medal, the first time it had been given to an Englishman. Brand (1866, translated 1960) Peer Gynt (1867, translated 1963) A Doll's House (1879, translated 1965) Ghosts (1881, translated 1962) An Enemy of the People (1882, translated 1963) The Lady from the Sea (1888, translated 1960) Hedda Gabler (1890, translated 1962) The Master Builder (1892, translated 1961) Little Eyolf (1894, translated 1961) John Gabriel Borkman (1896, translated 1960) When We Dead Awaken (1899, translated 1960)