Michael Meyer
Michael Meyer (1921-2000) was an author, playwright and translator, best known for his translations of Ibsen and Strindberg which won him international acclaim. His biography of Ibsen published in 1967 won the Whitbread Biography Award. His biography of Strindberg was published in 1987. Both were widely described as definitive.
Meyer wrote one novel The End Of The Corridor and several original plays for stage and radio including The Ortolan produced in 1953 with Maggie Smith and in 1967 with Helen Mirren, Lunatic and Lover about Strindberg’s three lovers which won an Edinburgh Fringe First in 1978, Meeting in Rome was a fictional account of a meeting between Ibsen and Strindberg starring Kenneth Haigh produced for BBC Radio 4, and an adaptation of George Gissing’s The Odd Women was produced by Manchester Royal Exchange in 1992.
His memoir Not Prince Hamlet published in 1989, was described by David Mamet as ‘Beautifully written, a delight to read’, and by Simon Callow as ‘A very special perspective and theatre and literary life. The Sunday Times review said Meyer was ‘one of the funniest men in London.’
Michael Meyer was a visiting professor at several American universities including UCLA, Colorado and Dartmouth. He taught at Central School of Drama and was on the board of LAMDA. He was the first Englishman to receive the Gold Medal of the Swedish Academy in 1964, appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1971 and Knight Commander of the Polar Star in Sweden in 1977.