Aharon Megged

Aharon Megged (Hebrew: אהרון מגד) (10 August 1920 – 23 March 2016) (Hebrew year 5680)^[1] was an Israeli author and playwright. In 2003, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.

Biography

Aharon Greenberg (later Megged) was born in 1920 in Włocławek, Poland. In 1926, he immigrated with his parents to Mandate Palestine. He grew up in Ra'anana, attending Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv. After graduation, he joined a Zionist pioneering youth movement, training at Kibbutz Giv'at Brenner. He was a member of Kibbutz Sdot Yam for twelve years.

Megged was married to author Ida Tsurit, with whom he had two children, Eyal Megged, also a writer, and Amos Megged, a lecturer in history at University of Haifa.

Literary career

Megged was one of the founders of the Masa literary weekly, and served as its editor for fifteen years. He worked as a literary editor for the Hebrew newspapers La-merhav and Davar. In 1977/78 he was author-in-residence at the Center for Hebrew Studies affiliated with Oxford University. He made several lecture tours of the United States, and was also author-in-residence at the University of Iowa. He published 35 books.

Megged's plays were performed at Habima, Ha-Ohel and other theaters. His books have been translated into numerous languages and published in the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, France, and other countries.

Diplomatic career

From 1968 to 1971, Megged served as cultural attaché to the Israeli embassy in London.

Awards and recognition

• In 1974, Megged won the Bialik Prize for his books The Evyatar Notebooks: a novel and Of Trees and Stones.
• In 2003, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for literature.^[2][3]

Megged won the Brenner Prize, the S.Y. Agnon Prize, and the Prime Minister's Prize.

See also

• Hebrew literature
• List of Bialik Prize recipients
• List of Israel Prize recipients

References