John Boutelle, a 1981 alumnus of Pomona College, is pictured with his grey Trek bicycle, nicknamed the “Alaskan Tank,” outside of his home in Madison, Wis., during late autumn on Dec. 2, 2021. Boutelle, often accompanied by fellow Pomona College alumnus Peter Pitsker ’81, recently completed a 17-year quest to pedal a bike through each of the 50 Unites States. (Photo by Jeff Miller – www.jeffmillerphotography.com)

John Boutelle ’81 has completed his 17-year quest to pedal through each of the 50 United States. Often accompanied by fellow Sagehen Peter Pitsker ’81 and/or multiple family members, Boutelle finished the journey in Rhode Island (now Rode Island) on September 16, 2021. Here is an update to the piece he wrote for the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Pomona College Magazine, with answers to your burning questions.

Q: Why? Just … why?

A: To quote a favorite line from Richard Powers’ The Overstory: “Makes you feel different about things, don’t it?”

When you experience the sights, smells, weather and terrain of a place on a bike, over back roads, it’s amazing what you learn.

There are small surprises: Who would have guessed that Arizona has more cotton fields than Georgia? That there are big herds of buffalo in Kentucky? Or that the world’s stupidest birds are in Florida?

There are eye-opening revelations: I had no idea how many people live in mobile homes. How friendly and helpful people can be to random bike-riding strangers. Or how cold a 40-degree rainy day actually is.

You also discover new idiosyncrasies and eccentricities in people you’ve known for decades, and they all become fodder for good-natured teasing. Peter Pitsker’s dad can talk for hours about corn tassels and thinks you have to squeeze chickens to get eggs (inside joke). My sister Liz is scared to death of irrigation equipment (inside joke). My dad rode 133 miles in a day at 74 years old, on an ancient Schwinn, and he refused to wear “fancy schmancy” bike shorts because they’re too expensive (no joke—ask me for a copy of “Weapons of Ass Destruction,” the story of our ride across Minnesota).

A study found that the average adult male laughs 15 times per day. On bike trips, we laugh at least 15 times per hour—and much more at meal stops. That alone should explain why we do this.

In the end, your memories of the adventures are also transformed. Each trip involves adversity, suffering, cruel weather and exhaustion, but somehow a few weeks later all the memories are good. And the worse the adversity, the better the stories about it later on.

Q: Which state was the hardest?

A: Oregon. Peter Pitsker and I had carefully planned our route along the coast from north to south—because in August there are always strong winds from the north. But nature doesn’t always cooperate. As it turned out, the wind was 20-30 mph from the south, and it rained constantly for four days. In fact, Oregon’s weather that week made national news. A headline in USA Today was “Freak Storms Pound Oregon’s Coast.” Riding into this tempest, with stinging needles in my eyes, was the closest I’ve come to crying in my adult life.

Q: Which state was the most fun?

A: Alaska. My wife Jane and I drove from Madison, Wisconsin, to Fairbanks, crossing British Columbia and the Yukon Territory along the way. In Fairbanks we picked up my brother Dan and Peter Pitsker at the airport. Jane flew home, and the three riders then drove 400 miles north on a mostly gravel road to Dead Horse, a town at the very top of the state, on the Arctic Ocean.

From there we pedaled back to Fairbanks in small chunks. Along the way we saw herds of caribou, wild musk ox, moose, bears, foxes, eagles and the most spectacular scenery you can imagine. This was a case where the weather did cooperate. No snow. Mild winds. Even the mosquitoes were not that bad.

Q: Now what?

A: If I don’t get any reasonable offers on my bike, it may be time to consider riding the Canadian provinces. My daughter is also bugging me about biking the U.S. Territories. When I told her I had completed the 50 states and Washington, D.C., she said “What about Guam? What about Puerto Rico? What about the Virgin Islands?” Oy.

I’ll tell you the truth: As I was finishing up my final ride in Rhode Island, I wasn’t thinking about new possibilities or reminiscing about all the great times with friends and family. I just wanted a nice bowl of chowder.

Want more stories or details? Just send me an email at johnboutelle@gmail.com. Many thanks to Sagehens Peter D. Pitsker ’81, his wife Marilou Quini Pitsker ’85, his mother Polly Dubose Pitsker ’56 and his dad Peter B. Pitsker for all their help and companionship during this quest

Darlene Hard ’61
International Tennis Champion
1936—2021

(L-R) Althea Gibson and Darlene Hard walk onto centre court for the Ladies’ Singles final (Photo by Barratts/PA Images via Getty Images)

Darlene Hard ’61, winner of three major singles championships and a two-time Wimbledon finalist hailed by Billie Jean King as “a major influence on my life as an athlete, teammate and friend,” died December 2, 2021. She was 85.

Ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, Hard won the precursors to both the French Open and the U.S. Open, taking the French title in 1960 and the U.S. championship in 1960 and ’61.

Though her heyday came before the dawn of the Open Era in 1968 when professionals were first allowed to compete in the four major tennis championships known as the Grand Slam, Hard reached the pinnacle of the sport on its grandest stages.

In 1957, she fell to Althea Gibson in a historic Wimbledon final as Gibson became the first Black player to win a major tennis championship. Side by side with Gibson as Queen Elizabeth presented the trophy at Centre Court, Hard pecked Gibson on the cheek and then teamed with her to win the women’s doubles championship.

For all Hard’s success as a singles player, it was as a doubles player that she etched her name on Grand Slam trophies most often: She won 18 major doubles championships, 13 in women’s doubles and five in mixed doubles. Seven of her doubles titles came at Wimbledon, four in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles, including two with Rod Laver, winner of 11 Grand Slam singles titles.

Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1973, Hard nevertheless was “the most under-publicized, underappreciated, possibly underrated tennis player of the last half-century,” a Los Angeles Times columnist lamented on her death. Hard’s accomplishments were so under-the-radar in her retirement that she worked for 45 years at USC with little fanfare as an employee in the student publications department, where her duties included designing parts of the USC yearbook El Rodeo.

Raised in Montebello, a suburb of Los Angeles, Hard played tennis with her mother on public courts as a girl but soon became so good she would take the long bus ride to the Los Angeles Tennis Club almost daily to hone her skills.

In 1957, she enrolled at Pomona College to study chemistry and biology in hopes of becoming a pediatrician. Already a touring international player, she won the inaugural U.S. collegiate singles championship in 1958 before leaving Pomona short of her degree to continue her athletic career. In 1974, Hard was inducted into the Pomona-Pitzer Athletic Hall of Fame, the first woman to be honored.

The young Pomona student made a big impression on another girl growing up on the public courts of Southern California: Billie Jean Moffitt.

Moffitt, now Billie Jean King, was a teenager in Long Beach when Hard, seven years her senior, agreed to hit with her at the request of Clyde Walker, who coached Moffitt and knew Hard from the Southern California youth circuit. By then, Hard had already played at Wimbledon. Moffitt was starstruck.

“Playing one -on-one with Darlene, who wound up in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, changed my outlook because I got my first extended taste of what it meant to play at a high level,” King wrote in her recent autobiography, All In. “The pace and depth of her shots were a revelation.”

Hard continued to practice with the young prodigy, often driving 40 miles from Pomona to pick up Moffitt at her house.

“I would be jumping out of my skin as I waited to hear her coming down 36^th Street in her red Chevy convertible. It had a twin-pipe hot rod muffler that announced she was near,” wrote King, adding that she sometimes imagined she would follow Hard to Pomona.

On occasion, Hard would join the Moffitt family for a meal after the two practiced.

“It was my chance to barrage her with questions about all the things I longed to know,” King wrote. “What’s it like to play a major? Is Wimbledon as great as they say? Tell me about some of the places you’ve been!”

Years later, the two players teamed up in 1963 to help win the first Federation Cup, an event created to give women an equivalent of the Davis Cup international competition for men. The Fed Cup—renamed the Billie Jean King Cup in 2020—pits qualifying teams from 16 nations against each other. Hard and Moffitt clinched the championship with a doubles victory over Australia’s Lesley Turner and Margaret Smith, later Margaret Court, the dominating champion who won a record 24 Grand Slam singles tournaments, one more than Serena Williams has claimed.

On Twitter after Hard’s death, King recalled Hard’s influence on her life, their friendship and that Fed Cup victory.

“She was the best doubles player of her generation,” King wrote. “This was something we would both remember always.”

Laura Mays Hoopes
Emerita Professor of Biology
1942—2021

Laura Mays Hoopes, a former dean of the College and the Halstead-Bent Emerita Professor of Biology, died on October 24, 2021. She was 78.

An avid advocate for women in science, Hoopes served as Pomona College’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College from 1993 to 1998. The first scientist and the first woman appointed to that role, Hoopes was known for her high standards, candor and generosity. Her deanship received high praise.

“If I were going to design a dean from the ground up, the qualities I’d aim for are intelligence, integrity, wit, warmth, courage and a real love of teaching and scholarship,” Peter Stanley, then the Pomona College president, wrote in Pomona College Magazine in 1998. “These are exactly the qualities that Laura Hoopes brought to Pomona’s deanship. A scientist, a musician, a dancer, an outdoorsperson and one of the best-read people I know, she has really understood the College and honored its commitment to the liberal arts.”

Prior to joining the faculty at Pomona College, Hoopes served in several roles at Occidental College, as faculty in the biology and biochemistry departments as well as associate dean of faculty. She also was president of the Council on Undergraduate Research, a professional organization that promotes quality mentored undergraduate research.

Hoopes wrote and co-authored several books and articles in the fields of genetics and molecular biology and on DNA-related issues. Many of her research papers were co-authored with her undergraduate students.

She also was known for her impact in the classroom.

Ann Zhao ’09 says she wanted to join the Hoopes lab after learning about the professor’s passion and commitment to women in science.

“As a young woman who felt insecure about science research, I needed a mentor like Dr. Hoopes,” Zhao says. “She helped me be brave and resilient—qualities that have and will continue to help me reach my goals.” Zhao says Hoopes was “a tremendous role model for women (and men!)” who dreamed of being pioneers and leaders.

Gloria Yiu ’08, a rheumatology fellow at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, worked with Hoopes in her lab for four years at Pomona. More than a decade after graduating, Yiu firmly believes that the experiences she had in the lab and the encouragement of her mentor provided her with the confidence to pursue science and medicine.

Hoopes earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science from Goucher College and completed her Ph.D. in biology at Yale University. Years later, as her career in molecular gerontology career wound down, Hoopes prepared for writing in her retirement. She completed a creative writing certificate at UCLA in 2009 and an MFA in English at San Diego State in 2013. She retired from Pomona in 2015.

Hoopes published her memoir on becoming a woman scientist, Breaking through the Spiral Ceiling, in 2010 and Opening Doors: Joan Steitz and Jennifer Doudna, Two Women of the RNA World in 2019. She also published more than 20 stories and articles in magazines and newspapers.

For her contributions to her field, Hoopes received an honorary doctorate from Goucher College in 1995 and was elected a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Council. In addition, she won several writing awards, including the Jack London Award from the California Writers Club in 2013.

She is survived by her husband, Deacon Michael Hooper, son Lyle Mays, daughter Heather Hoopes Seid, son-in-law Sammy Seid and two grandchildren, Winnie and Max.

Lee C. McDonald ’48
Emeritus Professor of Politics
1925-2021

Lee C. McDonald ’48, a former dean of the College and emeritus professor of politics, died on December 29, 2021. He was 96.

A professor at Pomona for nearly 40 years, McDonald taught government and political theory from 1952 to 1990, serving as dean of the College from 1970 to 1975. His daughter Alison McDonald ’74 recalls that during his years as dean, McDonald enjoyed working closely with President David Alexander and other administrators. But he always said that being an administrator meant “saying no” and he found it hard to say no. After five years, he returned to teaching, which he loved.

McDonald won Wig Awards for excellence in teaching—voted on by students—in very different student political eras, one amid the turmoil of 1968 and another in 1989, the year George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as president, even though students knew McDonald was a staunch Democrat. He is remembered each year at commencement with the Lee Cameron McDonald Prize in Political Theory, which is awarded by the Department of Politics to the best senior or junior in the major.

His talents as a dean and colleague were also greatly appreciated, remembers Emerita Professor of Politics Betsy Crighton.

“Lee was one of the first people I met when I interviewed at Pomona College in 1975. He was the dean of the College, and I was a young candidate for a faculty position. Memorably, he said almost nothing during the interview: just sat quietly and listened. That quality of attentiveness—accompanied by wisdom, good humor, and restraint—built deep trust in his leadership. He was a gentle yet powerful force in the politics department, in the College and in Claremont.”

Born in Salem, Oregon, McDonald started college at the University of Oregon but joined the Army as soon as he turned 18. The year was 1943. He spent the rest of World War II training as a fighter pilot and while stationed at Santa Ana Army Air Base in Orange County, he visited a high school friend at Pomona College. There he struck up a friendship with a student named Claire. The two wrote to each other for the duration of the war before marrying in August of 1946. McDonald joined Claire Kingman McDonald ’47 at the College and finished his degree at Pomona, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude.

Afterward, McDonald used GI Bill benefits to earn a master’s degree in political science from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Harvard. In 1952, McDonald was offered a position teaching government at Pomona. He and Claire happily returned to Claremont, where they would spend their lives, raise their children, and remain active in the life of the College even after retirement. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from Pomona in 1998, and he and Claire received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2009.

McDonald’s students have continued to write to him for years. As recently as August, Jon Fuller ’60 wrote to congratulate McDonald and Claire after reading about their 75th wedding anniversary in the Claremont Courier. In his letter, Fuller recalled how McDonald phoned him after his graduation to tell him and a friend about opportunities to serve as volunteer drivers at the 1960 Democratic Convention even though “you knew very well that we both then identified as Young Republicans.” Fuller called the convention “one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” recalling how he briefly sat next to Eleanor Roosevelt, who handed him a campaign souvenir as she left.

As a professor, McDonald loved wrestling with complex ideas. Among his many publications was a textbook, Western Political Theory, which was used in colleges for many years.

As members of the community, McDonald and Claire were founding members of the Claremont Presbyterian Church in the mid-1950s. In 2003, the couple moved to the Mt. San Antonio Gardens retirement community in Pomona.

McDonald is survived by his wife Claire, daughter Mary ’71 and son-in-law Jack; daughter Alison ’74 and daughter-in-law Sandy; son Paul and daughter-in-law Susan; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His daughter Devon died in 1957, daughter Julie ’74 died in 1996 and son Tom in 2010.

Spring Greetings from Nathan Dean ’10,
National Chair of Annual Giving

Nathan Dean ’10

Dear Fellow Sagehens,

I hope your start to the new year found you and yours safe and healthy. I am thrilled that spring semester is well underway and that the campus is buzzing with students once again. I’m also glad to see alumni events and programs happening, both in person and online. The restart of Regional Alumni Chapters is fantastic, and I was happy to host a gathering for the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter myself this past fall. If you haven’t looked to see which chapters are up and running already, I encourage you to check them out and get involved.

As the National Chair of Annual Giving, I’m so pleased to see the support for the Pomona Annual Fund that has been coming in from our alumni community around the world. Giving Tuesday 2021 was such a fun and meaningful opportunity to make an impact for Sagehens, and it was exciting to see the $10,000 bonus gift unlocked when we hit our goal of 447 donors! 47 CHIRPS to the Alumni Board who rallied their classmates and contributed to help us surpass our goal!

With spring here, the clock is ticking. As we already know, Pomona offers an educational experience that drives students to explore their intellectual passions and immerse themselves in problem-solving for the world today. Our gifts help to create that experience. So if you haven’t already, please join me in giving before June 30. Let’s finish 2021-22 strong!

Wishing you an enjoyable and healthy spring,
Nathan

Learn more about Regional Alumni Chapters.

Give to Pomona’s Annual Fund.

Alumni Weekend is Just Around the Corner

Join us for Alumni Weekend 2022, April 28–May 1. All alumni are invited, and we look forward to spending time with our alumni community, celebrating class reunions and enjoying the many special programs and activities in the works for a fun filled weekend! We’ll also recognize our 2022 Blaisdell and Distinguished Service Alumni Award recipients for their remarkable achievements and contributions to Pomona. Hope you’ll be joining in the Alumni Weekend fun!

Are you registered for Alumni Weekend? Be sure to check the Alumni Weekend website for registration details and all things Alumni Weekend, including up-to-date Pomona COVID-19 safety protocols.

For questions, please contact Alisa Fishbach, director of alumni and family engagement, at alisa.fishbach@pomona.edu. Visit the Alumni Weekend and Reunion Celebrations page to register.

Pomona Reunion Classes Are Revving Up to Celebrate

Classes ending in 2 or 7 are celebrating reunions this year. Chirp! As Alumni Weekend draws closer, class committees are busy planning for the fun festivities for classmates to reconnect and reaching out to build strong Reunion Class Gifts. If you are celebrating your reunion this year, we hope that you can join others from your class in giving back to current Pomona students. Watch your email and mailbox for reunion messages from your class committee!

To keep up with what is happening with your class’s reunion and to contribute to your Reunion Class Gift.

For questions or information, please contact Laura Wensley, director of leadership annual and reunion giving, at laura.wensley@pomona.edu or call 909-706-5626.

Thank You for Making Giving Tuesday a Success

Shout-out CHIRPS to everyone who made A Sagehen Giving Tuesday a success this past fall! Thanks to the generosity of Sagehen alumni and families, Pomona’s 24-hour Giving Tuesday campaign surpassed its goal of 447 donors to finish with 451 donors. In addition to raising $57,001, donors also unlocked a $10,000 bonus gift by hitting the campaign goal, bringing the total raised to $67,001. A big thank you to Nathan Dean ’10 for his generosity in providing the $10,000 unlocking bonus gift challenge! Sagehens do wonderful things when we come together as one Pomona.

Visit the Sagehen Giving Tuesday campaign.

Upcoming Events

Watch your email and mailbox for more information on these upcoming events. To update your contact information, please email engagement@pomona.edu or visit the Update Your Information page.

April 7 | 4/7 Celebration of Sagehen Impact

April 28-May 1 | Alumni Weekend and Reunion Celebrations

May 15 | Commencement

May 20-22 | Take Two: A Celebration of the Classes of ’20 and ’21

2021 Blaisdell Distinguished Alumni Award Winners

The Blaisdell Award is one of the most prestigious awards given to Pomona alumni, recognizing high achievement in their professions or their community. We are thrilled to congratulate this year’s Blaisdell Distinguished Alumni Award Winners: Cathy Corison ’75, James Strombotne ’56, Martina Vandenberg ’90 and Nathan Wang ’79.

Cathy Corison ’75 was the first woman winemaker-proprietor in the Napa Valley, where she continues to produce handcrafted wines without compromise. Her grapes are sourced from some of the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley, all located on classic benchland between Rutherford and St. Helena. Corison’s vineyards are  certified Napa Green. She has farmed organically for more than 25 years, with sustainability as a core value. She founded Corison Winery in 1987, guided by her belief that winemaking and wine appreciation are a timeless, creative celebration of life.

James Strombotne ’56 is a painter whose work has been featured in more than 100 one-man shows, with 14 retrospectives: four in New York City, 22 in Los Angeles, and others in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, Newport Beach and Santa Fe, New Mexico, among other venues. His work has also been included in most major group shows in America and can be found in the permanent collections of museums across the United States. He is a professor emeritus at UC Riverside following his retirement in 2005 after 40 years of teaching.

Martina Vandenberg ’90 is the founder and president of The Human Trafficking Legal Center, which she established in 2012 with support from the Open Society Foundations Fellowship Program. For more than two decades, she has worked to fight human trafficking, forced labor and violence against women and establish that rape is a war crime. Vandenberg has trained more than 4,000 pro bono attorneys nationwide to handle human trafficking matters. She has testified before multiple House and Senate Committees, gave the keynote address at the first NATO ambassadorial-level conference on human trafficking in Brussels and currently co-chairs the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force’s Forced Labor Subcommittee.

Nathan Wang ’79 is one of the most successful composers in Hollywood and Asian cinema.  Prolific and versatile, he has written music for Jackie Chan movies, Steven Spielberg documentaries and Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Studios’ films. His compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received a Singapore Grammy for Best Arrangement of a Song and an Emmy for the award-winning film Reefer  Madness. Wang is an associate professor of film scoring at  Beijing University.

Learn more about these extraordinary alumni.

4-7: An Annual Celebration of #SagehenImpact

Our annual 4-7 Day celebrates and honors Sagehens for their local and global contributions. Although we can’t celebrate together in person, all are invited to join us online for a special day of recognizing and discovering the extraordinary impact alumni make, bearing their added riches around the world! Visit pomona.edu/sagehen-impact to register and learn more.

4-7 Day also provides a unique opportunity to showcase the collective  impact of the Pomona alumni community by supporting the growth and  learning of our current students. Make a gift of $4.47, $47.47 or $447.47 to the Annual Fund today at pomona.edu/give.

Looking for other COVID friendly ideas on how to celebrate 4-7 Day? The Alumni Association Board has a few—or perhaps 47—ideas  for you! Check out 47 Things to Do: COVID-19 Edition.

Coming Together as #OnePomona—and a Big Thank You!

There is a brighter future ahead, and the campus is happily ready and waiting for the return of students, faculty and staff to resume Pomona campus life in person. It won’t be long now!

We also want to pause and chirp a big THANKS to you, our alumni and families, for your support these past 12 months. The Sagehen community came together like never before to help students, faculty and staff navigate the uncharted course of remote learning and more during the global pandemic.

The incredible, ongoing generosity of alumni and families this past year ensured that students and faculty had the technology needed to successfully connect and engage in distance teaching and learning; helped expand urgently needed financial aid resources for students; supported virtual research and experiential learning opportunities in summer 2020 through the Remote Alternative Independent Summer Experience (RAISE) program; and provided support to our local community through Pomona’s PAYS program. And there is more.

This spring, we will be sharing further details about your #SagehenImpact and the many ways your gifts have done so much to promote resilience and provide opportunity and genuine care for students and the campus community. Thank you for your dedication and support! Chirp!

Reunion Celebration 2021 is Right Around the Corner!

The Pomona College Reunion Celebration will take place on Friday, April 30, and Saturday, May 1, on the virtual Pomona College campus. We are looking forward to having this year’s online reunion classes join us for two days of activities and prizes, unique presentations, Blaisdell and Distinguished Service Alumni Award winner tributes and more.

Registration is free, so sign up today! For more information or to register, visit: pomona.edu/reunion-weekend

Join your classmates in supporting your Reunion Class Gift. Thank you!

Ved Mehta ’52
Author
1934–2021

Ved Parkash Mehta ’52, noted author, died Jan. 9, 2021, at age 86 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. Blind from an early age, Mehta is best known for his autobiography, published in installments from 1972 to 2004. Born in India, he lived and worked mainly in the United States, writing for The New Yorker magazine for many years. Here are a few excerpts from the obituaries published around the world following his death:

The New Yorker

“His book The Ledge Between the Streams describes his life as a blind child in the India of the 1940s, as he learned to read Braille and to ride a bicycle and a horse. Throughout his youth and his maturity as a writer, Mehta was determined to apprehend the world around him with maximal accuracy and to describe it as best he could. ‘I felt that blindness was a terrible impediment, and that if only I exerted myself, and did everything my big sisters and big brother did, I could somehow become exactly like them,’ he wrote.

“Mehta came to the United States when he was 15, and attended the Arkansas School for the Blind, in Little Rock. After studying at Pomona College and Oxford University, he began to flourish in his working life as a writer. He asked David Astor, the editor of The Observer, about writing a 14,000-word piece about his travels in India. ‘Something that long and boring,” Astor reportedly said, “only The New Yorker would publish.’”

Mehta joined the staff of the magazine when he was 26 and, for more than three decades, wrote a stream of pieces, many of them appearing in multipart series. He wrote about Oxford dons, theology, Indian politics and many other subjects.”

The Times of London

“So lush was Ved Mehta’s description of   visual detail, so painterly his attention to colour, the American author Norman Mailer refused to believe he was blind. Waving his fist in front of Mehta’s face, the famously pugilistic Mailer said: “If you don’t come out and fight with me, you will show yourself to be a coward.”

Mailer’s incredulity, if not his confrontational manner, was understandable; it was indeed hard to understand how Mehta, without his sight, could write such descriptions as this one, from the first installment of Continents of Exile, his 12-volume memoir: “The fields become bright, first with the yellow of mustard flower outlined by the feathery green of sugarcane, and later with maturing stands of wheat, barley and tobacco.”

The New York Times

“… Mehta was widely considered the 20th-century writer most responsible for introducing American readers to India.

“Besides his multivolume memoir, published in book form between 1972 and 2004, his more than two dozen books included volumes of reportage on India, among them Walking the Indian Streets (1960), Portrait of India (1970) and Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles (1977), as well as explorations of philosophy, theology and linguistics.

“Daddyji was the first installment in what was to become a 12-volume series of autobiographical works, known collectively as ‘Continents of Exile.’

“‘Ved Mehta has established himself as one of the magazine’s most imposing figures,’ The New Yorker’s storied editor William Shawn, who hired him as a staff writer in 1961, told The New York Times in 1982. ‘He writes about serious matters without solemnity, about scholarly matters without pedantry, about abstruse matters without obscurity.’

“The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ in 1982, Mr. Mehta was long praised by critics for his forthright, luminous prose—with its ‘informal elegance, diamond clarity and hypnotic power,’ as The Sunday Herald of Glasgow put it in a 2005 profile.”

The Sunday Herald of Glasgow

“His most enduring work is surely the ‘Continents of Exile’ series, which was written between 1971 and 2005. It began with stories his father used to tell Mehta and his siblings when they were small. Later, the narrative began to gain its own momentum and eventually a distinct design and architecture emerged. Though he took his lead from Proust and Joyce, his approach was different. As in their epics, memory was fundamental but no less so were other sources, such as letters, diaries, personal papers and newspaper articles. The series culminated in The Red Letters, which begins in New York and describes a a disastrous dinner party, at which his father and mother met Shawn for the first time, and then backtracks to the 1930s when his father had an affair with a married woman.

“Periodically, Mehta—who never had a guide dog or used a stick—would ask himself, “How can anyone be expected to read so much about one life?” His answer was that ‘Continents of Exile’ is not the story of one life but of hundreds of lives, with characters coming and going in the manner of a roman fleuve. Thus the past is regained.”