Michael Henry Heim was a Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was an active and prolific translator, and was fluent in Czech, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, French, Italian, German, and Dutch.
Background
Michael Heim was born on January 21, 1943 in New York, United States, in the family of Imre Hajdu and Blanche (Lake) Heim. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Imre joined the US Army. At the time of Heim's birth, Imre was stationed in Alabama. Heim's father died when he was four, and he was raised by his mother and step-father in Staten Island. In 1966, he was drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War. When it was discovered that he was the sole surviving son of a soldier who had died in service, he was relieved from the draft.
Education
In 1962 Michael participated in a summer study tour of the Soviet Union at University of Michigan. In 1963 he received an advanced certificate in German at Sprachen-und Dolmetscher Institut in Munich, Germany. Then he received Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) at Columbia College in 1964. After that he received an advanced certificate in Czech and Slovak at Charles University in Prague in 1965 - 1966. Finally, he earned Master of Arts at Harvard University in 1966, and then Doctor of Philosophy there in 1971.
Career
Heim was one of the finest and most prolific translators of his age. He was also for nearly 40 years a faculty member of the University of California Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, being promoted prior to his death to University of California Distinguished Professor. Every two years, Heim taught a workshop in literary translation at University of California's Department of Comparative Literature, which was highly regarded by his students.
Heim served as editor of a translation series published by Northwestern University Press, and was several times a juror for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Michael was also a member of editorial board for Cross Currents, East European Politics and Societies, and Slavic and East European Journal; contributor of articles and reviews to journals; contributor of reviews of contemporary East European literature to periodicals, including New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post.
Achievements
Michael won the 2005 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for German-to-English translation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. He received the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 2009. In 2010, he received the PEN Translation Prize for his translation from the Dutch of Wonder by Hugo Claus. The same book was also short-listed for Three Percent's Best Translated Book Award.
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
Connections
Michael was married for thirty-seven years to his wife, Priscilla Smith Kerr, who brought three children of her own, Rebecca, Jocelyn and Michael, into the family from a previous marriage.
