Author Michael Hamburger was born on March 24, 1924 in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg. Hamburger was the author of more than 20 volumes of poetry and many volumes of essays. He was also a critic and translator of German works. He received numerous awards, including awards for his dedication toward making the riches of German literature accessible to English-speaking readers. His translations twice won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize, and he was awarded the Goethe Medal (1986) and the European translation prize (1990). He held a series of teaching positions, initially in Germanic studies, on both sides of the Atlantic, including University College London, Reading University, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and the University of California at San Diego. He died on June 7, 2007, aged 83.
