János Garay, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

János Garay

Hungarian poet

Date of Birth: 10-Oct-1812

Place of Birth: Szekszárd, Tolna County, Hungary

Date of Death: 05-Nov-1853

Profession: writer, poet, playwright, journalist

Nationality: Hungary

Zodiac Sign: Libra


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About János Garay

  • János Garay (10 October 1812 – 5 November 1853) was a Hungarian poet and author, was born in Szekszárd, Tolna County.
  • From 1823 to 1828 he studied at Pécs, and subsequently, in 1829, at the University of Pest.
  • In 1834 he brought out an heroic poem, in hexameters, under the title Csatár.
  • Garay was an energetic journalist, and in 1838 he moved to Bratislava, where he edited the political journal Hírnök (Herald).
  • He returned to Pest in 1839, when he was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
  • In 1842 he was admitted into the Kisfaludy Society, of which he became second secretary. Garay enriched Hungarian literature with numerous lyrical poems, ballads and tales.
  • The first collection of his poems was published in Pest; and his prose tales appeared in 1845, under the title of Tollrajzok (Sketches with the Pen).
  • His historical ballads and legends, styled Árpádok (Pest, 1847, 2nd ed.
  • 1848), showed him to be a master in the art of ballad-writing.
  • Some of his lyrical poems also are excellent, as, for example, Balatoni kagylók (Shells from Lake Balaton) (Pest, 1848).
  • His legend Bosnyák Zsófia (Pest, 1847), and his poetical romance Frangepán Kristófné (Christopher Frangepan's Wife) (Pest, 1846), gained the prize of the Kisfaludy Society.
  • He wrote the comic epic poem Az obsitos [The Veteran] which subsequently Zsolt Harsányi (1887–1943) and Béla Paulini (1881–1945) turned into a Singspiel libretto.
  • Zoltán Kodály set this to music in 1925–1926 as the operetta Háry János.
  • His last and most famous work was an historical poem in twelve cantos, with the title Szent László (Saint Ladislaus) (Eger, 1852, 2nd ed., Pest, 1853, 3rd ed.
  • 1863).
  • Garay was professor of Hungarian language and literature to the University of Pest in 1848-1849.
  • Since he was frail he supported the 1848 Revolution for freedom through his poetry.
  • When the Revolutionaries lost he was condemned by the Habsburgs.
  • After about four years illness he died in 1853, in great want.
  • A collective edition of his poems was published in Pest the year after his death by F.
  • Ney (2nd ed.
  • 1860), and several of his poems were translated by Kertbeny.
  • His birthplace of Szekszárd has a statue to honor him.

Read more at Wikipedia

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