Zsigmond Kemény

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Baron Zsigmond Kemény (June 12, 1814–December 22, 1875) was a Hungarian author.

He came of a noble but reduced family. In 1837 he studied jurisprudence at Marosvásárhely (present-day Târgu-Mureş, Romania), but soon devoted himself entirely to journalism and literature. His first unfinished work, On the Causes of the Disaster of Mohács (1840), attracted much attention. In the same year he studied natural history and anatomy at Vienna University. In 1841, along with Lajos Kovács, he edited the Transylvanian newspaper Erdélyi Híradó. He also took an active part in provincial politics and warmly supported the principles of Count István Széchenyi. In 1846 he moved to Pest, where his pamphlet, Korteskedés és ellenszerei ("Partisanship and its Antidote"), had already made him famous. Here he consorted with the most eminent of the moderate reformers, and for a time was on the staff of the Pesti Hirlap. The same year he brought out his first great novel, Gyulai Pál. He was elected a member of the revolutionary diet of 1848 and accompanied it through all its vicissitudes. After a brief exile he accepted the amnesty and returned to Hungary. In 1857 he wrote his most famous novel: Özvegy és leánya ("The widow and her daughter").

Careless of unpopularity, he took up his pen to defend the cause of compromise and moderation, and in his two pamphlets, Forradalom után ("After the Revolution") and Még egy szó a forradalom után ("One word more after the Revolution"), he defended the point of view which was realized by Ferenc Deák in 1867. He subsequently edited the newspaper Pesti Napló, which became virtually Deak's political organ. Kemény also published several political essays (e.g. "The Two Wesselényis", and "István Széchenyi") which are among the best of their kind in any literature. His novels published during these years, such as Férj és nő ("Husband and Wife"), A szív örvényei ("The Heart's Whirls"), etc., also won for him a foremost rank among contemporary novelists. During the 1860s Kemény took an active part in the political movement of Deák, whose right hand he continued to be, and popularized the Compromise of 1867 which he had done so much to bring about, however, later he denounced it. He was elected to the diet of 1867 for one of the divisions of Pest, but took no part in the debates. The last years of his life were passed in complete seclusion in Transylvania. To the works of Kemény already mentioned should be added the fine historical novel A rajongók ("The Fanatics") (Pest, 1858-1859), and Collected Speeches (Pest, 1889).

See L. Nogrady, Baron Sigismund Kemény's Life and Writings (Budapest, 1902); G. Beksics, Sigismund Kemény, the Revolution and the Composition (Budapest, 1888).

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.