Tibor Sekelj

Tibor Sekelj
Born February 14, 1912(1912-02-14)
Spišská Sobota (part of Poprad), Austria-Hungary
Died 23 September 1988(1988-09-23) (aged 76)
Subotica, Yugoslavia
Occupation writer, lawyer, explorer, Esperantist
Genres Esperanto literature
Notable work(s) Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo (1979)

Tibor Sekelj (in Hungarian: Székely Tibor) (14 February 1912 – 23 September 1988) was an explorer, esperantist, writer and lawyer of Jewish descent. He was born in Spišská Sobota (part of Poprad), former-day Austria-Hungary, present-day Slovakia, and died in Subotica, former Yugoslavia.

Tibor made expeditions across the whole of South America, Asia and Africa. Beside Hungarian and Serbo-Croatian, he spoke German, Spanish, English, French and Esperanto. He was a member of the Academy of Esperanto and an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association, writing several books (essays and novels) in that language. His Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo ("Kumeŭaŭa, the son of the jungle"), a children's book about the life of Brazilian Indians, has been translated into many languages.[1]

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Biography

Sekelj's father was a veterinarian and as a result the family moved around extensively. Several months after his birth the family moved to Čenej Vojvodina and in 1922 they moved to Kikinda (Кикинда) in Vojvodina, Serbia. After he had finished elementary school there, the family moved to Nikšić (Никшић), Montenegro, where he finished high school (gymnasium). He then went to Zagreb where he studied law.

Disinterested in practicing law, he began working as a journalist in Zagreb. In 1939 he travelled to Argentina to report on Yugoslavia emigrants, and remained there for the next 15 years as a journalist and explorer. In 1944 he was part of a party that climbed mount Aconcagua, the highest summit of the South American continent. This experience inspired him to write his first work Storm on the Aconcagua. In 1946 he undertook the first of two expeditions into the Amazon jungle, the first of which produced a popular book, "Along Native Trails" (Por Tierra De Indios). He later married his companion from that trailblazing expedition, Mary Reznik. Together they returned to the Amazon in 1948, and after that expedition he penned "Where Civilization Ends" (Donde La Civilizacion Termina). The marriage produced a son, Diego. In 1954 Sekelj returned to Yugoslavia and lived in Belgrade, although he still traveled and wrote of his experiences constantly. He married Erzsébet Sekelj, a young woman whom he met on a journey through Hungary. From 1972 on he lived in Subotica, Vojvodina. He became the curator a museum in Subotica, where he spent the remaining years of his life. He died in Subotica, and is buried there.

Works

The works of Tibor Sekelj, novels and recordings of his travels, contain interesting ethnographic observations. He also wrote guides and essays on Esperanto, the international language. The majority of his books were originally written in Esperanto, but were translated into many national languages. Tibor Sekelj is undoubtedly the most often translated Esperanto author.

Descriptions of travels

Books about Esperanto

Manuals of Esperanto

Works of ethnography

During his travels in South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania he collected important ethnographic information which he gave to the Ethnographic Museum of Zagreb.

His principal ethnographic work is:

where he presents translations of recordings he made during his travels.

Dictionary

Tibor Sekelj collaborated on a dictionary in 20 languages about museology, Dictionarium Museologicum, appearing in 1986. — ISBN 9635711743

External links

References

  1. ^ http://esperanto.net/literaturo/roman/sekelj.html Information about Esperanto authors.