Ferenc Kölcsey

Ferenc Kölcsey by Anton Einsle, 1835

Ferenc Kölcsey (archaically English: Francis Kolcsey,^[1] 8 August 1790, Sződemeter – 24 August 1838) was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current inside the Habsburg Empire. He wrote Himnusz, the national anthem of Hungary in 1823.

Biography

Kölcsey was born in Sződemeter, Hungary (now Săuca, Romania). He was orphaned at an early age and handicapped by the loss of an eye to smallpox. At age fifteen, he made the acquaintance of Ferenc Kazinczy and adopted his linguistic reforms. In 1809 Kölcsey went to Pest and became a notary to the Royal board. He was disenchanted with the office, and, while present in the Cseke in Szatmár, he devoted his time to aesthetical study, poetry, criticism, and the defense of Kazinczy's theories.

Kölcsey's early metrical pieces contributed to the Transylvanian Museum did not attract much attention, while his severe criticisms of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, János Kis, and especially Dániel Berzsenyi, published in 1817, rendered him very unpopular. From 1821 to 1826 he published many separate poems of great beauty in the Aurora, Hebe, Aspasia, and other magazines of polite literature. He joined Pál Szemere in a new periodical, styled Élet és Literatúra (Life and Literature), which appeared from 1826 to 1829, in 4 vols., and gained for Kölcsey the highest reputation as a critical writer.

From 1832 to 1835 he sat in the Hungarian Diet, where his extreme liberal views and his eloquence soon rendered him famous as a parliamentary leader. Elected on 17 November 1830 a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he took part in its first grand meeting; in 1832, he delivered his famous oration on Kazinczy, and in 1836 that on his former opponent Dániel Berzsenyi. In 1838, when the opposition leader Miklós Wesselényi was thrown into prison upon a disputed charge of treason, Kölcsey conducted his defense with noted eloquence, but without success. He died about a week afterwards at Cseke, from internal inflammation.

Kölcsey's strong moral sense and deep devotion to his country are reflected in his poems, his often severe but masterly literary criticism, and his funeral orations and parliamentary speeches. His collected works, in 6 volumes, were published at Pest, 1840–1848, and his journal of the Diet of 1832–1836 appeared in 1848. The first collected edition of all his works appeared in 1886–87.

A monument erected to the memory of Kölcsey was unveiled at Szatmárnémeti on 25 September 1864. His poem Himnusz (1823), evoking the glory of Hungary's past, became the national anthem of Hungary.

Famous works

• Vanitatum Vanitas 1823.
• Himnusz 1823. The national anthem of Hungary
• Huszt 1831. Epigram

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ferenc Kölcsey.

• Works by or about Ferenc Kölcsey at Internet Archive
• Works by Ferenc Kölcsey at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Hungarian literature Early sources Funeral Sermon and Prayer Old Hungarian Lamentations of Mary Gesta Hungarorum Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum Chronicon Pictum Bálint Balassi 15th – 17th century Bálint Balassi Péter Bornemisza István Gyöngyösi Gáspár Heltai Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos Janus Pannonius Péter Pázmány Miklós Zrínyi 18th – 19th century Zoltán Ambrus János Arany József Bajza János Batsányi Elek Benedek Dániel Berzsenyi Sándor Bródy Gergely Csiky Mihály Csokonai Vitéz József Eötvös Mihály Fazekas János Garay Géza Gárdonyi Ignotus Mór Jókai József Kármán József Katona Ferenc Kazinczy Zsigmond Kemény Károly Kisfaludy Sándor Kisfaludy Ferenc Kölcsey Imre Madách Kelemen Mikes Kálmán Mikszáth Sándor Petőfi István Széchenyi Ede Szigligeti Mihály Tompa János Vajda Mihály Vörösmarty 20th century Endre Ady Lajos Áprily Mihály Babits Béla Balázs Miklós Bánffy Géza Csáth Tibor Déry György Faludy István Fekete Miksa Fenyő Jolán Földes Milán Füst Géza Gyóni Béla Hamvas Ferenc Herczeg Gyula Illyés Éva Janikovszky Attila József Gyula Juhász Margit Kaffka László Kálnoky Ferenc Karinthy Frigyes Karinthy Lajos Kassák Géza Képes János Kodolányi Károly Kós Dezső Kosztolányi Gyula Krúdy Ervin Lázár Menyhért Lengyel Iván Mándy Sándor Márai Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Móra Zsigmond Móricz Gáspár Nagy László Nagy Ágnes Nemes Nagy László Németh József Nyírő Géza Ottlik István Örkény János Pilinszky Miklós Radnóti Jenő Rejtő Sándor Reményik András Sütő Dezső Szabó Lőrinc Szabó Magda Szabó Sándor Szathmári Miklós Szentkuthy Mária Szepes Antal Szerb Áron Tamási Árpád Tóth Albert Wass Sándor Weöres Lajos Zilahy Péter Zsoldos Contemporary Tamás Cseh Sándor Csoóri György Dragomán Péter Esterházy Ágnes Gergely Gábor Görgey Anna Jókai Ferenc Juhász Sándor Kányádi Imre Kertész György Konrád László Krasznahorkai Endre Kukorelly László L. Lőrincz Béla Markó György Moldova Péter Nádas Ádám Nádasdy Lajos Parti Nagy Zsuzsa Rakovszky György Spiró Miklós Vámos Category:Hungarian writers