László Passuth (Budapest, Hungary July 15, 1900- Balatonfüred, Hungary June 19, 1979) was a prolific Hungarian author of historical novels and translator. He is the father of art historian, Krisztina Passuth.
He graduated with a law degree from
the University of Szeged. From 1919 to 1950 he worked mainly as a bank clerk and then, until his retirement, in a government office for translation. His first attempts as a writer appeared in the 1920s in several magazines. Passuth served as the main secretary of the Hungarian
PEN Club
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...
from 1945–60, although he was expelled in 1948 from the Hungarian Writers’ Union after the Stalinist take-over.
His first novel, ''Eurasia'', published in 1937, was followed by a number of historical novels; they showed sophisticated style and attention to precise historical details. In 1939, he published ''Tlaloc Weeps for Mexico'', a novel about
Hernán Cortés and the
conquest of the Aztec Empire
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the ev ...
; it was his first work to attract international attention; it was translated into French, German, Spanish, and English. Among his some 40 novels are also ''Joan of Naples'' (1940), based on the life of the medieval queen,
Joan I, and ''Madrigal'' (1968), a novel around the life of composer
Carlo Gesualdo.
Partial bibliography
''Eurasia'' (1937); ''Studies'', Budapest (1937); ''The Rain God Weeps over Mexico'' (1939) (Eng. Title, ''
Tlaloc Weeps for Mexico''); ''
Joan of Naples'' (1940); ''The Lombard Château'' (1940-1944);
''The Porphyrogenitus'' (Born in Purple) (1943); ''The Revolving Door'' (1944); ''Cloud and Oasis'' (1946); ''Black Velvet'' (1946); ''Aliens (1949)''; ''In the Eagle’s Talons'' (1956);
''Four Winds in Transylvania'' (1957); ''The Musician of the Duke of Mantua'' (1957) about
Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is consider ...
;
''Lagoons'' (1958); ''The World of Tombs Will Talk'' (1959); ''Paradise in the Ocean'' (1959); ''The Dragon’s Teeth'' (1960); ''The Third Majordomo'' (1962) (about
Velazquez); ''Rome was buried in Ravenna'' (1963) about
Theodoric the Ostrogoth; ''The Gods of Gold are Cold'' (1964) about
Raphaël; ''Trench'' (1966); ''Madrigal'' (1968) about
Gesualdo; ''Copper'' (1969); ''Eternal Spain'' (1969); ''Field cut seven times'' (1970); ''Naples'' (1972) (educational book); ''My encounter with the Rain God'' (1972); ''Gyilokjáró'' (1973); ''King in the Broken Mirror'' (1974); ''Memorial and So Forth'' (1975); ''Tower of Shadows'' (articles, essays and travel notes) (1977); ''Cave Pictures'' (autobiog.) (1978); ''Medusa'' (1979); ''Mirror of Water'' (1980); ''Ten Years under the same roof'' (1981), ''Anselme'' (1983).
Sources
(hu) (es) This article is essentially taken from the Hungarian and Spanish Wikipedia articles on László Passuth.
External sources
Biography in Spanish
Diario ''ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
'', 21 June 1979, page. 31
{{DEFAULTSORT:Passuth, Laszlo
1900 births
1979 deaths