Tibor Déry (18 October 1894 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

– 18 August 1977 in Budapest)Britannica Encyclopedia
/ref> was a Hungarian writer and poet. He also wrote under the names Tibor Dániel and Pál Verdes.

György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...

praised Dery as being "the greatest depicter of human beings of our time".

Biography

He was born to well-off bourgeois parents. His father was a lawyer and his mother came from a wealthy Jewish-Austrian family. In 1911, he graduated from the Budapest Academy of Commerce and spent a year studying German in St. Gallen. From 1913 to 1918, he worked for his uncle, who operated a lumber business, first in Galócás,

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

, then in Budapest. At this time, he began writing and managed to publish a few pieces. After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he joined the Communist Party. During the brief

Hungarian Soviet Republic The Hungarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919 (133 days), succeeding the First Hungarian Republic. The Hungari ...

, he became a member of the . Following the fall of the Republic, he was arrested, but was released shortly and, in 1920, married Olga Pfeifer. He and his wife emigrated later that year. First, they settled in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he worked for the Hungarian language newspaper, '. In 1924, they went to Paris then, in 1926, to

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, Italy. Although, technically, he returned to Budapest not long after, he spent most of his time traveling. He and Olga were divorced in 1928. In 1934, he participated in the

Austrian Civil War The Austrian Civil War () of 12–15 February 1934, also known as the February Uprising () or the February Fights (), was a series of clashes in the First Austrian Republic between the forces of the authoritarian Fatherland Front (Austria), rig ...

as a member of the Schutzbund, after which, he was forced to flee to Spain. He only returned to Hungary in 1935.NY Books
/ref> Nevertheless, during the right wing Horthy regime he was imprisoned several times, once because he translated

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

's '. In this period, he wrote what is often considered his greatest novel, ''The Unfinished Sentence'', a 1,200-page epic story about the life of the young aristocrat, Lőrinc Parcen-Nagy, who gets into contact with the working classes in Budapest during a

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

. In 1942, after passage of the Jewish Laws, he began writing under various pseudonyms. Following the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

, he was forced into hiding. In 1945, he remarried, rejoined the Communist Party and was elected to the leadership of the Hungarian Writers' Union. Over the next few years, many of his previously unpublished works were issued. He divorced and remarried again in 1955. In 1956, along with

and Gyula Háy, he was expelled from the Party for criticizing its leadership. In the same year, he wrote ''Niki: The Story of a Dog'', a fable about the arbitrary restrictions on human life in Stalinist Hungary. Later that year, he became a spokesman for the Revolutionary government. When the revolution was quashed, in 1957, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. That sentence was suspended in 1961 and he received a full amnesty in 1963. After that he divided his time between Budapest and Balatonfüred. Following his death, in 1977, he was the subject of a production on

Magyar Televízió Magyar Televízió (, ''Hungarian Television'') or MTV is a nationwide public television broadcasting organization in Hungary. Headquartered in Budapest, it is the oldest television broadcaster in Hungary and today airs five channels: M1 HD, ...

. In 1984, a grant from his widow, who died in 1979, was used to establish the , to honor achievements in literature.

References

1894 births 1977 deaths Writers from Budapest Jewish Hungarian-language writers Baumgarten Prize winners {{Hungary-writer-stub