Géza Ottlik (9 May 1912 – 9 October 1990) was a Hungarian writer, translator, mathematician, and

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

theorist. According to an American obituary bridge column, he was known in Hungary as "the ultimate authority on Hungarian prose".

Biography

Ottlik was born and died in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. He attended the military school at

Kőszeg Kőszeg (german: Güns, ; Slovak: ''Kysak'', sl, Kiseg, hr, Kiseg) is a town in Vas County, Hungary. The town is famous for its historical character. History The origins of the only free royal town in the historical garrison county of Vas ...

and

, and studied mathematics and physics at Budapest University 1931–1935. After a brief career on Hungarian radio, he was a secretary of Hungarian PEN Club from 1945 to 1957. As he was unable to publish his works for political reasons, he earned his living translating. He translated mainly from English (

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, John Osborne,

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

); and German (

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

, G. Keller, Stefan Zweig). He was a passionate bridge player and advanced theoretician. In a bridge column three months after Ottlik's death,

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

placed him "among the strongest candidates" for "the bridge writer with the greatest creativity in terms of card-play theory". His 1979 book ''Adventures in Card Play'', written with

Hugh Kelsey Hugh Walter Kelsey (1926 – 18 March 1995) was a British bridge player and writer, best known for advanced books on the play of the cards. Life Kelsey was born and died in Edinburgh. He was a combatant in World War II, and subsequently lived ...

, introduced and developed many new concepts (such as Backwash squeeze and Entry-shifting squeeze). According to Truscott it "opened new frontiers" in defence as well as declarer play. In his 1995 obituary of Kelsey, Truscott wrote that it "broke new ground in many technical areas and is still considered the most advanced book on the play of the cards." An American survey of bridge experts in 2007 ranked it third on a list of their all-time favourites, nearly thirty years after its first publication. From October 1944 to February 1945, Ottlik and his wife Gyöngyi Debreczeni hid the writer , a Jew, in their apartment and shared their food rations with him. Géza personally intervened to obtain the release of Vas' mother from arrest; if he had not done so, she would have been sent on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Conven ...

towards Germany. Gyöngyi faced down a group of

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National ...

members who had broken into the apartment to search for the Jew allegedly hiding there; they left without discovering Vas, who survived

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. For this, the couple were honoured on 4 June 1998 by

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

as people

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

Awards

* Ottlik received a grant from the British Government for his translations, 1960 * József Attila Prize (1981) *

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the ...

for Literature (1985) * Righteous Among the Nations (1998)

Publications

* ''Hamisjátékosok'' (Swindlers; stories) (1941) * ''Hajnali háztetők'' (Rooftops at Dawn; novella) (1957) * ''Iskola a határon'' (School at the Frontier; novel) (1959) * ''Minden megvan'' (Nothing's Lost; short stories) (1969, revised and enlarged 1991) * ''Adventures in Card Play'', Ottlik and

(

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

, 1979), 285 pp., – on play and defence in

* ''Próza'' (Prose; essays, interviews) (1980) * ''A Valencia-rejtély'' (The Valencia Enigma; novel) (1989) * ''Hajónapló'' (Logbook; novel) (1989) * ''Buda'' (novel) (1993)

References

External links

Hungarian Literature database

at Frankfurt '99 with linked "Publications"
Géza Ottlik on Hunlit.hu
* * (chiefly linked as 'Ottlik, Géza, 1912–': select "LC Online Catalog", then "Previous") {{DEFAULTSORT:Ottlik, Geza Hungarian contract bridge players Contract bridge writers Writers from Budapest Hungarian noble families 1912 births 1990 deaths Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations Austro-Hungarian mathematicians