István György Örkény (5 April 1912,

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 ...

– 24 June 1979, Budapest) was a Hungarian writer whose plays and novels often featured grotesque situations. He was a recipient of the

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

in 1973.

Biography

He was born to a wealthy Jewish family, his father Hugo was the owner of a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

in Budapest. He graduated from the in 1930 and enrolled at the

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered ...

where he studied chemistry. Two years later, he chose to specialize in pharmacology and received his degree in that subject in 1934. In 1937, he became associated with the journal ' and began traveling; to London and Paris, where he held several odd jobs. He returned to Budapest in 1940 and completed his degree in chemical engineering. He published his first book, ''Ocean Dance'', in 1941. In 1942, he was sent to the Russian Front on the

Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

. Due to his Judaism, he was placed in a forced-labor unit. There he was captured and detained in a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

near

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where he wrote the play ''Voronesh''. In 1946, he returned home to Budapest. After 1949, he worked as a

dramaturge A dramaturge or dramaturg (from Ancient Greek δραματουργός – dramatourgós) is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and pr ...

at the Youth Theater and, after 1951, as a playwright at the People's Army Theater. In 1954, he began working as an editor for . He was prohibited from publishing after the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

and worked as a chemical engineer at until 1963. His most famous work, ''The Toth Family'', is about a man who is driven to the verge of insanity and murders the guest his family was having. He was married three times. His second wife, was a cookbook writer. They were married from 1948 to 1959. His third wife, was a prize-winning dramaturge. They were married in 1965. He died of heart failure in 1979 and was buried in

Farkasréti Cemetery Farkasréti Cemetery or Farkasrét Cemetery (, ) is one of the most famous cemeteries in Budapest. It opened in 1894 and is noted for its extensive views of the city (several people wanted it more to be a resort area than a cemetery). It compris ...

. In 2004, the Madách Chamber Theatre in Budapest was renamed the Örkeny Theater in his honour.

Works

* ''Ocean Dance'' * ''Voronezh'' * ''Macskajáték'' (Catsplay) * ''Tóték'' (The Tot Family) * ''One Minute Stories'' (''Válogatott egyperces novellák'')

References

External links

* http://www.rev.hu/history_of_56/szerviz/kislex/biograf/orkeny.htm * http://www.suhrkamp.de/autoren/autor.cfm?id=3598 * http://www.lyrikwelt.de/rezensionen/minutennovellen-r.htm * Brockhaus Enzyklopädie 1991 Neunzehnte Auflage, Band 16, S. 274
István Örkény homepage in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orkeny, Istvan 1912 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Hungarian male writers Writers from Budapest Jewish Hungarian writers Jewish Hungarian-language writers Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery Hungarian World War II forced labourers Hungarian prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union World War II civilian prisoners Black comedy

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links