Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

János Kemény (5 September 1903 – 13 October 1971) was a Hungarian writer, theater director, dramatist, and founder of the Marosvécs/Brâncoveneşti Helikon community.

Lifetime

János Kemény was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. His mother, the actress Ida Berenice Mitchell (1871-1956), lost her husband, István Kemény, shortly after János was born and could not afford to support her four children. She therefore moved from the United States to her grandfather's house in

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 ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1904. János attended the Reformed College (denominational high school) in

Kolozsvár Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

''(today Cluj-Napoca, Romania)'', and then enrolled in the fall of 1921 at the College of Land Cultivation 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. ...

. He was married in 1923 to a woman of Scottish-Greek origin, Augusta Paton, daughter of

William Roger Paton William Roger Paton, usually cited as W. R. Paton (9 February 1857 – 21 April 1921), He had two sons and two daughters: George Paton (13 August 1886 – ?), unmarried, Thetis Paton (21 November 1887, Woodside – ?), who married Costakis Svi ...

, and they had six children. In 1926, János Kemény and Aladár Kuncz organized a literary conference of Transylvanian Hungarians at Kemény's estate in Brâncoveneşti, Mureş (Marosvécs) County. This led to the formation of the Helikon community, which from 1928 published the influential Hungarian literary periodical ''

Erdélyi Helikon Erdélyi is a word of Hungarian origin, meaning “related to Transylvania”. * Arthur Erdélyi (1908–1977) — Hungarian-born British mathematician * János Erdélyi (1814–1868) — Hungarian poet, critic, author, philosopher and ethnographis ...

''. In 1930, Kemény was awarded the Corvin Wreath by the Hungarian Government.List of persons who were decorated with th
Corvin decoration
For ten years from 1931, he headed the Hungarian Thália Theater in Kolozsvár/Cluj and also published literary work. Then from 1945 to 1952 he was among the founding organizers of the Székely theatre in

Târgu Mureş Târgu (Romanian language, Romanian for "the market") starts off the names of several places in Romania: *Târgu Bujor *Târgu Cărbunești *Târgu Frumos *Berbești, Târgu Gânguleşti *Târgu Jiu *Târgu Lăpuș *Logrești, Târgu Logreşti *Tâ ...

(Marosvásárhely). However, he was obliged to do manual work in the communist period, before later finding a job in the library of

(Marosvásárhely) art college and working on the Hungarian-language magazine ''Új Élet'' in the same city. A succession of his works appeared between 1957 and his death, in

, in 1971, but he managed to complete only one volume of a planned autobiography.

Selected works

*His first writing "Emlékezetem" (

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

, 1921) (My memories) *Kutyakomédia (Poor Comedy,

, 1934)

Notes

External links

The Kemény family webpage

Poor comedy masterwork
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemeny, Janos 1903 births 1971 deaths Romanian journalists Romanian people of Hungarian descent Hungarian-language writers Târgu Mureș Hungarian male dramatists and playwrights Janos 20th-century Hungarian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Hungarian male writers 20th-century Hungarian journalists