(; Archaic English name: Alexander Márai; 11 April 1900 – 21 February 1989) was a
Hungarian writer, poet, and journalist.
Biography
Márai was born on 11 April 1900 in the city of
Kassa,
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 ...
(now Košice,
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
). Through his father, he was a relative of the
Hungarian noble Országh family. In 1919, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the
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 ...
and worked as a journalist. He joined the Communists, becoming the founder of the "Activist and Anti-National Group of Communist Writers". After the fall of the
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 ...
, his family found it safer to leave the country, thus he continued his studies in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
. Márai traveled to and lived in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and briefly considered writing in German, but eventually chose his mother language,
Hungarian, for his writings. In ''Egy polgár vallomásai'' (English: "Confessions of a citizen"), Márai identifies the
mother tongue
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...
language with the concept of the nation itself. He settled in
Krisztinaváros
Krisztinaváros () () is a neighborhood in central Budapest, situated just west of Buda Castle, Castle Hill, north of Tabán. It is named after Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Archduchess Maria Christina, daughter of Maria There ...
,
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 ...
, in 1928. In the 1930s, he gained prominence with a precise and clear
realist style. He was the first person to write reviews of the work of
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
.
He wrote very enthusiastically about the
First
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
and
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...
s, in which as the result of the German-Italian arbitration
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
and
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
had to give back part of the territories that Hungary lost in the
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...
, including his native
Kassa (Košice). Nevertheless, Márai was highly critical of the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
.
Márai authored 46 books. His 1942 book ''
Embers'' (Hungarian title: ''A gyertyák csonkig égnek'', meaning "The Candles Burn Down to the Stump") expresses a nostalgia for the bygone multi-ethnic, multicultural society of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
, reminiscent of the works of
Joseph Roth. In 2006 an adaptation of this novel for the stage, written by
Christopher Hampton
Sir Christopher James Hampton (born 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (play), ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the Les Liaisons da ...
, was performed in London.
He also disliked the
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
regime that seized power after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and left – or was driven away – in 1948. After living for some time in Italy, Márai settled in the city of
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, in the United States. Márai joined
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...
between 1951 and 1968. Márai was extremely disappointed in the Western powers for not helping the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...
.
He continued to write in his native language, but was not published in English until the mid-1990s. Like other memoirs by Hungarian writers and statesmen, his ''Föld! Föld!'' was first published in the West in 1971, because it could not be published in the Hungary of the post-1956
Kádár era. The English version of this memoir was published posthumously in 2001. After his wife died in 1986, Márai retreated more and more into isolation. In 1987, he lived with advanced cancer and his depression worsened when he lost his adopted son, John. He ended his life
with a gunshot to his head in San Diego in 1989. He left behind three granddaughters; Lisa, Sarah and Jennifer Márai.
Largely forgotten outside of Hungary, his work (consisting of poems, novels, and
diaries Diaries may refer to:
* the plural of diary
A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally bee ...
) has only been recently "rediscovered" and republished in French (starting in 1992), Polish,
Catalan, Italian, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese,
Bulgarian,
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
,
Slovak, Danish, Icelandic, Korean,
Lithuanian, Dutch,
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
and other languages too, and is now considered to be part of the 20th-century European literary canon.
Evaluation
“Hungarian Sándor Márai was the insightful chronicler of a collapsing world." – Le Monde
"It is perhaps one of the
orks thatthus impacted me a lot." –
Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the only woman to have held the ...
on the book ''
Embers''.
Bibliography
Translated into English
* ''The Rebels'' (1930, published in English in 2007, translation by
George Szirtes
George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...
), Hungarian title: ''
A zendülők''.
* ''Esther's Inheritance'' (1939, published in English in 2008), Hungarian title: ''Eszter hagyatéka''.
* ''
Casanova in Bolzano'' (1940, published in English in 2004), Hungarian title: ''Vendégjáték Bolzanóban''
* ''Portraits of a Marriage'' (1941 & 1980, published in English in 2011), Hungarian titles: ''Az igazi'' (1941) and ''Judit... és az utóhang'' (1980)
* ''
Embers'' (1942, published in English in 2001), Hungarian title: ''A gyertyák csonkig égnek''.
* ''Memoir of Hungary'' (1971, published in English in 2001), Hungarian title: ''Föld, föld...!''
* ''The Withering World: Selected Poems by Sandor Marai'' (Translations by John M. Ridland and Peter V. Czipott of 163 poems, published in English in 2013)
Gallery
File:Márai-socha1.jpg, Statue of Márai
in Košice
File:Márai-dom.jpg, Márai's place of residence (today's Mäsiarska Street in Košice)
File:Marai-doska.jpg, Memorial plates of Márai installed on the front of his birthplace (in Hungarian and Slovak)
File:Marai-socha3.jpg, Márai's signature
(detail of his statue in Košice)
File:Marai-Img_portrait-0430.jpg, Statue of Márai
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 ...
's Mikó utca, Krisztinaváros
Krisztinaváros () () is a neighborhood in central Budapest, situated just west of Buda Castle, Castle Hill, north of Tabán. It is named after Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Archduchess Maria Christina, daughter of Maria There ...
File:Marai-Img Miko-u-0431.jpg, Márai's memorial on his former home in Krisztinaváros
Krisztinaváros () () is a neighborhood in central Budapest, situated just west of Buda Castle, Castle Hill, north of Tabán. It is named after Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Archduchess Maria Christina, daughter of Maria There ...
Notes
External links
Official Marai site at Knopf which is releasing Marai's novels in English:
Sándor Márai Blog– a fan blog with news, reviews, links
Márai at Hunlit70 Years Later, A New Chance To Read 'Marriage'NPR story about new translation of "Portraits of A Marriage" (with link to excerpt)
Sándor Márai and NaplesA documentary about Márai's Italian years
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marai, Sandor
Hungarian anti-communists
Hungarian male poets
Hungarian exiles
Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Writers from Košice
Leipzig University alumni
Suicides by firearm in California
Hungarian-German people
1900 births
1989 suicides
20th-century Hungarian novelists
20th-century Hungarian poets
20th-century Hungarian male writers
Hungarian male novelists
20th-century Hungarian journalists