Tamás Aczél (; 16 December 1921 – 18 April 1994) was a

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 ...

-winning Hungarian poet, writer, journalist and university professor.

Career

Aczél was born 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 ...

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 1921. He graduated in his hometown in 1939, subsequently he went to Italy to study commerce and catering (1939–1941). After returning to Hungary, Aczél enrolled at the

Pázmány Péter Catholic University Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) ( (''PPKE'')) is a private university in and near Budapest, Hungary, belonging to the Catholic Church in Hungary, Catholic Church and recognized by the state. While PPKE takes its name after an insti ...

and earned academic degree in Hungarian and English. Initially, Aczél came out with poems; the first collection of these was published in 1941. Later, being favoured by the post-war Hungarian government, he wrote agitational poems and schematic novels, for which he was awarded the

(1949) and the Stalin Prize (1952). By 1953 Aczél radically broke with his earlier works; he gave up his agitative poetry and became a leading figure of the literary opposition formed around

Imre Nagy Imre Nagy ( ; ; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People's Republic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister of Hungary, Prime Minis ...

, that initiated the dismissal of the Stalinist-Rákosist literary control. After 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 ...

was repressed, Aczél fled the country and emigrated to England (1957–1966), before eventually settling in the United States (1966–1994). He became one of the best-known figures of the Hungarians emigrants and did a lot to make the story of the Hungarian Revolution better known. In the United States he was a professor at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

until his death.

Personal life

Aczél met his wife, Olympic champion athlete

Olga Gyarmati Olga Gyarmati (; 5 October 1924 – 27 October 2013) was a Hungary, Hungarian all-round track and field athlete who competed at three Olympic Games in four different events. Her greatest success was winning the inaugural Olympic Women's Lon ...

in emigration in England. Gyarmati was part of the 1956 Hungarian Olympic team of which many members decided to flee to the West following the unsuccessful revolution and the subsequent Soviet invasion of Hungary. They had two children, a son Tamás, and a daughter Júlia.

Works published in English

*History of Intellectual Resistance behind Iron Curtain. Praeger Publication in Russian History and World Communism. (New York, 1959) *The Ice Age. A Novel. (New York, 1965) *Ten Years After. A Commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. (London, 1966) *Illuminations. Novel. (Pantheon Books. London, 1982) *The Hunt. Novel. (London, 1990)

References

1921 births 1994 deaths Writers from Budapest Hungarian male poets Hungarian emigrants to England Hungarian emigrants to the United States Recipients of the Stalin Prize University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty 20th-century Hungarian poets 20th-century Hungarian journalists {{Hungary-writer-stub