Imre Mihályi and Hungarian Radicalism in NYC
One hundred years ago today … Előre (“Forward”) was a weekly socialist newspaper published in Magyar (Hungarian) out of 3 East 1st Street. The press also printed longer works; one of its 1920 publications was VIGASZTALÁS: Karcolatok, Humoreszkek, Elbeszélé-lések, Tudományos értekezések,Versek és Adomák, roughly translatable as COMFORT: Sketches, Humor, Narratives, Scientific Dissertations, Poems and More. Its author was Imre Mihályi–in the Hungarian style Mihályi Imre–labelled as “the modern Tinódy,” in reference to sixteenth-century Hungarian poet and historian Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos. The volume cost one dollar.
Mihályi, Imre. Vigasztalás: Kercolatok, Humoreszkek, Elbeszélések, Tudományos Értekezések, Versek És Adomák. New York: Előre, 1920. Hathitrust.
The book’s original publication was apparently suppressed. Mihályi writes, “a minden bokorban bomba-vető terroristát szimatoló kormányközegek éhes hollókkéntcsaptak vdna le e kötetre.” In English: government media sniffing the bomb-throwing terrorist in every bush struck down this volume like hungry ravens.
Cover courtesy Regikonyvek.hu.
Perhaps the suppression had to do with this rhetorical question: “Miért is én a mostani tőkés rend-szemek a maga egészébeni megdöntéséért s az államoknakigazi néptársadalmakká leendő átalakulásáért harcolok.” In English: Why am I fighting for the overthrow of the current capitalist regimes as a whole and for the future transformation of states into real people's societies?
– Jonathan Goldman, December 23, 2020
TAGS: Hungarian, politics, socialism, radicalism, foreign language