Áron Tamási

Tamási, Áron 

Born Sept. 20, 1897, in Farkaslaka, Transylvania; died May 26, 1966, in Budapest. Hungarian writer.

Tamási studied at the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj) and at the Higher Commercial Academy. His first collection of short stories, A Passion of the Soul, appeared in 1925. The collections Stars of Erdélyi (1929), An Early Bird (1929), and A Depraved World (1931) combined fantasy with realistic portrayals of peasant life. In the novel The Titled Ones (1931), Tamási censured the Transylvanian bourgeoisie and aristocracy.

In the 1930’s, Tamási’s religious and ethical quest led him to abandon critical realism. His works of this period included the trilogy Abel (1932–34), the novels Mátyás Breaking the Ice Floe (1936) and A Star Twinkles (1937), and the dramas A Songbird (1934) and The Deceptive Rainbow (1942). Tamási returned to realism with the autobiographical novel The Cradle and the Owl (1953), the historical novel Mirror of the Fatherland (1953; Kossuth Prize, 1954), about the revolution of 1848–49, and the short-story collection Stormy Night (1966). Tamási’s collection of short stories Szirom and the Anthill (1960) dealt with the socialist transformation of the countryside.

WORKS

Válogatott müvei, vols. 1–5. Budapest, 1967.
In Russian translation:
“Grozovaia noch’.” In the collection Novye vengerskie rasskazy. Moscow, 1965.
“Sirom i muraveinik.” In the collection Sovremennye vengerskie povesti. [Moscow, 1972.]

REFERENCES

Illés, E. Krétarajzok. Budapest, 1957.
Kortárs, 1966, no. 8.
József, I. Tamási Áron. Bucharest [1969].
Taxner-Tóth, E. Tamási Á. Budapest, 1973.

E. V. UMNIAKOVA