Nationality Hungarian Name Mihaly Babits Movies The Stork Caliph | Period 1900–1941 Role Poet Children Babits Ildiko | |
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Born November 26, 1883
Szekszard, Austria-Hungary ( 1883-11-26 ) Genre Poetry, Short stories, Novels
Literary history
Essays, lyric poetry Relatives Mother: Aurora Kelemen
Father: Mihaly Babits Died August 4, 1941, Budapest, Hungary Spouse Ilona Tanner (m. 1921–1941) Books The Nightmare, The Pilot Elza, or The Perfect Society, 21 Poems, Edgar Allan Poe versei Similar People Endre Ady, Gyula Juhasz, Janos Arany, Dezso Kosztolanyi, Attila Jozsef | ||
El hymno de la 13.d (with Mihály Babits)
Mihaly Babits ([ˈmihaːj ˈbɒbit͡ʃ]; November 26, 1883 – August 4, 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator.
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Biography
Babits was born in Szekszard. He studied at the University of Budapest from 1901 to 1905, where he met Dezso Kosztolanyi and Gyula Juhasz. He worked to become a teacher and taught at schools in Baja (1905–06), Szeged (1906–08), Fogaras (1908–11), Ujpest (1911), and Budapest (1912–18).
His reputation for his poems in the literary life started in 1908.
He made a trip to Italy in the same year, which made him interested in Dante; he made several other trips in later years. This experience led him to translate Dante's Divine Comedy (Hell, 1913, Purgatory, 1920, and Paradise, 1923).
Briefly after the Hungarian Revolution of 1919 he became a Professor of Foreign Literature and modern Hungarian literature at Eotvos Lorand University, but was soon removed for his pacifism after the revolutionary government fell.
In 1911, he became a staff writer on the magazine Nyugat.
Babits' 1918 novel The Nightmare (also known as King's Stork) is a science fiction novel about a split personality influenced by Freudian psychology. Elza pilota, vagy a tokeletes tarsadalom ("The Pilot Elza, or the Perfect Society") is set in a utopian future.
In 1921 married Ilona Tanner, who later published poetry under the name Sophie Torok. Two years later he moved to Esztergom. In 1927 he became a member of the "Kisfaludy Tarsasag" (Kisfaludy Society) and in the same year he was made a trustee of the Baumgarten Prize.
He became the editor-in-chief of Nyugat in 1929 (sharing the role until 1933 with Zsigmond Moricz), a position he held until his death.
In 1937, he was diagnosed as having laryngeal cancer. He died in Budapest in 1941.
Work
Babits is best known for his lyric poetry, influenced by classical and English forms. He also wrote essays and translated much from English, French, German, Greek, Italian, and Latin. There is a museum in Szekszard showcasing Mihaly Babits' work and life. His brother Istvan Babits occupied the house most of the time, with his two sons: Istvan and Tibor.