Gyula Krúdy

Gyula Krúdy (21 October 1878 – 12 May 1933) was a Hungarian writer and journalist.

Biography

Gyula Krúdy was born in Nyíregyháza, Austria-Hungary. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a maid working for the Krúdy family; his parents did not marry until Gyula was 17 years old. In his teens, Krúdy published newspaper pieces and began writing short stories. Although his father wanted him to become a lawyer, Krúdy worked as an editor at provincial newspapers in Debrecen and Nagyvárad for several years, then moved to Budapest in 1896. He was disinherited, but supported his wife (also a writer) and three children through the publication of short stories, along with novels that were almost always serialized in daily papers and periodicals.

Sinbad's Youth, published in 1911, proved a success, and Krúdy used the character, a man who shared the name of the hero of the Arabian Nights, many times throughout his career. His second marriage produced one daughter, Zsuzsa, who later edited several volumes of her father's work. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, his health declined and his readership dwindled. He died in 1933. Blessed Days of my Youth (1930, English translation by John Bátki, Corvina Books, Budapest, 2016), Hungarian title: Boldogult úrfikoromban Life Is a Dream : Ten Stories (1931, English translation by John Bátki, Penguin Books, 2010), Hungarian title: Az élet álom Knight of the Cordon Bleu (1931, English translation by John Bátki, Corvina Books, Budapest, 2013), Hungarian title: A Kékszalag hőse The Charmed Life of Kázmér Rezeda: A Novel of Budapest in the Good Old Days (1933, English translation by John Bátki, Corvina Books, Budapest, 2011), Hungarian title: Rezeda Kázmér szép élete The Knight of Dreams. The Journeys of Sindbad and Other Stories (selections of Krúdy's stories, translated by Eszter Molnár, Noran Books, Budapest, 1999) Krudy's Chronicles (selections of Krúdy's journalism, translated by John Batki, published in English in 2000 by Central European University Press) Mrs Kleofas’s Rooster: Three Novellas, translated by John Batki (Seagull Books, forthcoming)