Renée Erdős

Renée Erdős (1879–1956) was a Hungarian writer of poetry and prose. Her work is noted for its pioneering exploration of female sexuality, and she is considered the first woman in Hungary to make an independent living as a writer.

Early life Renée Erdős was born Regina Ehrental in 1879. Her family, which was Orthodox Jewish, lived in the rural area of , in the Veľké Kosihy area of what was then the Kingdom of Hungary, now part of Slovakia.

In 1896, at age 17, she moved from Győr to Budapest to attend a drama school, but she ended up abandoning her acting aspirations. Instead, after meeting the journalist , she was encouraged to pursue a literary career.

Writing Erdős began her professional literary career in 1897, writing for the publications and , with Egyetértés writer , a prominent lawyer, becoming an important mentor to her.

With this financial success, she became the first woman in Hungary to able to make a living from writing. In 1944, she had to go into hiding as the Nazis invaded Hungary, and her villa was occupied.

Erdős' final autobiography, Ifjúságunk ("Our Youth"), written in the 1950s, was never published. She died of heart disease in 1956.

Her home in Rákosmente is now a history and art museum, the , with a room dedicated to the author.

While her writing was extremely popular in her time, she slipped into obscurity after her death, with her works marketed as fluffy romance novels when they were republished after the end of socialism in Hungary. A book Egy szabad nő ("A Free Woman"), a 2016 fictional biography of her by created more interest and became a bestseller.

Selected works alt=The cover of Renée Erdős' 1902 poetry collection Versek ("Poems"). The cover of Erdős' 1902 poetry collection Versek ("Poems").

Poetry Leányálmok, (1899) Versek, (1902) Jöttem hozzátok.. (1909) Aranyveder (1910) Sibyllák könyve (1918) Egy perccel alkonyat előtt (1921) A csukott kert (1945)

Novels Norina (1909) Ősök és ivadékok (series of autobiographical novels) Az új sarj (1915) Az élet királynője (1920) Berekesztett utak (1923) Ave Roma (1931) Egy szerelmes nyár története (1922) Santerra bíboros (1922) A nagy sikoly (1923) Borsóhercegnő (1924) Teano Amaryll egyszerű élete (1925) Végzetes vonzalom (1926) Lavinia Tarsin házassága (1927) Pándy György ifjúsága (1928) Brüsszeli csipke (1930) Örök papok (1932) A csöndes kikötő (1933) Szentgyörgyvára (1934) Abiság (1935) Az asszony, aki ölt (1936) Árgirus (1937) Timóthy-ház (1938) Szemünk fénye (1939) Gránátvirág (1945)