JÁNOS KODOLANYI      
(1899-1969)          

After World War II. - following the first generation of ’Nyugat’ - new, eccentric, significant prose-writers appeared.

One of them was János Kodolányi, the eponym of our college. He was born on 13th March, 1899 in Telki, a little village, where his father was a domanial chief forester. The family moved to Pécsvárad in 1903, he attended the first four classes of the primary school here. His parents divorced and when his father got married again they moved to Vajszó. The delightful experiences of this little village in the ’Ormánság’ (the southern part of Baranya County), influenced his works later. He attended a secondary school for sciences in Pécs, he repeated the 5th year. He was the student of the secondary school for sciences in Székesfehérvár in 1916-1919, and was the member of the school literary and debating society. He was the editor of the newspaper called „Diák-toll”. In 1921 the ’Pesti Krónika’ published his poems. He married to Matild Csőszi, and they had two children. They moved back to Vajszó, where they were living in bad financial situation.

But some years later they managed to purchase houses in Püspökladány, Nógrádverőce and in Rákospalota. He was the initiator of the Economic Association of Writers in 1932-1944, its first secretary, secretary-general and then the co-president. In 1934 he became the co-worker of „Magyarország” and „Válasz”. He travelled to Finland several times. In 1937 he got Baumgarten-prize for his work. In 1941 he was elected co-president of the Janus Pannonius Literature Society of Pécs, and he was working for „Sorsunk”. In 1943 he made the opening speech of the conference in Szárszó. He tided over the hard times of World War II. in Budapest. During 1949-1955 his articles were not published. In these years he was living in very bad conditions in Balatonakarattya, a lot of his works were written here. He could publish his works again in 1955, the collection of his selected narratives was published this year (Éltek, ahogy tudtak, 1955). His life-work publishing started in 1957. He began his profession as a lyricist, in his early short stories he presented the folk life of the ’Ormánság’. Later his interest turned to the middle ages, he wrote historical novels one after the other. He adapted the themes of his narratives for the stage as well. Besides his writings about childhood experiences, he set his articles, studies into volumes. His Finnish translations are expressive. Some of his works were published in foreign languages as well. He died on 10th August, 1969, in Budapest. He got a posthumous Kossuth Prize in 1990.