Gustav Heckenast

* Košice, 2 September 1811 – † Bratislava, 10 April 1878 / printer, bookseller, publisher ; ; His father, Mihály Heckenast, was the pastor of the German Lutherans in Košice. He completed his schooling in Prešov, but had to interrupt his studies due to the poor financial situation of the family. He then engaged in the spice trade. In 1826 he went to Pest and found a job with the bookseller Ottó Wigand. In 1832, after Ottó Wigand moved to Leipzig, he bought the business. His Váci Street shop was almost completely destroyed by the great Pest flood of 1838. The reopening was helped by Hungarian writers, with the income from the publication Budapesti árvízkönyv. His foreign colleagues also forgave his debts. In 1838, he opened his lending library with 8,000 volumes. In 1840, he partnered with the printer Lajos Landerer (changing the company name to Landerer and Heckenast), and started the Bibliographiai Értesítő, the first monthly Hungarian-language book magazine. The paper ceased publication in 1842. The printing house and publisher published the Pesti Hírlap, edited by Lajos Kossuth, but Kossuth complained a lot about the two owners. On March 15, 1848, the National Song and the Twelve Points were printed here, but Heckenast was away that day, so he later escaped prosecution, while his partner had to go into hiding after 1849. When Landerer died in 1854, Heckenast became the sole owner of the printing house and publisher. That year, he married the daughter of the writer and poet József Bajza, the writer Lenke Bajza, but they later divorced. Most of his publications were works by Hungarian writers and poets, and his printing house published the writings of Dániel Berzsenyi, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, Károly Kisfaludy, Ferenc Kölcsey, János Vajda, Mór Jókai, and Miklós Jósika, among others. He was the first to publish a collection series (Magyar Remekírók). He was the founder of the Vasárnapi Újság. In 1873, he sold his company to the Franklin Company, and then settled in Bratislava, where he lived until his death.