István Kultsar

* Komárom, 16 September 1760 – † Pest, 28 March 1828 / writer, editor, theatre director, historian ; ; He began his school studies in his hometown, then became a Benedictine priest. In 1780–1781 he studied philosophy in Pannonhalma, and in 1782 he studied theology in Bratislava. Following the dissolution of the order, he left the priesthood in 1786 and became a high school teacher. He taught first in Komárom (1788–1789), then in Szombathely (1789–1796), and finally in Esztergom (1796–1799). In 1794 he published Mikes Kelemen's Törökországi levelek. In 1799, he left his teaching career and became a tutor for the son of Count György László Festetics, later taking up a tutoring position with the Count Viczay family. In 1806, he settled in Pest. In 1807, he started the newspaper Hazai és Külföldi Tudósítások, which his widow continued to run until 1848 after his death under the title Nemzeti Tudósítások. In 1817, he also founded an entertainment newspaper called Hasznos Mulatságok. He was an enthusiastic supporter of literature and theater, and was the director of the Pest Hungarian Theater Company in 1813–1815. In 1827–1828, he participated in the work of the committee that drafted the statutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1821, he donated his 4,000-volume library to his hometown, thus laying the foundations for the Komárom County Library.