Nandor Varkonyi

* Pécs, May 19, 1896 – † Pécs, March 11, 1975 / writer, librarian, cultural historian, ; editor ; ; His father, Nándor Várkonyi Sr., was an engineer and was transferred to Nyitra after the birth of his younger child. His older brother, Hildebrand Várkonyi (Kéménd). Nándor Várkonyi graduated from the Nyitra high school in 1914, after which his family moved to Buda. In Budapest, he enrolled in the Faculty of Humanities of the university, where he studied Hungarian-French, and also studied Oriental Studies with Mahler Eden (Cífer). In 1916, he served as a soldier in World War I, but was discharged in 1917 due to illness. This health problem later caused severe hearing loss and he became completely deaf in 1921. He lived in Pécs from 1922. He was one of the founders of the journal Symposion, and later, between 1941 and 1948, he edited the newspaper Sorsunk. Between 1924 and 1956, until his retirement, he worked at the University Library of Pécs, and was its acting director in 1950 and 1951. In 1929, he earned a doctorate in the history of world literature at the University of Pécs, and in 1933 he was qualified as a private teacher. Many of his works could only be published in truncated form during the socialist era, and their full publication was possible after 1990. As a cultural historian, he primarily dealt with the beginnings of civilization and the development of human culture. In his memoir volume Pergő évek (1976, 2004), he also writes about his student years in Nitra. ; ; His main works: ; History of Modern Hungarian Literature, 1928, ; Petőfi's Face, 1940, ; Hungarian Military Poets, 1940, ; History of Recent Hungarian Literature 1880–1940, 1942, ; Sziriat's Columns, 1942, 1972, 1984, complete edition: 2002, ; Hungarian Transdanubia, 1944, 1975, ; The Tail of the Comet (documents about Petőfi), 1957, ; Paradise Lost, 1988, complete: 1994, ; The Fifth Man I-III., 1995–1997, Magical Science I-II., 1998–2000, ; Collected Studies, 2006.