FAMOUS HUNGARIANS: 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF FERENC KAZINCZY’S BIRTH
Date of issue: 5 May 2009
Miklós Radnóti (Budapest, 5 May 1909 – Abda, 9 November 1944), the Hungarian poet, was an outstanding exponent of modern Hungarian verse.
His affinity with literature showed early. Before he was even twenty, he started a literary periodical called 1928 with his friends. Two issues were published with two of Radnóti’s poems. In 1929 the young group published an independent anthology Jóság (Goodness), which included twelve of his poems. In 1929-30 he participated in the foundation and editorial work of a periodical with an avant-garde approach, Kortárs (Contemporary). In the autumn he enrolled to read Hungarian and French at the Faculty of Humanities at the Ferenc József University in Szeged. In 1931 he joined the activity of the Szeged Youth Art College.
On 11 April 1932, on the instruction of the Budapest court of justice, his home was searched and the remaining copies of his volumes of poems were confiscated. He was charged with vilifying religion and affronting decency, and was sentenced at a closed hearing to eight days of imprisonment, but in the end its execution was suspended. In the autumn of 1932 he passed his bachelors degree and took his doctorate in May 1934, receiving the distinction summa cum laude in June. He wrote his French thesis and became a 3rd generation writer with the prominent literary periodical Nyugat.
In 1935 he got married and travelled with his wife to Paris on a number of occasions. He began translating Guillaume Apollinaire’s poems and in 1940 the translations jointly prepared with the poet István Vas were published. In October 1941 he prepared the poet Attila József’s early poems for publication. In 1942 his own volume of poetry Naptár (Calendar) was published. The poet’s translations of black tales called Karunga, a holtak ura (Karunga, the Master of the Dead) were issued in 1944. On 18 May he was called up for forced labour, and was sent to the Ukrainian front.
In May 1944 the Hungarian army retreated and Radnóti’s unit was directed to the labour camp near Bor in Yugoslavia. He arrived in the Heidenau camp on 2 June. He jotted down his poems describing the sombre conditions at the camp and others addressed to his beloved wife, Fanni, in a little notebook and distributed its sheets among his friends with the intention that his works would be left with the survivors and be published after the war.
At the end of August he was on a forced march near Győr. The poet was by then unable to walk, and was shot and placed in a mass grave on the edge of the village of Abda. 18 months later he was exhumed, and his notebook with his last poems was found in his jacket pocket. (Source: http://hu.wikipedia.org)
The stamp design is a portrait of Miklós Radnóti. In the background there are details of two of his poems (Razglednicák and Nem tudhatom). The first day cover for the stamp shows a graphic composition referring to the last days of his life and a detail of a letter written to his wife (Levél a hitveshez). The graphics of the special postmark have been inspired by his poems written on the pages of his notebook.
SO
Order code: 2009100010011 (stamp) - 2009100060012 (FDC)
Date of issue: 5 May 2009
Printed by Állami Nyomda
Designed by Zsolt Vidák
Perforated size: 45 x 29.16 mm.
300,000 copies issued.
