István Tömörkény was born 150 years ago
István Tömörkény was born 150 years ago
Magyar Posta is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the writer and museum and library director István Tömörkény by issuing a special stamp on Hungarian Culture Day.The stamp with a face value of HUF 340 was designed by the graphic artist András Andor. The design features a portrait of István Tömörkény with part of a letter written by him in the background. On the cover a detail from a 1902 postcard made by the Budapest publisher Edgar Schmidt showing the Palace of Culture built “For Community Culture” appears. The new issue will be available while stocks last at first day post offices and Filaposta in Hungary from 22 January, but may also be purchased from Magyar Posta’s online store.
István Tömörkény attended school in
Szeged and Makó, and went on to study pharmacy. However, instead of settling
for a comfortable middle-class life as a chemist, he chose to become a journalist.
He was a writer who found it hard to find his own voice and it took a long time
for him to decide to publish his first independent book, Szeged Peasants and Other Gentlemen, published in 1893. A further fourteen volumes appeared
during his literary career spanning almost a quarter of a century. His true
forte was the short story in which he could relate complicated events very
succinctly. Tömörkény’s characters emerge from brief, pithy descriptions as
graphically delineated figures. Occasionally, his language seems sloppy but it
soon becomes clear that this is an artistic device. Characters frequently recur
in his short stories, becoming familiar friends to the reader. His handling of
moods is masterly: tales that start light-heartedly turn depressingly tragic,
while unexpected comic twists relieve gloom and doom. Tömörkény’s literary
heritage is a major treasure in 20th-century Hungarian literature.
Between 1904 and 1917 he was the director of the
Palace of Culture in Szeged, which was the city’s museum, and the Somogyi
Library, that is to say the predecessor of today’s Móra Ferenc Museum. Under
his guidance the intellectual foundations were laid at the museum on which his
successor, the novelist Ferenc Móra, built. The creation of the ethnographic
collection was one of his achievements. Source: mek.oszk.hu/Móra
Ferenc Múzeum, Szeged
Order code:
2016010010011 (stamp)2016010060012 (FDC)
Issued on: 22 January 2016
Face value: HUF 340 (On the date of
issue, the stamp pays the postage of a domestic official document weighing up
to 2 kg, or a priority postcard and standard letter to countries in Europe.)
Printing method: offset
Number of copies: 200 000
Perforated size: 30 x 40
mm
Number of stamps in sheet: 50 pcs (5 bar codes/sheet)
Paper type: Chromo
Printed by Pénzjegynyomda Zrt.
Source: Móra
Ferenc Museum, Szeged
Designed by András
Andor
