Melchior Lengyel
Menyhért ( Melchior ) Lengyel (actually Menyhért Lebovics; born January 12, 1880 in Balmazújváros, † 23 October 1974 in Budapest) was a Hungarian playwright, journalist and critic.
Life
His career began with newspaper articles. He first worked as a journalist in cash (now Košice ), and later in Budapest.
His first play, A nagy fejedelem (The Great Prince ), was brought in 1907 by the Thalia society, a free theater group to the performance. The Hungarian National Theatre in 1908 played his next play, A Halas utókor ( The grateful posterity ) that awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the Vojnits Prize, which is annually awarded to the best play. One of his best dramas, Typhoon, written in 1909, was world famous and is still played today; it was filmed in 1914 in the United States.
He published his articles mostly in the monthly journal Nyugat (West), which was the best literary magazine in Hungary in the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he worked for the Hungarian newspaper Az Est ( The evening ) for one year correspondent in Switzerland. His pacifist articles and other writings from 1918 have also been published in German and French magazines and later collected in the book Egyszerű gondolatok ( Simple Thoughts ).
His story The Miraculous Mandarin (Original title: A csodálatos mandarin ) was published in 1916 and inspired Béla Bartók, the famous Hungarian composer, she as a libretto for a dance game to use ( 1924).
In 1919 he went to Berlin, Munich and Weimar, where he was befriended by Ernst Lubitsch. 1933 emigrated with his family to England Lengyel, 1935 to America. There he worked as a screenwriter. Lubitsch filmed some of his work: The Forbidden paradise, angels, Ninotchka ( the screenplay was nominated for an Oscar in 1936 ) and To Be or Not. After the Second World War Lengyel often traveled back to Europe and moved to Italy in 1960. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he often visited his native country in 1970 and returned back to Hungary, where he died at the age of 94 years, four years later.
The library of his native town Balmazújváros took in 2004 the name Lengyel Menyhért city library. A complete list of works Lengyel and the article about him was compiled by a librarian on this occasion.