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Back to article: JANOS ERDELYI (1814-1868)

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ERDELYI, JANOS (1814-1868), Hungarian poet and author, was born in 1814 at Kapos, in the county of Ungvar, and educated at the Protestant college of Sarospatak. In 1833 he removed to Pest, where he was, in 1839, elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His literary fame was made by his collection of Hungarian national poems and folk-tales, Magyar Nepkoltesi Gyiijtemeny, Nepdalok es Monddk (Pest, 1846-1847). This work, published by the Kisfaludy Society, was supplemented by a dissertation upon Hungarian national poetry, afterwardspartially translated into German by Stier-(Berlin, 1851) . Erdelyi also compiled for the Kisfaludy Society an extensive collection of Hungarian proverbs—Magyar Kozmonddsok konyve (Pest, 1851),-and was for some time editor of the Szepirodalmi Szemle (Review of Polite Literature). In 1848 he was appointed director of the national theatre at Pest; but after 1849 he resided at his native town. He died on the 23rd of January 1868. A collection of folklore was published the year after his death, entitled A NO Kolteszete npdalok, nepmesek es kozmonddsok (Pest, 1869). This work contains 300 national songs, 19 folk-tales and 7362 Hungarian proverbs.