A Cultural History of Thomas Mann and the Hungarians

This book is a study in cultural collegiality and interchange. Over the course of a long life, Thomas Mann established working relationships with some of Hungary's cultural luminaries. On the six occasions that he visited Budapest to give public readings of his work, he met the novelists Dezso Kosztolányi and Sándor Márai. Because they wrote in Hungarian, those distinguished writers were not then widely known outside of Hungary; since then, however, many of their novels have appeared in English and other languages, to critical acclaim. Both Kosztolányi and Márai spoke German fluently and were thus able to engage Mann in serious discussions of the literary art. The Manns were received with pleasure at the Buda villa of József Lukács, a prominent banker whose son György (Georg) was living abroad because of the role he played in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919. The young Lukács wrote primarily, though not exclusively, in German and Mann read and admired his early - and subsequently his later - work. The ensuing literary, epistolary, and personal contacts between the great German writer and the famous Marxist critic and philosopher led Mann to the work of Béla Balázs, the writer and film theorist, and Arnold Hauser, the sociologist of art and literature. It was primarily as a correspondent and a creative writer in need of expert advice that Mann formed a friendship with the learned student of mythology and religion Károly (Karl) Kerényi. From these Hungarians and others, including Arthur Koestler, Aurel Kolnai, Charles de Tolnay, and Béla Bartók, Mann was pleased to acknowledge that he gained insights that contributed immeasurably to his work and self-understanding. At the same time, the Hungarians drew inspiration from their association with one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Together with him, they wrote a little-known but fascinating chapter in the cultural history of modern Europe.