Bust of Ferenc Kolcsey

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Kölcsey was born in Sződemeter, Hungary, now Săuca, Romania. He lost his parents at an early age and suffered from a permanent disability due to smallpox that cost him one eye. At 15 years old, he met Ferenc Kazinczy and adopted Kazinczy's linguistic reforms. In 1809, Kölcsey moved to Pest and became a notary for the Royal board. However, he was unhappy with his job and spent most of his time in Cseke, Szatmár, studying aesthetics, writing poetry, criticism, and defending Kazinczy's ideas. Kölcsey's early poems failed to gain recognition at the Transylvanian Museum, while his severe criticisms of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, János Kis, and Dániel Berzsenyi published in 1817 made him very unpopular. Between 1821 and 1826, he published numerous beautiful poems in magazines such as Aurora, Hebe, Aspasia, and others. He collaborated with Pál Szemere on a new publication called Élet és Literatúra (Life and Literature), which appeared from 1826 to 1829 in four volumes and earned Kölcsey the highest reputation as a critical writer. Between 1832 and 1835, he sat in the Hungarian Diet, where his extreme liberal views and eloquence made him famous as a parliamentary leader. In 1830, on November 17th, he was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and participated in its first grand meeting; in 1832, he delivered an oration on Kazinczy, and in 1836 one on his former opponent Dániel Berzsenyi. In 1838, when opposition leader Miklós Wesselényi was imprisoned for treason, Kölcsey defended him with remarkable eloquence but failed to save him. He died a week later at Cseke from internal inflammation. Kölcsey's strong moral character and deep love for his country are reflected in his poems, literary criticism, funeral orations, and parliamentary speeches. His collected works were published in six volumes between 1840 and 1848 at Pest. In addition, his journal of the Diet from 1832 to 1836 was released in 1848. The first comprehensive edition of all his works appeared between 1886 and 1887. A monument honoring Kölcsey's memory was unveiled on September 25th, 1864, at Szatmárnémeti. His poem Himnusz (1823), which celebrates Hungary's glorious past, became the country's national anthem.