László Németh (1901 - 1975) Writer, essayist, thinker. Born in Baia Mare. He studied at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Budapest before transferring to the Medical University; he conferred the Doctor’s degree in 1925. He won the Nyugat novel competition the same year, his first story, Human Comedy being published in Napkelet in 1929. He began the journal Witness in 1932, which he wrote and edited himself. In 1934 and 1935 he led the literature department at Magyar Rádió. Following this, his novels Mourning and Sin were published, along with all the parts for the planned seven part The Last Experiment. In 1938 the National Theatre showed his piece In the Spotlight. He was Zsigmond Móricz’s aide-de-camp at the Kelet Népe editorship between 1939 and 1942. He first came to Hódmezővásárhely, as a guest along with Móricz, in 1940. The “vásárhely example” had a great effect on him; – getting to know the “home of the farm students”. He also gave financial help to the first people’s college in Hungary, founded in 1938, giving it the rights to his drama entitled Cherry Orchard. In 1945, the Calvinist community – with the help of István Kristó Nagy, pharmacist, the teacher Sándor Mátyás, the pastor Árpád Márton and school head teacher Mihály Vörös – called the nationally famous Németh, at that time without a livelihood, to give some classes. Between 1945 and 1948 the girls- and boy’s secondary schools awoke the teacher in him, but the town was also the inspiration for many others of his great works. It was here that he re-composed his drama Mathiász-guesthouse, completed Iszony, and it was about the town that he wrote Égető Eszter; it was here that his best historical dramas, Széchenyi, Husz János and Eklézsia-megkövetés, were born. He took part in the work of the Tornyai society; he worked for the local literary journals: he gave his comedy Pusztuló magyarok to the one called Puszták Népe, and his drama Erzsébet-nap to Délsziget. Between 1949 and 1954 he still spent months and half-years in Hódmezővásárhely, and well into his late old-age he longed for the town, which had given him teaching, peace and sanctuary. He gave the winnings from his Kossuth Prize to the Bethlen High School in 1957 for the development of its library. In 1958 the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party stamped down on him in a decree – along with his other “populist writing” colleagues – due to his pre-1945 “nationalist”, “petty bourgeois”, and “third-way” views. His last major novel was Irgalom (1965). Even prior to his death, László Németh counted as one of Hungarian literature’s greats. He won the Herder award in 1965 and the Work Red Flag Medal decoration in 1971. His works have been translated into numerous languages.