András Sütő

The native form of this personal name is Sütő András. This article uses the Western name order.

András Sütő

András Sütő (June 17, 1927 – September 30, 2006) was an ethnic Hungarian writer and politician in Romania, one of the leading Hungarian writers in the 20th century.

Biography

Early life and education

Sütő was born into a poor peasant family in Cămăraşu (Hungarian: Pusztakamarás), in Cluj County, Transylvania. He received his primary and secondary school education in the Reformed College of Aiud and in the Reformed gymnasium in Cluj. After secondary school, he studied Stage Directing at the Szentgyörgyi István College of Dramatic Arts in Cluj.

He quit college in order to become the editor in chief of the Falvak Népe weekly. He moved to Bucharest in 1951 because the editorial office was relocated there. Sütő could not identify himself with the political environment of the 1950s in the capital and returned to Transylvania in 1954. He lived and worked in Târgu Mureş (Hungarian: Marosvásárhely) until near the end of his life.

Sütő was Member of the Great National Assembly, the parliament of Communist Romania, between 1965 and 1977. He also served as vice-president of the Writers' Association of Romania between 1974 and 1982.

In the late years of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime, the works of András Sütő had been gradually banned from publication and presentation. Consequently, between 1980 and 1989 he could publish only in Hungary. During this period, he and his family were constantly harassed by the authorities and the Securitate.

He had his eye gouged out during the 1990 ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş, and had to undergo treatment in Hungary. Sixteen years later, he died in Budapest, where he was under medical supervision.

Works

His first work (A Letter to a Romanian Friend) was published by the Hungarian-language Világosság journal in Cluj, when he was 18.

Some of his several dozen novels and dramas:

• Mezítlábas menyasszony (drama) Bucharest, 1950
• Félrejáró Salamon (novel) Târgu Mureş, 1956
• Pompás Gedeon (drama) Bucharest, 1968
• Anyám könnyű álmot ígér (novel) Bucharest, 1970
• Egy lócsiszár virágvasárnapja (drama) Bucharest, 1975
• Advent a Hargitán (drama) Budapest, 1987
• Szemet szóért (diary notes) Debrecen, 1993
• Engedjétek hozzám jönni a szavakat (essay) Budapest, 1994
• Balkáni gerle (drama) Budapest, 1999

External links

• Sütő's digitalised works