36. évfolyam, 1990. 5-6. szám

Archívum

The life and works of Hungarian authors. Past, present, future and recommendations for the preparation of a local file.

VICZIÁN János

Pál Gulyás' work The life and works of Hungarian authors is an addition to and continuation of József Szinnyei's 14-volume lexicon published in the period 1891 to 1914 under the same title. Between 1916 and 1956 Gulyás collected data on cca. 80 000 persons, from about 2000 sources. Part of his work (A-D) was published in the period 1939 to 1944, the rest of the material was kept as a manuscript. The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences decided to publish this immense manuscript material in 1981, edited by the author. The part E-I contains closed biographies, J-Lám includes contributions, data on sources, Lán-Zs - compiled biographies. The volumes are expected to be published by the second half of the 1990`s. They will not be available in booktrade, but from the Petofi Museum of Literature. In the author's view it is important that current biography files be compiled too. An example is the venture of the Babits Publishing House which, preparing for the new series of the Révai Lexicon, is going to publish a Hungarian who is who of professionals. The author attributes similar importance to compiling the bibliography of articles of the major dailies and weeklies of the country and to local work. He suggests that a local biography file should be edited and makes methodological recommendations. (pp. 465-472)

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek