...
Antal Szerb's widow knew everyone in Hungarian intellectual life and was in
touch with many public figures. She left no stone unturned in her efforts to have
Lenard discovered and introduced to the Hungarian literary scene. In a letter to
Gyula Illyés, the most prominent poet and author of the times, she wrote: "Gyula,
I have a piece of friendly advice for you: for God's sake don't let our publisher,
Grosche, have anyone other than Sándor translate a single line of your work! I am
talking from experience, as he translated The Queen's Necklace into German
for Grosche, and I can honestly say that it is congenial." (October 18, 1965) It
was essentially due to her that Lenard's works were allowed to be published
in Communist Hungary, although he counted as a Hungarian living abroad.
She managed to secure the approval of György Aczél, in charge of cultural policy
at the time, who had been a childhood friend of her brother. She also ensured
appropriate publicity for Valley, the first book to appear in Hungarian.
Klára Szerb sent at least as many books to Lenard as she received from him. In
the Sixties, Szerb's works were once again allowed to appear. It was during this
period that Szerelem a palackban (Love in a Bottle) was released, a collection of
his short stories (previously only published in reviews) and fragments of an
unfinished novel. As Antal Szerb's literary executor, she commented:
When I put the volume together I felt I had to hurry. There was no hope of a critical edition which could have been reasonably comprehensive appearing in the foreseeable future, and it became unclear whether it would be published at all if it didn't get printed quickly [...] My sole ambition is to put as much as I can into order while I am alive. I want to get every publishable manuscript published. When a work leaves my drawer, my role is fulfilled. (September 21, 1965)
Klára Szerb sent the book to Brazil, along with the first, 1937, edition of Journey by
Moonlight and a new edition of The Pendragon Legend. She sent regular updates about
the Hungarian literary scene, about the growing interest in Antal Szerb's work, and
about her task of looking after his papers. She also sent musings on her memories of
life with her husband, and on her own life, on the joys and problems of raising her son
born in 1951, and on her illnesses. She gave advice to Lenard on all sorts of matters
and constantly scolded him for not taking care of his health. She was not very keen on
his facial hair, either, suggesting more than once, but always in vain, that he shave off
his beard and his moustache. Lenard, in turn, tried to persuade Klára Szerb to stop
smoking. On December the 11th, he sent her a present of the Hungarian translation
of a Theodor Storm poem1 for "chucking those damned fags in the stove. [...] My only
concern is that your fingers shouldn't be yellow and you shouldn't get lung cancer and
that you get yourself together and start breathing air instead of smoke." Needless to
say, Lenard's victory ultimately proved to be Pyrrhic.
Klára Szerb was a passionate indoor gardener, growing cacti and succulents.
Lenard's gardener's view of the world is now well known. He often wrote about
his difficulties obtaining sowing seeds for certain vegetables and flowers. Her
letters to Brazil in turn enclosed poppy, pea or herb seeds. In return, Lenard
arranged for cactus seeds to be sent to Budapest from South Africa. They regularly
gave an account of what they were reading to one another. She carefully
introduced Lenard to contemporary Hungarian literature and its most important
authors. In his letters, Lenard recounted his activities and literary work. In turn,
she was impressed by his ability to read and write in so many languages and by
his numerous pursuits in addition to his medical practice. The two also regularly
discussed music, as they were both passionate record collectors.
They exchanged the gossip of the Hungarian community in São Paolo for that of the
Budapest intelligentsia. Lenard was in his element, and he recorded dozens of anecdotes.
It was his firm conviction that only stories with a beginning and an end, and
shaped like anecdotes, would stay alive in history. His method of writing comes through
in these letters. He recounted anecdotes over and again, in much the same words. But
they became more and more polished and honed with every attempt. Eventually he
used these in his prose works. His first bestseller, which became in English The Valley
of the Latin Bear, the book with three lives, was born out of a string of such stories.
It was Klára Szerb who persuaded Lenard to release his works in Hungary. First
she got him to "Hungarianise" the "cow book". She took part in the editing and
they came up with the final title together. Lenard sent the manuscript with the title
"Patikus a bozótban" (Pharmacist in the Bush); the title which translates as Valley
at the End of the World, only emerged later.
On the last day of the year in which their correspondence started, Klára Szerb
was able to report on its Hungarian appearance: "At last! At last I can lie back! And
congratulations, my dear, and a thousand hugs, and congratulations again: Kati
Rayman2 rang in the afternoon and we know for sure now that your cow will also
graze on a Hungarian meadow! [...] you will get the 'official' notification from
Magvetô Publishers next week."
It was also Klára Szerb who encouraged Lenard to collect his memoirs of Rome
of the late 30s and 1943, which had appeared in various Brazilian and German
journals. The collection eventually appeared as Római történetek (Roman Stories)3.
Even before they finally met in the States in 1968, Klára Szerb asked Lenard to
describe one of his days to her. This request inspired Egy nap a láthatatlan házban (A Day in the Invisible House)4, perhaps the most beautifully written of all of
Lenard's prose works. (The extracts published on pp. 31-42 of this issue are from
this memoir.) Lenard dedicated all three of his books in Hungarian "to Klári".
At the end of the first year of their correspondence, on 30 December, 1965, they
established a habit of writing their first and last letters of every year to one
another. Lenard wrote:
I have written and accomplished very little this year (old age has reached me; I just haven't
got used to it yet). I can truly and seriously say that the best things that have happened
this year were your letters - I will remember the year 1965 for this alone. Thank you for
bringing me out of the bush for one last chapter, and for nursing me with your frequent
accusations - Your grateful, faithful, not always obedient, but loving friend, Sándor.
1 
Lenard was a keen and talented player of a game favoured by the Nyugat poets, which is essentially a
series of translations of a poem backwards and forwards between two languages. See: Im Walde by Sándor
Lenard and Theodor Storm at http://www.mek.iif.hu/kiallit/Lenard/szeminarium/irasok/storm.html
2 Katalin Rayman, Lenard's Hungarian editor. She also wrote an article on Lenard entitled "Egy
magyar Schweitzer Brazíliában" (A Hungarian Schweitzer in Brazil), Nagyvilág, 1966/6. See also the
extraordinary memoir by Katalin Rayman in HQ 153, Spring 1999.
3 Sándor A. Lénárd: Római történetek. Magvető, Budapest, 1969. The story "Róma 1938" (Rome 1938)
appeared in four issues of Kultúra in 1955. In 1957-58 the same journal published "Két hét múlva jönnek" (They
Will Be Here in Two Weeks) in ten instalments. This recounts his memories of 1943 Rome, which appeared in
German as Am Ende der Via Condotti in 1963 in a special 75-page Christmas gift edition published by DVA.
4 Sándor A. Lénárd.: Egy nap a láthatatlan házban. Budapest, Magvető, 1969. In German: Ein Tag
im unsichtbaren Haus. Stuttgart, DVA, 1970.
Péter Siklós
has done research on Alexander Lenard's works published in German. Some of his writings
on Lenard are available on the website
http://www.elib.hu/kiallitas/lenard/indexeng.html