Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

BOOK REVIEWS - Csilla Bertha: Tribute to the Scholar, Teacher and Man, László Országh. Vadon, Lehel: Országh László. Eger: Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Nyomdája, 1994. 93 pp

of the greatest and most many-sided scholars of English and American literature and language in Hungary of the twentieth century, the founder of American studies in Hungary, the editor of definitive one- and two-language dictionaries (the latter of which are world-famous), one of the last polymaths with an encyclopedic knowledge, received hardly any high award from the communist leaders of Hungary whereas he was the recepient

— and the only Hungarian so far

—of the most prestigious honours England bestows upon non-English citizens, "Commander of the Order of the British Empire" (1979). The lack of appreciation on the part of Hungarian communist authorities is, however, to Országh's credit; he never served the political system, never hid his contempt for the stupidities, meanness and anti-intellectualism of the dictatorship, and kept criticising it with quiet but murderously sharp irony from the vantage point of the enormous superiority of his intellect and wit. No wonder that instead of awards, he received punishment: the English department which he established in 1947, at Debrecen Kossuth University was dispersed in 1950 (when learning or teaching Western languages itself was suspicious), he himself was relegated to the politically least dangerous task: editing dictionaries. One of the indicators of his moral greatness is that he made "a laboratory out of a galley-bench"

—to borrow the image of another marginalized literary genius, the writer László Németh, who used it to describe his own experience of having had to earn his living by translations in the '58s and '60s. Vadon's biographical essay emphasizes how many philosophical and philological considerations, how much conscientious work, wide horizon, huge knowledge and all-embracing thinking is necessary for editing such definitive two-language (Hungarian

—English and English

—Hungarian) dictionaries like those of Országh. As lexicographer, Országh served not only the learning of English but also the preservation and correct usage of his mother tongue with what he considered his chief work, editing a seven volume Hungarian dictionary, the kind which is usually written once in a century. The enormous work he undertook involved every step from putting down the theoretical considerations, principles and practical problems of compiling it to the actual checking of every single entry. What is more, Országh carried out this 154