Veres Gábor szerk.: Agria 45. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2009)
Lisztóczky László: A tavaszi hadjárat krónikása: Zalár József pályaképe
foot from Debrecen to Pest in February 1844. The writer took board and lodging and enjoyed the hospitality of the theological college. It was Zalár who wrote the most detailed, and at the same time most reliable, account of the visit. This meeting with Petőfi was to remain with Zalár for the rest of his life. For Zalár, Petőfi was to remain his mentor and role model. The 1848-49 revolution and War for Freedom was to bring a major change in Zalár's life. It was then that he was to put his original religious vocation behind him. Rather than serving at the priest's high table he would dedicate his life to his homeland, to freedom and the law. The moral status and weight of his words were heightened by the fact that he was prepared to defend the freedom and the independence of his homeland with sword as well as lute, joining as he did the national guard in Gyöngyös. Following the failure of the War for Freedom József Zalár endeavoured to continue the pursuit of his earlier ideals by legal means as a civil servant. In December 1860 he was named deputy clerk of Heves County. It was then that he moved to Eger. In 1867 - despite not being in agreement with the Compromise he once again entered the service of the Heves county government. On April 30 th the county assembly appointed the local government staff, choosing József Zalár as its first deputy clerk. From this moment up to his death he lived in Eger, making his way steadily up the administrative ladder. On December 27 t h 1869 he was named the county recorder for the Heves County assembly. One of the last eyewitnesses and ambassadors for the heroic events of 1848-49, Zalár finally died in his 89 t h year on the threshold of the First World War in Eger on 18 t h June 1914. 396
