Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
War Years (1914–1919)
WAR YEARS (1914-1919) 1914 28 June - Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife are murdered in Sarajevo; Bartok - normally very sensitive to political events - disregards this so completely that he doesn’t even hint at it in his letters. 14 July - He spends the national holiday still in Paris, then travels to Normandy. 16 July - He is in Caen, on the 17th in St. Lo. 18 July - From Coutances (Manche: St. Lo) he writes his subsequent travel plans to his wife in Budapest; he is gushing to János Bu§i|ia about the beauties of France, beside confirming his Moldavia travel plans for August. In the evening he travels on to Granville, where he spends several days. 21 July - His weight (checked on street scales) is 52.3 kilograms. Around 25 July - He returns to Paris where he intended to remain until the 27th, yet leaves France at almost the last second before war breaks out, thus escaping being interned, and travels to St. Ruprecht, to his mother vacationing there. 28 July - He returns home. Bartoks response is published in the July-August (VII—VIII) issue of the Convorbiri Literare, about which he is very glad. Bartok is hit extremely by the breaking out of the world war. He predicts that one day we would pay severely for being pro-German. The African journey becomes impossible, the Moldavia one is uncertain. It takes Bartok two months to organise his thoughts, and as folk song collecting is out of the question for the moment even in the homeland, he would like to secure the already existing material. 27 September - From Rákoskeresztúr he writes Jon Bianu about his hope that peace will be maintained at least between Hungary and Romania, and maybe the Máramaros collection can be published. At the beginning of October in a letter he asks Sámuel Bobál to return him his manuscript having remained in Egyházmarót. 153
