Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1974 (2. évfolyam, 3-5. szám)

1974 / 3. szám

Paget, an Englishman who traveled all through Hungary and Transylvania, gives a detailed account of social, political, and economic conditions in the mid-1830’s. He reports not only on attitudes and conditions of the Hungarians, but also on the key minority peoples in the area, among them: Germans, Jews, Romanians, and Slovaks. The author also notes the rise of Hungarian self-assertion and nationalism as expressed in policies toward Vienna and toward the nationalities. He reports briefly on the decline of Belgrade under Turkish rule, and gives particularly good descriptions of life in Buda, Pest, and Pozsony.

Among the other 52 books dealing with Eastern Europe, the student of the area will find a number of interesting volumes bearing to some extent also on Hungary. Reprinted are three volumes of Edvard Benes; Nisbet R. Bain’s SLAVONIC EUROPE; John C. Campbell’s FRENCH INFLUENCE AND THE RISE OF ROUMANIAN NA TIONALISM; two volumes by Thomas G. Masaryk; Jan Jakubec's JOHANNES AMOS COMENIUS; Frederick Moore’s THE BALKAN TRAIL; T.W. Riker’s THE MAKING OF ROUMANIA; William H. Stiles’ AUSTRIA IN 1848-49; William Wilkinson’s AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPALITIES OF WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA; and many others. For a prospectus write to Arno Press, 330 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.

NEW BOOKS

Bognak, Desi K. (ed.) and Katalin Szentpály (Assist. Ed.) HUNGARIANS IN AMERICA: A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF PROFESSIONALS OF HUNGARIAN ORIGIN IN THE AMERICAS. Mt. Vernon, N.Y.: Atelier Films, Inc., 1973. 239 pages. $16.50. (East European Biographies and Studies Series No. 3.)

This is the third edition of the Hungarian who’s who. It contains 30 percent more listings than the second edition and has a number of new features of general information. Although the volume is designed to describe the biographies of professionals of Hungarian origin and descent in the fields of the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, education, economy, industry, and business in the Americas, it includes biographies of such personalities as G. Anda, G. Cziffra, G. Kepes, L. Kraus, P. Frankl,Mategot (Mate'Got).J. Starker, V. Vasarely, who have dual residences or reside in Europe but spend part of their professional life in the Americas.

The volume lists 78 deceased persons whose names were included in the previous edition. Among them one finds a prime minister, a world champion, an Oscar winning actor, a best selling writer, a Nobel laureate, 3 conductors, and a concert violinist. Further items in the information section include immigration tables of Hungarians to the United States since 1861, and to Canada since 1900; university level Hungarian language courses; and Hungarian language publications by title, frequency and place of issue. The book is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Pulitzer and Bela Bartók. Available from Atelier Films, P.O. Box 8, Fw., Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 10552 or from the circulation office of the Hungarian Studies Newsletter: American Hungarian Studies Foundation, P.O. Box 1084, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903. Wimsatt, W.K. VERSIFICATION MAJOR LANGUAGE TYPES. New York: (for the Modern Language Association) New York U. Press, 1973. 252 pages. $12.00

This collection of essays gives account of select Western and Eastern systems of versification as widely separate in

IN MEMÓRIÁM

JOHN LOTZ, 1913-1973 LÁSZLÓ HADIK, 1932-1973

time and place as the parallels of Biblical Hebrew, the tones of Medieval Chinese, the Tuscan hendeca syllables of Dante, the alexandrines of Corneille and of Hugo, the “sprung rhythms” of Hopkins, and the syllables of Marianne Moore. The noted Hungarian linguist, JohnLotz, hastwoessaysinthe volume. "Elements of versification” in which he draws comparison between verse and prose, describes approaches to the analysis of verse, and the linguistic base of metrics, resorting also to Hungarian examples. In the chapter “Uralic” he treats versification in three languages: Hungarian, Kamassian, and Mordvinian. The choice of Hungarian was fortunate because most of the work done in this field is inaccessible to the general reader since it has been done in Hungarian. Lotz says that “rhyme has been usual in Hungarian poetry since the Middle Ages - the oldest Hungarian verse is unrhythmed - but the principles are different from those of Germanic verse. Since Hungarian has very few pure rhymes, Hungarian poets have recoursé to sometimes quite daring assonances, insisting only on identity of the vowel, and disregarding word boundaries and stress. The most highly prized rhymes are those which include several syllabics, and which employ words belonging to different syntactical classes, such as szeretnek ‘they love’ and eretnek ‘heretic.’ Alliteration occurs, but is not frequent in modern poetry.”

Kraus, David H., Pranas Zunde, and Vladimir Slamecka. NATIONAL SCIENCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS; A GUIDE TO SCIENCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BULGARIA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, POLAND, ROMANIA, and YUGOSLAVIA. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1972. 325 pages. $12.50

The tremendous growth in the volume of published scientific information and in the number of people who use this information, presents a great need for effective knowledge transfer. This is reflected in the number of science information systems that offer a variety of information services to science and industry. This book is a guide to present scientific, technical, and economic information services in Eastern Europe. It presents an overview of the events that led to the establishment of these services and it pays special attention to the organizational aspects of these systems.

The first three sections are an examination of the common characteristics of the six national systems. The remaining sections offer detailed accounts of the national information system of each of these countries. Each chapter explains the development, organization, and the research and education programs of the national system; a directory of the country's information centers; a list of publications of these centers; and a brief bibliography of the most recent literature. The chapter on HUNGARY (pages 153-178) presents the following details: Historical review; Organization, status, and activities of the Hungarian Information Centers; Technicaleconomic information; The National Technical Library and Documentation Center; The industrial ministries; Agriculture and medicine; Market research and economics; Computation; Education and training; Research in information

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HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER, NO. 3, 1974

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