Balázs Eszter: Art in action. Lajos Kassák's Avant-Garde Journals from A Tett to Dokumentum, 1915-1927 - The avant-garde and its journals 3. (Budapest, 2017)

György Tverdota: 2x2 - The Journal Edited by Lajos Kassák and Andor Németh (1922)

ing in high regard; Balázs regarded Kassák as simply mad. Németh wrote a glowing review of one of Balázs’ novels. The poems selected from Balázs’ as- yet unpublished book Férfiének [Man’s Song] for 2*2 may be placed somewhere between the two literary centres of Nyugat and MA, slightly closer to Nyugat tastes than the radicalism of the “MAists". Németh’s true discovery in Vienna, however, was Déry, with whom he had strong bonds of friendship. Also worth mentioning are two poems - among the last - by Mátyás György, whom Németh esteemed more highly than any other poet in Kassák’s old circle. József Lengyel’s short story is interesting for a verse passage that has earned its place in history by being identified as a potential source for Attila József’s poem Tiszta szívvel [With clear heart]. Other notable pieces are a short story by Mária Lázár and an essay on dilettantism by Gustav Landauer. Németh later wrote about the literature he included in the journal, “After the programme article, I put in Déry’s poems, really out of friendship with him, because Kassák would also gladly have given them space in the other half of the journal. Déry was a ‘MAist’ at the time. Then came a German-language author, a Hungarian-born woman to whom I was introduced by Béla Balázs and who later became a good writer. Then I published two fine poems by Béla Balázs, and a piece by a strange young man. The author of the short story was József Lengyel, one of Kassák's wildest colleagues... Then came the poems by Mátyás György, unfortunately not as interesting as Majoránna anyó [Granny Majoránna]”.15 Ferenc Csapiár, citing a recollection by Németh, interprets Landauer's essay as a veiled criticism of “MAist” lyricism. Németh recalled that “The essay was written by the chief ideologist of the communist dictatorship of Munich, Gustav Landauer. I ran the piece to put over to Kassák’s communist colleagues that it was not essential for them to mimic each other".16

Németh also introduced himself as an author, with the first act of his play Az ingatag halott [The Unsteady Corpse], the rest of which, as is characteristic of Németh, has been lost. The author of the Claudelian one-act Veronika tükre [Veronica’s Mirror], which had reaped enormous success in his youth, had made great strides in adopting the avant-garde dramatic language, but his boldness and willingness to experiment did not lead to the kind of experimental stage productions that stemmed from the pens of Apollinaire, Ivan Goll or even Tibor Déry (See, e.g., Az óriáscsecsemő [The Giant Baby]).

15 Andor Németh, Emlékiratok, op. cit., 610.

16 Ibid. See also Ferenc Csapiár, Kassák és Németh Andor [Kassák and Andor Németh], Európai Kulturális Füzetek, 16, www.c3.hu/~eufuzetek/indexJ6.php7nagyraA6/16_Csaplar.html [consulted 21 December 2017].

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