Bodor Béla: Biography

Béla Bodor (Budapest, 24 February 1954 – Budapest, 10 August 2010)

József Attila Prize-winning poet, prose writer, essayist, critic, literary historian, visual artist. He was elected a posthumous member of the Digital Literature Academy on 4 June 2020.

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Born on 24 February 1954 in Budapest. On his mother’s side, he is descended from the Ragályi family of an ancient Hungarian tribe whose lineage traces back to the 1200s, and in recent centuries his ancestors were mostly legal advisors loyal to kings. His maternal grandfather, breaking with tradition, was a left-wing thinker with technical interests who worked as an engineer. His father’s ancestors lost their nobility early on, and had probably moved to Hungary from Transylvania. His paternal grandfather was the captain of the tugboat named ‘Hungary’. He died unexpectedly in a boating accident, so his son Károly Bodor, an economics student and world champion rower, had to leave university to support the family. In World War II, he took part in the disastrous military campaign of the Hungarian Army at the Don River; he came home, but was taken prisoner by the Russians in Budapest and only returned to his family in 1949. By then, his wife had remarried. He worked as a foreman in an iron foundry and in his spare time he coached the company handball team, where he met Mária Tekla Ragályi, a much younger woman. They had one child together: Béla Bodor. The ‘extended family’ spanning four generations lived together in Budapest. In his childhood, Béla Bodor was mostly taken care of by his great-aunt, Hermina Nürnberger, whose artistic talent was a great source of inspiration both in Bodor’s visual art and his poetry. Her animal figures made of thread are often referred to in Bodor’s poems. The author inherited his love of rowing and hiking from his father. In his poetry volume The Birth of Names (A nevek születése) he wrote much about his childhood.

Béla Bodor attended various secondary schools as a young adolescent, including geological and agricultural technical schools, which instilled in him a broad range of interests in the sciences, despite his being expelled several times for his failure to adhere to the strict institutional system. After successfully completing his school-leaving exams he worked primarily as a labourer, but on the side he also tutored musicians in mathematics who needed a certificate for their further studies or music scholarships. He took the mathematics exam every year until 2009 to reassure himself that his formal-logical thinking remained sharp. He had been playing music from the age of twelve, and was a member of several rock and jazz bands until 1975. He was a bookseller and worked as a graphic designer for a publishing house. In 1973 he met Erzsébet Tunyogi, who he later married. In 1979 he organized his largest solo exhibition of paintings, prints and montages.

After music and fine art, he turned to writing. He did not go to university, instead becoming a self-taught poet who sent his poems to many literary magazines of the time, and without success for many years. This vibrant, avant-garde artistic community is the subject of his largely autobiographical novel, City Window (Városablak). His acquaintances think of him more as a graphic artist and musician than as a poet, although in a chapter of his collected poetry collection, Findings (Leletek), he says he was dictating poems and stories to his then 80-year-old great aunt from the age of three or four. His first poems were published in the literary-artistic periodical Jelenlét (Presence), in 1984. In 1986, A költészet másnapja (The Day After Poetry) anthology published his poems. In 1988, his poems appeared in Élet és Irodalom, and his one-act play Saint Francis Experience (original title) won first prize in a drama competition. In 1989, he published his first volume of poetry, Melodic Shifting Exercises (Dallamos fekvésváltó gyakorlatok), which he compiled from several of his then completed but unpublished poetry collections. From then on, his writings appeared regularly in most of the important literary journals of the day. In 1991, he became a contributor to the critical column of Élet és Irodalom, and it is a testimony to his work ethic that he published eighty-seven longer and shorter reviews that year, while also writing short stories and poems. In 1995–96 he became a columnist for the journal. He was a regular contributor to the literary portal litera.hu.

In 1991 his short story won a competition in the magazine Holmi, and in 1992 his review won Holmi’s criticism competition. In 2002, his radio play won in the Hungarian Radio’s competition. One of his essays won first prize in the Madách Competition in 1994 and another in the Ady Society Competition in 1995. His was awarded the Tibor Déry Prize and the Attila József Prize for his literary works.

He said about himself: ‘I’ve worked as a warehouse assistant and typist, as a salesman and lawnmower operator; I’ve worked in oil drilling, iron foundries, a farmers’ co-operative, a printing press, a sculpture workshop, a cemetery and a bookshop. I draw, paint, make montages and small sculptures. I have played drums in rock and jazz bands, string, wind and percussion instruments in occasional ensembles and solo, written songs, performance pieces, incidental music, and of course, I write poetry, essays, plays and poetry.’

He was a patron and mentor. He was passionate about supporting the excluded, the destitute and young people. In the 1970s, he and his partner were volunteer helpers in Pomáz, alongside people living in the art colony of the psychiatric home for the mentally ill, some of whom they took in for shorter or longer periods to help them reintegrate into society.

From 1973 until his death, he lived with Erzsébet Tunyogi, a conductor and the creator of Tunyogi Healing Play Therapy. They had one daughter, Réka Emese Bodor. In 1996 Bodor became the second man in Hungary to stay at home as a father with his newborn child on paternity leave. His dexterity and technical skills were put to good use with the family on many occasions. The initial equipment for the Tunyogi Healing Playhouse Foundation was designed and built by him and his wife. He created many toys for young children with multiple disabilities.

At his own request, his cookbook of almost 280 recipes will not be published on DIA, because he did not want people to talk about ‘another book of poems by the famous cookbook writer’. His lavishly decorated cold dishes were an important fixture at ‘Fridays’ – literary and art salons – for nearly 30 years. He believed that a person’s life was finite, but the number of dishes was infinite, so while he would write down a recipe, he very rarely prepared the same dish twice. He also saw cooking as a creative, artistic activity based on the harmony of flavours and forms.

He worked until his death, and on 6 July 2010 he informed the editorial staff of Holmi that he was working on a review on Zsuzsa Takács’s new collection of poems. On the day of his death he was revising the unfinished monograph on Takács’s poetry.

He died at 56 years old, after a long illness, on 10 August 2010. The funeral service was held on 31 August in the Fiumei Road cemetery. At the family’s request, István Turczi, President of the Poetry Section of the Hungarian Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Parnassus, János Térey, János Széky, Anna Valachi and Endre Kukorelly were present.

Béla Bodor Prize

The Béla Bodor Prize was founded in 2013 by his wife, Erzsébet Tunyogi, and his daughter, Emese Bodor. Always presented on a day close to Béla Bodor’s birthday, 24 February, the literary prize aims to recognise critics under 35 who have a unique voice and independent ideas. According to the decision of the professional board of trustees (István Kemény, István Margócsy, Gábor Németh, Zsófia Szilágyi), the first recipient was Zsolt Imre Lengyel in 2014, followed by Dávid Zelei in 2015, Balázs Sipos in 2016 and Ágnes Balajthy in 2018.

The biography was written by Attila Tomaji, translated by Benedek Totth and Austin Wagner.