Albert Wass

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Count Albert Wass de Szentegyed et Czege (Hungarian gróf szentegyedi és czegei Wass Albert; Válaszút, 1908 - Astor, 1998) was a Hungarian noble, forest engineer, writer and poet in the 20th century from Transylvania.

He attended the Reformed Church Secondary School in Kolozsvár (Romanian: Cluj-Napoca), then he graduated from the Academy of Economics in Hungary. He continued his studies of forestry and horticulture in Germany and France, then settled to run the family estate in Mezőség, Transylvania (today in Romania). He wrote poems, short stories and articles. His first books were published in 1927 and 1929 in Cluj. In 1934 his novel ’Wolfpit’ was published by the Transylvanian Guild of Arts. It was the start of a series of work and acknowledgement: He was accepted member of the Transylvanian Guild of Arts in 1935, at the same time he was the first young Transylvanian to be awarded the Baumgarten prize. In 1939 in his epic masterpiece he described how the Trianon generation found their feet again: the unity of the presentation of social reality, the seek for meting out justice in history together with ancient language, music, rhythm conquers even the heart of the readers in Hungary. In 1939 he was elected member of the Transylvanian Literary Society and the Kisfaludy Society. In 1940 among the best scientists and artists of the nation he was awarded the Baumgarten prize the second time. In 1942 he got the Klebensberg prize and in the same year on a memorable round tour in Hungary he represented Transylvanian literature together with three of his peers. As a reward for his military front work, first he got a second class then a first class iron cross. He was even elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as appreciation for his knowledge in forestry. At the end of 1944 he left Hungary as a political refugee when a Romanian, later Soviet arrest warrant against him came to his knowledge. While he was absent, Albert Wass was committed to execute by the Rumanian People's Court, based on the following (not factual) crimes: war delinquency, homicide, and fascism. The judgement was not abolished until his suicide. He made his first stop in Germany. After the Bavarian forest he moved to Hamburg in 1947, where the family of his first wife had been living. He found a job as a night-watchman at a construction site.

In 1952 he emigrated to the United States and settled in Florida. He became professor of German, French, European literature and history at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He founded the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, managing its academic work and publishing activities, and editing its newsletter. He launched his own publishing house, the Danubian Press, which published not only books but English language magazines of the American Hungarian Guild of Arts, too. The Transylvanian Quarterly dealing with Transylvania and related issues, then the Hungarian Quarterly undertaking the general problems of the Hungarian nation became the most important anti-Bolshevik forum of Hungarian exiles. The aim of Albert Wass' publishing activity was to raise the attention of the American reading public and political circles to the Bolshevik brutalities governed by a state machinery of unrestricted power, and particularly to the unlawful behaviour of the Romanian State towards Transylvania and its Hungarian minority of about two million people.

Even in the 70s several attempts were made on his life by the agents of the Securitate, the bullet marks of whose guns Albert Wass could show in the film shot about him in 1996. Although the two perpetrators of that attempt had been captured by the American police, they were released on account of their Romanian diplomatic passport. Albert Wass' application for naturalisation in Hungary was first refused by the left-wing liberal government between 1994 and 1998, then impeded by a humiliating reply to the effect that the naturalisation certificate of the 90-year-old author would have been valid for a year from the date of issue. His life, which had seen, undertaken and investigated the tragedies as well as the instances of re commencement of the 20th century, ended at his age of 90 on 17th February, 1998, in Florida, by his own hand according to the majority, or peacefully according to others, or by the successful attempt of his enemies, as still others presume.

His works appeared in Hungary after the overturn of the Communist regime in 1989.

[edit] Novels

• 1934 Farkasverem (Wolfpit)
• 1940 Csaba
• 1940 Mire a fák megnőnek (Until the trees get grown)
• 1940 Jönnek! (They are coming!)
• 1943 A kastély árnyékában (In the shade of the castle)
• 1943 Egyedül a világ ellen (Alone against the world)
• 1947 A rézkígyó (The copper snake)
• 1949 Adjátok vissza a hegyeimet! (English edition: Give me back my mountains!, 1970, Eric Massey)
• 1951 Ember az országút szélén (English edition: Man by the side of the road, 1984)
• 1952 Elvész a nyom (The trail is getting perished)
• 1953 Tizenhárom almafa (Thirteen apple trees)
• 1958 Az Antikrisztus és a pásztorok (The Antichrist and the shepherds)
• 1959 A funtineli boszorkány (The witch of Funtinel)
• 1964 Átoksori kísértetek (English edition: The purple ghosts of Damnation Row, 1964)
• 1965 Elvásik a veres csillag (English edition: The red star wanes, 1965)
• 1967 Magukrahagyottak (English edition: Forsaken are the Brave,1967)
• 1974 Kard és kasza (Sword and scythe)
• 1978 Halálos köd Holtember partján (English edition: Deadly fog at Dead man's Landing)
• 1982 Eliza and the house that Jack built: historical novel (in English)
• 1985 Hagyaték (Inheritance)

[edit] Poems, fables, narrations

• 1927 Virágtemetés (Flower burial) (poem)
• 1943 Tavak könyve (Book of the lakes) (fable)
• 1947 Erdők könyve (Book of the woods) (fable)
• 1947 A láthatatlan lobogó (The invisble flag) (poem)
• 1970 Valaki tévedett (Somebody is mistaken) (narrations)
• 1972 Válogatott magyar mondák és népmesék (Assorted Hungarian legends and folk fables)
• 1978 A költő és a macska (The poet and the cat) (narration)