Sándor Petőfi, Hungary’s most popular and one of its greatest poets, was born on January 1, 1823 and died on July 31, 1849. His father was a fairly well-to-do butcher and set out to educate his son, sending him to grammar schools and on to secondary school, but he was unable to take a degree: his father lost his shop and he had a run-in with a Slovak nationalist teacher, forcing him to leave the upper gymnasium (high school) at Selmec. While of Serbian and Slovak background (the family name was Petrovics and his mothers’s name was Hruz), Petőfi had been brought up as a Hungarian and considered himself to be one. His poem, “Magyar vagyok” [“I am a Hungarian”] proudly states that he was born a Magyar and his nurse sang Magyar lullabies to him, and so on. His leaving school…
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Citation: Basa, Enikő. "Sándor Petőfi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 February 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12665, accessed 31 October 2024.]
