The Hungarian P.E.N.-Le P.E.N. Hongrois No. 30. [antikvár]

LÁSZLÓ KÉR Y A BELATED LETTER TO IVÁN BOLDIZSÁR Dear Iván, We have not seen much of eaeh other lately, as you always seem to have countless things to do. I have never been able to understand how you are able to devote yourself to so many things, how you have been able to find the time for your avocation, for writing, which you have never ceased to do, no matter the circumstances—always writing even perhaps on the naked ice of the Don. I have known that, in terms of health, things have not been going so well; indeed you have complained about your heart though, so it seems, this was not taken too seriously, neither by you yourself nor by those who knew you well and were successfully deceived by your infinite capacity for work, your indestructible joy in life and your dazzling, inexhaustible cheerfulness. In our deluded belief, anyone who has such overwhelming vitality simply cannot die. Surely I was not the only one who thought that you might never leave us. Now, that this absurdity has happened, I have been trying to discover just what there was at the heart of your being as a man and as a literary personality. I can find no better words than those of care, sympathy and love. You loved people. Not just people in generál but primarily those who lived close to you. You loved your mother, who was a wonderful woman. She appears often in what you have written. You loved your wife, the heroine of French Woman, an autobiographical short story of documentary value; she recurs as a support-ing characíer in a number of your writings and was clearly central in the real story of your life. You loved your children and grandchildren, you did not withhold any care or sacrince from them. In an age in which we hear and read so much of broken families, you were the páter familias epitomized. And you loved your friends, although not everyone was a friend of yours and there must have been those whom you did not üke and who did not üke you. Yet this does not altér the fact, the countless lines of love radiating out from you and surrounding you are proof of your feelings towards larger communities— the nation, Europe and humanity. It would be no mistake to üst you among the eminent humanists of our time. You knew how to be both hot-tempered and considerate. I have seen magni-ficent examples for both on several occasions during the discussions of P.E.N. International. Enthusiasm for a goal, sober consideration, a drive to conciliate