Poet and writer István Csukás was born on this day in 1936. Without him, we wouldn't know Süsü, the dragon, the big ho-ho-ho-fisherman, nor Balázs Sün and Pom pom.
He was born in Kisújszállás, his father was a master blacksmith, and his workshop operated in the yard of their house. He finished elementary school in his native village, and later said about learning to read: "When I got to know the letters and read the first book, I became a different person. I knew right away that I had reason in my head and not plum jam. And that I could move my mind and imagine what was in the book. The cinema of imagination worked in my head. I can travel to places I've never been before, I can travel the world sitting in my room."
The II. After World War II, he applied to the music school in Békéstarhos, which was starting at that time, and trained as a violinist. He discovered poetry as a teenager, decided to study humanities, but ended up in law. In 1954, he transferred to the Faculty of Humanities, but dropped out of his studies after three years. At that time, his first poems were published, and for a while he lived from writing and editing. Later, he led the Club of Young Artists, then worked at the Arts Fund, the Ministry of Labor, and the newspaper People's Army.
His first book of poems was published in 1962. with title. His early poetry is a nostalgic account of a young intellectual who has moved to the big city about his childhood in the countryside, about his disappearing youth: "I live in my unfulfilled dreams / there is no furnished apartment waiting for me." From 1968 to 1971, he was an employee of Hungarian Television. István Kormos the poet turned to children's literature, and in addition to his books of poems, his fairy tales and novels for young people were published one after another.
His first fairy tale novel, Egy grüe kiscacsi, was soon followed by the volume about the adventures of Mirr-Murr, the kandúr, from which Foky Ottó made a series of puppet films.
In the mid-seventies, his captivating youth novels Hard Hat and Potato Nose and Summer on the Island were published.
The TV movie versions of the works were also very successful, in 1975 at the X television festival in Hollywood, Hard Hat and Potato Nose won the grand prize and the title of best children's film of the year. In 2013, a statue (by Attila Pintér ) was erected in Kisújszállás to the Bagaméri ice cream man in the work, played by Alfonzó.
From 1978 to 1985, he was the editor-in-chief of the Móra Ferenc Youth Publishing House, then from 1989 to 1991 he was a member of the editorial board of Új Idő and Kölyök Magazin, and from 1993 he was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Piros Pont. Some parts of Pom Pom's fairy tales have been published since the eighties, the stories about the big ho-ho-ho-fisherman, the smallest jump-ear, as well as his fairy tale about Süsü, the scary-looking but well-intentioned, friendly one-headed dragon. Cartoon and puppet film versions introduced these lovely fairy-tale characters to the whole country.
His plays (Ágacska, Utázás a szempelám behind the eyelash, Csodakaloda, Tükörbhóçokok) were presented one after another in Budapest theaters. He didn't turn his back on writing poetry, and several books of poems were published in parallel with the fairy tales. In 2013, he appeared again with a youth novel, Áron Mátyássy . In 2014, the Pannon Castle Theater in Veszprém presented his fairy tale In Pursuit of the Giant, and the National Theater in Szeged staged his children's opera titled Runaway Stars.
In 1977 and 1987, he received the Attila József Award, in 1984 the Andersen Award, the Book of the Year Award in 1987, and the Tibor Déry Award in 1989 and 1995. In 1999, he was awarded the Kossuth Prize. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Book Festival, in 2011 he was honored with the title of honorary citizen of Budapest and the Prima Primissima award. In 2015, he became a permanent member of the Hungarian Writers' Association and received the Ernő Szép special award, on March 15, 2016 he was awarded the middle cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (civilian section), in the same year he received the Hungarian Heritage Award, and on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, Pom was inaugurated in Kisújszállás Pom statue (artwork of Attila Pintér and Attila Rajcsók). In 2017, he was awarded the title of Artist of the Nation.
István Csukás died on February 24, 2020.
Source: Hirado.hu / civilek.info
Cover photo: István Csukás in 2017. Photo: Balázs Mohai / MTI
