At an auction in Budapest, the starting price for the signed manuscript of the famous poet was HUF 10 million.
Attila József's autographed or signed book is a delicacy among wealthy collectors, but the poet's manuscript can be bid on in the rarest of cases. However, at the Központi Antikvárium's June auction, József Attila's poem A kanász, which was published in October 1932, in the volume Külvárosi éj, will be among the lots.
The starting price of the manuscript is HUF 10 million.
Underneath the one-page poem, the poet also wrote the date and location in November 1932. All of this is strange in that the volume Külvárosi éj was published in October, but the manuscript is dated later.
The Central Antiquarian managed to find out how all this could have happened. They also knew that Attila József wrote the 17 poems appearing in the volume Külvárosi éj in a notebook, several torn pages of this notebook are kept by the Petőfi Literary Museum.
But the poem A kanász was not among them, which is why it is a great sensation that the manuscript that was believed to be lost was found.
It is highly likely that he wrote down the poem during the summer, and the name and date only in November. It is also almost certain that he gave the special relic to the adopted daughter of a certain Jenő Bálint. It is known about Jenő Bálint that he was an author of several books, who visited many times in the company of Hungarian writers and poets. Sometimes he also took his adopted daughter with him, who in the thirties asked many literary greats for signatures or even manuscripts as souvenirs. This is how he was able to approach Attila József, who then took his notebook, signed and dated the poem A kanász, then tore it out of the notebook and gave it to the young girl, in whose fearfully guarded collection the manuscript hid for many decades, until it was put up for auction.
In 1932, Attila József lived in Budapest at 27 Székely Bertalan utca with his sweetheart, Judit Szántó. It was hard for him to bear the fact that the "Dektsd a capital, don't lament!" was brought to court on charges of incitement and sentenced to eight days in prison (and the books were confiscated).
In the end, the sentence was suspended for three years, but the incident took a toll on him, and he was also disappointed to learn that in November 1932, despite his encouragement, he did not get a job at the Capital Library.
It is interesting that József Attila's girlfriend at the time, Judit Szántó, was invited to organize the József Attila museum in 1948,
then from 1955 he worked at the Petőfi Literary Museum as a department head. According to the experts, the Attila József manuscript that went under the hammer probably did not remain without an owner, since besides Endre Ady and Miklós Radnóti, Attila József's manuscripts are the most precious treasures of wealthy collectors.
Cover image: The ominous manuscript and portrait of Attila József
Source: Central Antiquarium/Wikipedia
