SZABÓ, IMRE

SZABÓ, IMRE (1882–1958), Hungarian author, playwright, and journalist. Szabó was born in Ersekujvar. He began his career as a journalist writing for the German-language daily Neues Politisches Volksblatt, and later worked on Hungarian and Jewish newspapers. After World War I Szabó settled in Kolozsvár (Cluj), Transylvania, and devoted himself to literature. He wrote plays, novels, and biographies, mainly on Jewish subjects, and was strongly influenced by the major Hungarian writers, notably Kálmán Mikszáth. Szabó also published translations of plays from the Yiddish. His works include the story A pozsonyi zsidó utca ("The Jews' Street in Pressburg," 1938), a faithful picture of pre-World War I Jewish life; Zsidó komédiások ("Jewish Comedians," 1925); and Kelet kapujában ("At the Gate of the East," 1937). Uj zsidók (1937) contained biographies of theodor herzl and other modern Jewish leaders. Szabó also published a Hungarian version of Louis Golding's novel Magnolia Street. Two later works were Erdély zsidói ("The Jews of Transylvania," 1938) and Róma és Judea (1943). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 3 (1965), 116. (Baruch Yaron)