ÁGAI, ADOLF

ÁGAI, ADOLF (A. Rosenzweig; 1836–1916), Hungarian novelist, editor, and physician. Born in Jáńoshalma, Ágai was the son of a prominent physician. After studying medicine in Vienna, he accepted a hospital appointment in Budapest. He also turned to writing, and his features in Budapest dailies, written under the pen-name "Porzó," were extremely popular. In 1868 Ágai abandoned medicine when he began the publication of a successful satirical weekly, Borsszem Jankó. Three years later he launched and became editor of the first long-lived Hungarian children's newspaper, Kis Lap ("Little Paper"), which appeared until 1904. Although he was opposed to Zionism, Ágai contributed to Herzl's Zionist journal, Die Welt. In his essays, he frequently depicts scenes from provincial Jewish life, based on memories of his childhood. Collections of his feuilletons are included in Porzó tarcalevelei ("Porzo's Feuilletons," 1876) and Utazás Peströl Budapestre ("Trip from Pest to Budapest," 1908). His collected novels appeared under the title Igaz történet ("True Story," 1893). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Irodalmi Lexikon (1927); Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929); L. Steiner, Adolf Ágai (Hung., 1933). (Jeno Zsoldos)