Ferenc Pulszky

Ferenc Aurél Pulszky de Cselfalva et Lubócz (17 September 1814 - 9 September 1897) was a Hungarian politician and writer.

He was born at Eperjes; after studying law and philosophy at the high schools of his native town and Miskolc, he travelled abroad. England particularly attracted him, and his fascinating book, "Aus dem Tagebach eines in Grossbritannien reisenden Ungarns" (Pesth, 1837), gained for him the membership of the Hungarian Academy.

Elected to the Reichstag of 1840, he was in 1848 appointed to a financial post in the Hungarian government, and was transferred in like capacity to Vienna under Esterházy. Suspected of intriguing with the revolutionists, Pulszky fled to Budapest to avoid arrest. Here he became an active member of the committee of national defence, and when obliged to fly the country he joined Lajos Kossuth in England and with him made a tour in the United States. In collaboration with his wife he wrote a narrative of this voyage, entitled "White, Red, Black" (3 vols., London, 1853).

He was condemned to death (1852) "in contumaciam" by a council of war. In 1860 he went to Italy, took part in Giuseppe Garibaldi's ill-fated expedition to Rome (1862), and was interned as a prisoner of war in Naples. Amnestied by the emperor of Austria in 1866, he returned home and reentered public life; was from 1867-1876, and again in 1884, a member of the Hungarian Diet, joining the Deák party.

In addition to his political activity, he was president of the literary section of the Hungarian Academy, and director of the National Museum at Budapest, where he became distinguished for his archaeological researches. He employed his great influence to promote both art and science and Liberal views in his native country. He died in September 1897.

Among his writings are "Die Jacobiner in Ungarn" (Leipzig, 1851) and "Életem s korom" (Pest, 1880), and many treatises on Hungarian questions in the publications of the Academy of Pest.

References

* János György Szilágyi, "A Forty-Eighter's Vita Contemplativa: Ferenc Pulszky (1814-1889)", "The Hungarian Quarterly", 39:149 (Spring 1998) [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no149/3.html]
* "Reminiscences of Kossuth and Pulszky", published by F. W. Newman in 1888