Poet, playwright, translator of literary texts.
He was born in Temesvár (Timisoara), the only child of his family. His parents want their child, Endre Károly, to choose a practical career, although when he is only 8, he recites a great number of poems. He studies at a school in Timisoara: after he graduates from his four gymnasium classes, he studies the trade, and has his graduation exam a year earlier; at the age of 17, he can already go to work.
In 1910 they publish his first poem, „Üstökös” (The Comet) in the Temesvári Hírlap newspaper, then the paper keeps publishing his further poems. Between 19l0 and l916 he is an employee of the textile factory in Budapest, then he becomes a bank officer in Timisoara. In 19l6 he goes to war. He spends the winter of 1917 in a little Slavonian village, and from here he goes farther to Piave in spring 1918. This is the place where he creates a lot of battle poems, which he keeps sketching in a notebook while returning home; in Budapest, he gives them to Kosztolányi Dezső, who starts promoting him. There are two poems Sok szerencsét én kívánok (I wish you a lot of Luck) and Halálkaverna (Death Cave) which they publish in the Esztendő magazine in August 1917. There are many people who keep asking: who is the new poet? He belongs to the group of people who, from their schools, went directly to the battle field. He returns home deadly sunburnt because of the Italian sun, full of blood, very dirty, yet still very young, holding a clean notebook containing his consistent and complex writing, as the diligent student of the school of death.
There are two outstanding literature figures, Kosztolányi Dezső and Schöpflin Aladár, who are delighted to write about his first volume of poems (Az ember, aki járva jár, 1922). The main topic of his poetry expresses the cruel murders, the human atrocity, the final signification of human life. He does not publish during the two World Wars. His poetical conception focuses on the gradually motivated and carefully developed poesies. Given his separation from the civil class, he writes one of his famous and often quoted poems, the Gorkij-requiem related to the events in 1936. One of his most striking experiences: before his heart surgery, on the operation desk, while waiting for an hour, he writes his very famous Görzi elégiák (Gorzi Elegies) made up of 10 chapters which he reconsiders after his lucky recovery.
Endre Károly develops his literary career with the Nyugat magazine. In the meantime, he earns his money as an accountant, firstly at the Chain Factory, Timisoara, between 1929 and 1949 he is the main secretary of the trade and interests department, and between 1949 and 1957, until he retires, he is the main accountant of the trade unit.
His literary identity keeps developing. In April 1919, he publishes, together with Herczog Nándor and Preisz Alfred, the Ébredj magazine, subtitled „the paper of human dignity and freedom.” He is the member of the „Arany János” Society in Timisoara, starting with 1946 he is its main secretary, he is the member of the Transylvanian Helikon (1926) and Kemény Zsigmond Society in Targu Mures (1929). There are two more literary volumes related to his name: Szemle (with Tóth Árpád, Péter Alfred, Fogarasi Andor and Fémes László, 1920) and Fajankó (with Kóra Norbert Nándor and painter Varga Albert, 1924).
After his remarkable introduction, he needs 25 more years to have his second volume Az ember a csillagok alatt – Man under the Stars (1947) published, then other 10 years for the third Válogatott versek – Selected poems (1957) to be edited. After their publication, there are some more: Elégiák és rapszódiák – Elegies and rhapsodies (1962), Legszebb versek – The most beautiful poems (1965), Őszutóm versei – The poems of my autumn way (1972), Görzi elégiák – Görzi elegies (1978) and finally the Periandrosz lyrical drama (1982).
He is considered a contemporary classical writer. The reader is overwhelmed by his humanistic approach and complex culture in the form of stylished sonnets, elegies, poems and dramas.
