Árpád Kadarkay, who became an ever-responsive reader, then a house author, then a personal friend of the Hungarian Review team, deceased in his home in Tacoma, Washington, USA, in late November 2015. Born in the village of Kesztölc, Hungary, in 1934, he lived through many hardships during the War and the Communist era, and having fought against the Soviet Army during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he emigrated to the US later that year. Starting his higher education late in the US, and working at various physical jobs during his university studies, he earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, and slowly became a foremost authority on the work of György Lukács, and on questions of ideology and repression in the Communist world. Readers of the Hungarian Review will not forget his perceptive essays on Lincoln and Whitman, György Lukács, and Hannah Arendt. Especially memorable is his War and Art, a serialised autobiographical essay on the hell of the Second World War, with its vivid image of anxiety, violence and death in a small village, and his keen analysis of the lethal totalitarian mindsets of the Nazis and the Soviets. Árpád Kadarkay had never severed his deep and humble roots in his home country, while he became a passionate admirer of American democracy and a widely appreciated intellectual in the best sense of the word. He was a man of courage and a generous heart, and we will always remember him with affection.
Just as we were sending this issue to the printers, we learned that another loyal and brilliant contributor of Hungarian Review, writer George Jonas died in his home in Toronto on 12 January. Hungarian Review intends to duly commemorate him in its March issue.
The Editors