Mária Szepes

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Mária Szepes
Szepes in 1992
Born	Magdolna Scherbach December 14, 1908 Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	September 3, 2007(2007-09-03) (aged 98)
Other names	Mária Papir Mária Orsi
Occupation	Author
Spouse	Béla Szepes (m. 1931)

Mária Szepes (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmaːriɒ ˈsɛpɛʃ]; 14 December 1908 – 3 September 2007) was a Hungarian author. She worked as a journalist and screenwriter, as well as an independent author in the field of hermetic philosophy since 1941. She would sometimes write under the pseudonyms Mária Papir or Mária Orsi.

Life

Szepes was born Magdolna Scherbach into a Hungarian family of theater stars in

From 1916 to 1933, she appeared as a film actress (mostly under the name Magda Papir). One year after marrying Béla Szepes on 2 January 1931, she accompanied him to Berlin, where they lived until Hungary's German occupation towards war's end. In her book Magie der Liebe ("Magic of Love"), Szepes writes about the marriage, which lasted 56 years, and discusses the so-called "Alchemistic Marriage", the dissolution of the ego in the other.

Szepes studied

The Red Lion

The Red Lion, Mária Szepes' first novel, was published in 1946 in Hungary (original title: A Vörös Oroszlán). During the communist regime of Rákosi, The Red Lion was considered to be nonconformist and was therefore prohibited. All copies of the book were ordered to be destroyed. However, the librarian and novelist Béla Hamvas managed to save four copies. Then, several supporters of the author typed up the novel, made templates for printing, and released the self-made copies through the underground. Almost 40 years later, the novel arrived at the desk of the Heyne publishing company via the agency Utoprop. The book was translated into German by Gottfried Feidel and was published as a paperback in 1984. More details regarding the history of origin are reported by Hans Joachim Alpers in his preface of the 2002 re-issue.

The Red Lion has been adapted to stage and is performed in various theaters of the United States.

Plot summary

Szepes tells the story of the unhappy Hans Burgner, a miller's son born in the 16th century. After the death of his weak father and of a likewise miserable but beloved teacher, he becomes afraid of the unavoidable death of all living things. Driven by a monomania fed by persistent rumors of an

Selected filmography

• The Frozen Child (1921)
• Greetings and Kisses, Veronika (1933)
• Tomi (1936)
• Don't Ask Who I Was (1941)

External links

• Mária Szepes in the German National Library catalogue
• Mária Szepes at
  IMDb