User:BanKris/Zoltán Petőfi

Zoltán Petőfi (15 December 1848, Debrecen – 5 November 1870, Józsefváros, Pest) actor, poet, son of Sándor Petőfi and Júlia Szendrey.

Life and career
He was born in a Lutheran - Roman catholic mixed marriage, he was baptised Catholic like his mother. His godparents were János Arany and his wife, Julianna Ercsey. After the death of Sándor Petőfi he lived in Erőd with his grandfather, later in Pest with his stepfather, historian Árpád Horvát. His father's younger brother, István Petőfi was his legal guardian until 1869.

From 1865 he went to the Lutheran national collage in Szarvas. In 1867 he wanted to join a travelling theatre but Imre Csaby refused to employ him and notified István Tatay collage principle who punished Zoltán. After that he travelled to the neighbouring Mezőtúr and joined the company there. He left school during 7th grade because hi uncle, István Petőfi took him to Csákó to homeschool him in Pest and finish his exams.

On 20 April 1867, Zoltán travelled from Csákó to Debrecen where he became an actor at the company of director Boldizsár Lángh for only 30 Forint monthly. In 1868 he performed at the theatre of Jusztin Kocsisovszky in Szeged. Although he frequently slept through rehearsals, the director turned a blind eye just because he Zoltán was the son of Sándor Petőfi. Because of his poor skills and veiled voice he only played smaller roles with only one exception in the opera Brankovics György.

He also tried writing poems, only a dozen of his work has remained.

He spoke French well, he made a living by translating. Despite his weak physique he was interested in girls, drinks and razzle more than work and eventually he got seriously ill. He tried to recover at relatives and foreign spas. He spent his last summer in Bad Gleichenberg and returned stronger to Pest however on 5 November 1870 at 7 am he died in tuberculosis at the age of 21. He wrote his own obituary 2 years before in Csákó. He was buried on 6 November 1870 beside her mother. His remains were exhumed on 24 October 1908 by the Petőfi Society and were placed in his mother's coffin in their family grave in the same cemetery.

On 15 November 1913 he was portrayed by Jenő Törzs in the play of Gyula Krúdy, Zoltánka ("Little Zoltán") in the National Theatre.

Works



 * His poems were published in the Vasárnapi Ujság (1870, translations from French), in the Szilágy (1884, one of his letters and 3 poems from 1864), in the Egytértés (the poem Bucsú és Szalay halálára); Gyula Kéry published some of his manuscripts in the Magyar Salon (vol. XXXVIII).
 * His manuscripts of the Hungarian translation of Lady Tartuffe remained.

Literature

 * Tamás Szana Örök emlékek ("Eternal memories", Budapest, 1892)
 * Gyula Déri: Petőfi Zoltán (Budapest, 1909)
 * Gyula Krúdy: Írói arcképek ("Writer Portraits", I., Budapest, 1957)
 * István Irányi: Petőfi Zoltán életpályája ("Life and career of Zoltán Petőfi", Szarvas, 1964)