Zseni Várnai

Born in Nagyvázsony in the Hungarian Kingdom in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an assimilated Jewish family, Zseni Várnai graduated from the Budapest Academy of Performing Arts in 1908 intending to be an actress. Working as a secretary, she published poems in a number of literary magazines (notably Nyugat and Népszava), receiving great acclaim for “Katonafiamnak!” (“To My Soldier Son!”), written in advance of an anticipated military intervention at a workers’ demonstration, which became the title of her first volume of poetry (1914) and a revolutionary anthem that echoed throughout the streets and cafés in October 1918. Várnai’s poetry is often characterized for its emphasis on motherhood, pacifism, female empowerment, and antifascism. She had two children with her husband Andor Peterdi, a poet and journalist: Maria Peterdi, an Egyptologist who cowrote Várnai’s autobiography (1943), and Gabor Peterdi, a printmaker who chaired the Yale University School of Art and Architecture. Várnai was awarded the Attila József Prize in 1956.