Miklós Mészöly (1921 - 2001), who was to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2020, is one of the most important and best-known Hungarian writers of the 20th century. He published his works from 1943, worked as a freelance writer from 1956, and the volumes of his self-assembled edition of works have been published continuously since 1995.

Throughout his career, he corresponded regularly with writers from West and East Central Europe, and he received scholarships, e.g. to West Berlin in 1973-1974. Many of his works were translated, but he has not yet made an international breakthrough.

Mészöly’s works have had a lasting impact on Hungarian prose, especially on Péter Nádas and on a newer generation of novelists, such as László Darvasi, who in the 1990s turned to historical, especially specifically Central European themes. Mészöly was virtually ignored by critics until the early 1970s, so his works from the first collections of stories did not receive attention until they were included in later volumes, such as the famous anthology Alakulások (1975), which presents Mészöly’s poetics in its full scope.