Elek Benedek

[Image:Benedek Elek író.jpg|thumb|Elek Benedek c. 1925]
Benedek Elek was a Hungarian journalist and writer, widely known as "The Great Folk-Tale Teller" of The "Szekely Hungarian" Fairy-Tales.

Biography

Born in Kisbacon, Transylvania, Austrian Empire. He studied in Székelyudvarhely, and later in Budapest. He went as a student with to collect folklore elements. The result was a collection of "Transylvanian Folk Tales", which was met with so much positive critique, that the young Elek Benedek cut short his studies.
He worked at first as a journalist for Budapest Hírlap and for other newspapers.
He was a member of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest between 1887 and 1892. In his speeches he engaged in favor of youth literature and "Folk-Poetry", folk language and public education.
Benedek was the father of author and translator .

As editor and writer

In 1889 he founded, together with Lajos Pósa, the first Hungarian literary magazine for young people, Az Én Újságom. He was the editor of Jó Pajtás with.
He also edited a series of books for youth, called Kis Könyvtár ; this later appeared as Benedek Elek Kis Könyvtára.
In 1900 he joined the "Kisfaludy Group/Kisfaludy Tarsasag", a group of famous Hungarian writers and poets. He also wrote poems, dramas, novels and historical fiction books, but the most famous were his "Szekely Fairy-Tales".
In 1885 it was published the compilation Székely Tündérország, which contained the first original fairy tales from the authors. Six years later, in 1891, the Székely mesemondó appeared.
Benedek's biggest challenge was the Magyar mese- és mondavilág, a collection in 5 volumes published between 1894 and 1896 and dedicated to the Hungarian Millennia.
Next to the original stories he made translations, including many tales from Grimm's Fairy Tales and Arabian Nights to Hungarian.
After the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, he went back to his native village, Kisbacon, where he edited the youth magazine Cimbora until he died.