COURAGE

łączymy kolekcje

Allen Ginsberg, American poet and leading figure of the Beat Generation, arrived in Prague in February 1965. During his stay in Czechoslovakia, he attended several public readings and discussions. At the beginning of May, during the May celebrations, he was elected by students “The King of May”. However, a week later, he was deported by the State Security to the airport and expelled from the country. Later, Czechoslovak press launched a denigration campaign and accused him of “corrupting the youth”.

The Jindřich Chalupecký Collection at the Museum of Czech Literature contains Ginsberg’s address from 1965 written by Ginsberg himself. This address illustrates Chalupecký’s interest in the American poet and probable contact between them during Ginsberg’s stay in Czechoslovakia in 1965. Moreover, Chalupecký’s name appeared in Ginsberg’s diary that was confiscated by the Czechoslovak State Security.

The founder regards the call by the HVG publishers for the creation of almanacs on the Hungarian Parliament as the date of the establishment of the Collection of Political Transition. The first volume came out in 1992, followed by the further issues of the almanac series on contemporary political events in 1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2012. As for the publication milestones on the coalition period (1945–1948), the relevant dates are: 1994, 1999, and 2005.

Gábor Altorjay’s Fluxus object entitled Chess Preserve was realized as part of the action Chess!! In 1967 (Írószövetség, Budapest, April 12, 1967) – evoking Marcel Duchamp’s passion for chess. The action was accompanied by the following poem:

1.         Preserve a set of chess!

2.         Put on a dark suit, a white shirt and a tie!

3.         Use 250 ml of perfume!

4.         Put the chess set on a table in front of you!

5.         Put on 3 pairs of rubber gloves!

6.         Open the chess set and say out loud: “Chess!” and pour the chess pieces on your own head!

7.         Point at the door and shout: “There he goes!”

An émigré Hungarian scouting diary of peloton "Raven," section "Hunyadi,", N9 "Pál Teleki" troop, Passau-Waldwerke, Germany 1947–1949.

This handwritten, illustrated diary of a hardcover school exercise book, a special item of the HSAE collection, is a typical memento of the early Hungarian émigré scouting movement from 1947–1949. The former holders of this diary were the members of scout peloton "Raven," all young Hungarian schoolboys recruited from the Passau refugee camp in Germany following the Second World War.

The names of the scout organizational references all speak for themselves with their symbolic meanings. The "Raven," an element from the Hunyadi family’s medieval coat of arms, plus two Hungarian national heroes—Regent János Hunyadi and Count Pál Teleki—as symbols of courage, resistance and high-spirited patriotism.