ERDELYI

erdelyi, janos (1814-1868), hungarian poet and author, was born in 1814 at kapos, in the county of ungvar, and educated at the protestant college of sarospatak. in 1833 he removed to pest, where he was, in 1839, elected member of the hungarian academy of sciences. his literary fame was made by his collection of hungarian national poems and folk-tales, _magyar nepkoltesi gyujtemeny, nepdalok es mondak_ (pest, 1846-1847). this work, published by the kisfaludy society, was supplemented by a dissertation upon hungarian national poetry, afterwards partially translated into german by stier (berlin, 1851). erdelyi also compiled for the kisfaludy society an extensive collection of hungarian proverbs--_magyar kozmondasok konyve_ (pest, 1851),--and was for some time editor of the _szepirodalmi szemle_ (_review of polite literature_). in 1848 he was appointed director of the national theatre at pest; but after 1849 he resided at his native town. he died on the 23rd of january 1868. a collection of folklore was published the year after his death, entitled _a nep kolteszete nepdalok, nepmesek es kozmondasok_ (pest, 1869). this work contains 300 national songs, 19 folk-tales and 7362 hungarian proverbs.