Andor Gaál (1895 –1944)

Novelist, journalist, translator. He was born in Balassagyarmat on 18. August 1895, died in Auschwitz in 1944.  His original name was Andor Gansel.

His first short stories were published in the journal called "A Hét" (The Week).  He worked as sub-editor of the journal "A Világ" (The World), then he became fellow of the daily newspaper "Magyar Hírlap" (Hungarian Gazette, still one of the leading newspapers in Hungary). From 1938 he was a member  of the editorial board of the newspaper "Esti Kurir" (Evening Courier).   His first novel, "Bíborruhás asszony" (Woman in Purple Dress) was published in 1920. In 1922 he won first prize in  a competition of the Athenaeum publishing company with his dramatic novel "Lejtőn"  (On a slope) which takes  place in  Russia.

He translated from German, French and English (for example novels of Sherwood Anderson, Upton Sinclair, and D. H. Lawrence).  In 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz where he died.
 

His main works:

• Woman in Purple Dress (novel, Budapest, 1920)
• On a Slope (novel, Budapest, 1922)
• The French bed (novel,  Budapest, 1934).

Translations:

• Sherwood Anderson: Tar, a Midwest Childhood
• Sherwood Anderson: Dark Laughter
• Arnold Bennett: Mistery of the department store
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
• Lewis Browne: The Chosen People 
• Louis Berg: Prison doctor
• Max Brand: The trail of the Panther
• Paul Brunton: A search in secret Egypt
• Paul Brunton: The quest of the overself
• Helen Grace Carlisle: The Merry Merry Maidens
  
• Paul De Kruif: The Fight for Life
• Hans Dominik: Atlantis
• John Dos Passos: Manhattan Transfer.
• John Knittel:  Doctor Ibrahim
• William Johanne La Varre: Jungle treasure
  
• David Herbert Lawrence:  The Plumed Serpent
• Ernst Lothar: Die Mühle der Gerechtigkeit
• Martha Osthenso: Prologue to Love
• Arthur Schnitzler: Traumnovelle
• Upton Sinclair: Lanny Budd : World`s end
• Howard Spring: The Cat
• Howard Spring: My Son...my son...
• Howard Spring: Fame is the spure
• Antonina Vallentin: Leonardo Da Vinci - The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection
  
• Hugh Walpole: Harmer John. An Unworldly Story
• Herbert George Wells: Meanwhile. The Picture Of A Lady
• Herbert George Wells: The History of Mr. Polly

You can download the novel "The Plumed Serpent" by D.H. Lawrence from the homepage of the Hungarian Electronic Library in Hungarian, translated by Andor Gaál . 

Sources:

• Hungarian Jewish Lexikon. Ed by Péter Ujvári, Budapest: Magyar Zsidó Lexikon. 1929. p. 301.  Reach online
• Hungarian Biographic Lexicon

(Yechiel)

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