He was born at Kohány (today Kochanovce, suburb of Sečovce) in the county of Zemplén, and was educated for the law at the Protestant college of Sárospatak.

However he won a much larger fame with his Mesék (Fables), the first edition of which appeared at Vienna in 1820.

These fables, which, on account of their originality and simplicity, caused Fay to be regarded as the Hungarian Aesop, were translated into German by Petz (Raab, 1825), and partly into English by E. D. Butler, Hungarian Poems and Fables (London, 1877).

[1] Among his dramatic works are the tragedy, The Two Báthorys (1827); and several comedies, the most notable being The Old Coins; or the Transylvanians in Hungary (1824), and The Hunt in the Matra (1860).

In 1835 Fáy was elected to the Hungarian diet, and until the arrival of Lajos Kossuth in 1840 was the leader of the opposition party.