István Örkény

He was born to a wealthy Jewish family, his father Hugo was the owner of a pharmacy in Budapest.

He graduated from the Piarist Gymnasium [hu] in 1930 and enrolled at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics where he studied chemistry.

[1] In 1937, he became associated with the journal Szép Szó [hu] and began traveling; to London and Paris, where he held several odd jobs.

He was prohibited from publishing after the Revolution and worked as a chemical engineer at United Pharmaceuticals [hu] until 1963.

In 2004, the Madách Chamber Theatre in Budapest was renamed the Örkeny Theater in his honour.