Page:Famous stories from foreign countries.djvu/68

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PETÖFI

Alexander Petöfi, the great lyric poet of the Magyar race, was born the first day of January, 1823. His was a true poet’s life—brief and stormy. Only twenty-six years were his in which to live and purchase fame. Despite the fact that he took an active part in the wars which were numerous during his brief day, and was active as an editor and politician, he found time to write some of the finest lyric verse of his race, and tales in prose, and to leave a considerable correspondance with the distinguished men of the period.

His best prose work is the novelette, The Hangman’s Knot.