In Memoriam Alex Szogyi
(January 27, 1929-April 23, 2007)

Teacher, scholar, critic, translator, mentor, actor, pianist, graphologist, astrologer, chef, and bel esprit are only a few of the words that describe Alex Szogyi. And yet, no single term captures his essence or portrays his uniqueness. Alex defies classification; it is almost easier to list what he didn’t do than to enumerate his accomplishments. Alex Szogyi danced to no one’s piper. He was neither easy to know nor easy to love since he presented a challenge to anyone who would attempt either. For those who persisted, the rewards proved to be rich.

An aficionado of drama, music, dance, art, and film, Alex inspired his students and colleagues to delve into all that pertained to theater and the arts. We Sandistes owe him a special debt since he belonged to the visionary group that set the stage for The Friends of George Sand. Beginning in 1976 at Hofstra University, this society, now known as the George Sand Association, catapulted Sand studies into a meteoric flurry of critical activity that has now spread worldwide. Thanks to the efforts of Alex and the other founding members, George Sand and her work are no longer relegated to a literary footnote or reserved only for children’s perusal.

Some will be surprised to know that Alex Szogyi’s undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College was in mathematics; he then went on to receive his doctorate at Yale University in French, specializing in 17th century literature, after studies at the Sorbonne. Alex taught at Yale, Wesleyan College, CUNY Graduate School and University Center, and Hunter College, where he was Chairperson of the Romance Language Department for seven years. His teaching career spanned forty years.

Alex was an avid translator. Among Alex’s many English translations are several of Marivaux’s plays, all of Anton Chekhov’s plays, and Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, which is still being produced throughout the country.  His adaptation of Molière’s George Dandin was produced by the Classic Stage Company; the Gramercy Arts Theater presented his version of Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir. A prolific writer, Alex’s books include, Molière Abstrait, Chocolate: Food of the Gods, and a novel, Carnaval.  Alex also wrote regularly, as a food and restaurant critic, for the Village Voice, Gourmet and Bon Appétit.  His close friend, Patricia Highsmith, dedicated The Snail Watcher and Other Stories to him.

Along with Ellis Rabb and Rosemary Harris, Alex was a co-founder of the APA Theater. Alex appeared in the Gérard Depardieu film Balzac playing the fortune teller of Mme Balzac (Jeanne Moreau). He counted both actors among his friends; in fact, Mme Moreau wrote the preface to a sumptuously illustrated and produced book, Les Fables de La Fontaine, Fables Choisies,  to which Alex had contributed notes and commentaries (Paris: Éditions Épigraf, 2005).

On October 23, 2007, a memorial and symposium in honor of Alex Szogyi’s life and work was held at the City University of New York Graduate Center. It was a day-long celebration and was attended by colleagues and students alike. Natalie Datlof, Jeanne Fuchs, and Philip Thompson, Alex’s partner of 46 years, all participated. Byron Janis, a close friend, played several Chopin pieces at the conclusion of the festivities. Alex would have relished it all. So to our dear friend and colleague we can only say, CHAPEAU!

Jeanne Fuchs and Natalie Datlof

Remembering Alex Szogyi (1927-2007).  

Our colleague, contemporary, and major contributor to the revival of George Sand studies died on April 23, 2007.  Some of you will remember the numerous references to Alex, published in the GSA Newsletter of 2006, as founder, organizer and active participant in George Sand gatherings, here and abroad, from 1976 on; as well as his contribution as a translator of Sand’s dramatic “Prologue” to Les Mississippiens, performed at the 1978 conference, and his participation in the group translation of Sand’s Histoire de ma vie, published by SUNY Press in 1990.  But few of you may know that the plays of Corneille, Racine, and Molière were his formative interests, sustained thereafter in his translation of all of Checkov’s dramatic work.

Alex’s talents were not confined within the boundaries of literary genres or time periods; his interests stretched to cooking, graphology, and astrology.  (Given his interest in the last, it might have pleased him to know that he died on the same day as Shakespeare did, in 1616.)  However, the links he made via those interests, to celebrities in theatre and film, led him back to his interest in the work and life of George Sand.  An example: His actress friend, Rosemary Harris, appeared as George Sand in a seven-part series on PBS, early in 1976, that presented a sympathetic portrait of a determined young woman, struggling to succeed in the male-dominated profession of writing, in contrast to the prevalent stereotype of Sand as an unfaithful wife and lover of artistic geniuses, along with a dwindling reputation as a novelist.

Thus Alex was prepared and well-placed, as chair of the French Department of Hunter College, to respond to the flier announcing the first George Sand conference, to be held at Hofstra University in November 1976.  Natalie Datlof, the muse of the movement to revive Sand’s reputation as a writer, invited Alex to participate, and his presentation discussing the narrative voice in Lucrezia Floriani was one of the earliest examples of a way to refocus critical attention on the study of Sand’s fiction.  The excitement of shared interest and knowledge generated at that conference fed Natalies’s vision of forming a Sand society in the US, with Alex as one of her main supporters.  From these origins, Alex’s contribution to Sand studies went on for decades and included highlights such as directing the dramatic event at the 1982 Sand conference, and four years later, writing and directing a play, “Dialectic of the Heart,” about Sand and Chopin, in which his friend Byron Janis performed in the role of the pianist, for the 1986 Sand conference.

Creating links with our counterparts in France was another aspect of the vision that Alex supported via his connection with French scholars, dignitaries, and celebrities.  He promoted the efforts of Christiane Sand, guardian of some of Sand’s treasures, to resurrect the author’s reputation by exhibiting her private collection of artifacts, photographs, paintings, and written material.  It was typical of Alex that he developed a personal relationship with Christiane that exemplifies the way his literary interest in Sand the writer permeated his life:   He wrote: “Philip Thompson and I have been guests in her home and have eaten some of her favorite dishes on Sand’s very own plates….She has made sure that [Sand’s] kitchen and the home are as authentic as they were in Sand’s lifetime….”  Alex’s knowledge of cuisine was a special gift that enhanced his company for all who knew him.  Whether it was his questions to the waiter regarding the poisson du jour (lotte) on the menu at a local restaurant in Tours, on the occasion of the first overseas Sand workshop in 1981, or the discussion with the chef as to the quality of the beef at a steak house in Kansas City, after the 1984 Sand conference in Missouri, eating out with Alex was always a memorable event.

In closing, one can do no better than to quote Natalie Datlof’s words as they appeared in the New York Times obituary section on April 29, 2007: “He brought the world of George Sand to light and to life.”

Thelma Jurgrau