Frigyes Karinthy
Hungarian writer (1887–1938)
Frigyes Karinthy (Hungarian: [ˈfriɟɛʃ ˈkɒrinti]; 25 June 1887 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator. He was the first proponent of the six degrees of separation concept, in his 1929 short story, Chains (Láncszemek). Karinthy remains one of the most popular Hungarian writers. He was the brother of artist Ada Karinthy and the father of poet Gábor Karinthy and writer Ferenc Karinthy.
Among the English translations of Karinthy's works are two science fiction novellas that continue the adventures of Swift's character Gulliver. Voyage to Faremido is an early examination of artificial intelligence, with
a pacifist theme, while Capillaria is a polished and darkly humorous satire on the 'battle of the sexes'.
Life and work
Karinthy was born into a bourgeois family in Budapest. His family was originally Jewish but converted to Lutheranism shortly before he was born. He started his writing career as a journalist and remained a writer of short, humorous blurbs until his death. He rose to instant fame in 1912 with the publication of his literary parodies called Here's How YOU Write (Így írtok ti) in which he parodied the style of his fellow authors.
The public source identifies “Frigyes Karinthy” as hungarian writer (1887–1938). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Frigyes, Karinthy and Hungarian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q366325. VIAF identifies the subject as 46762994. The Library of Congress control number is n50070142. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1938, 1929 and 1912.
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This entry incorporates text from “Frigyes Karinthy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.