Ferenc Herczeg

• Name — Ferenc Herczeg • Born — 22 September 1863 • Birthplace — Versecz, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (now Vršac, Serbia) • Died — 24 February 1954 • Place of death — Budapest, Hungary • Occupation — Writer, playwright, journalist • Language — Hungarian • Education — University of Budapest (JD) • Notable Works — The Gates of Life • Spouse — Janka Grill Herczeg Ferenc

He founded and edited the magazine Új Idők ("New Times") in 1895. In 1896, he was elected to parliament, and in 1901, he became the president of the Petőfi Society. Dream Country (1912), one of his more prominent novels, tells how the love affair of an American business magnate and a Hungarian adventuress ends in jealousy and murder in the course of a yacht tour from Athens and Istanbul to Venice. In 1925, 1926 and 1927, he was nominated for the Nobel prize for The Gates of Life (1919), a historical novel about archbishop Tamás Bakócz, the only Hungarian aspirant to the papal throne, set in 16th-century Rome. One major recurring theme of his novels is the conflict of a rich heir with his brother, cousin or rival who has been cheated of his lawful rights (Huszt of Huszt 1906, The Two Lives of Magdalena 1917, Northern Lights 1930). In 1949, Herczeg sued movie studio MGM, producer Joe Pasternak and screenwriters Walter Reisch and Leo Townsend (author) for $200,000 over the 1942 movie Seven Sweethearts, claiming they had plagiarized his play Seven Sisters, which he had written in 1903 and which Paramount Pictures had adapted into The Seven Sisters a 1915 movie starring Madge Evans.

Ferenc Herczeg was recorded at birth as Franz Herzog. The authorities additionally record the heading Franz Herczeg. His recorded language was Hungarian.

Recorded position is member of the National Assembly of Hungary. He belonged to Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Petőfi Society, Kisfaludy Society and Budapest Association of Journalists.

• Above and Below (1890) • Mutamur (1893) • The Gyurkovics Girls (1893) • The Daughter of the Landlord of Dolova (1893) • The Gyurkovics Boys (1895) • The House of Honthy (a drama, 1896) • The First Storm (a drama, 1899) • Hand Washes Hand (a drama, 1903) • The Gates of Life (a novel, 1919)