Kelemen Mikes

Born in 1690 in Transylvania, he became closely connected with Prince Francis II Rákóczi and followed him into exile after the failed uprising against Habsburg rule. Much of his life was then spent in the Ottoman Empire, especially in Rodosto, where a community of Hungarian exiles lived for decades.

He is remembered above all for Letters from Turkey (Törökországi levelek), a series of imaginative and deeply personal letters that blend memoir, travel writing, social observation, and gentle humor. Although written as letters, they were crafted as literature and later came to be regarded as one of the foundations of modern Hungarian prose.

What makes his writing last is its human tone: he could be reflective and melancholy, but also warm, curious, and quietly funny. Through his pages, exile becomes not just a political fate, but a deeply felt personal experience.