Gyula Krúdy

Gyula Krúdy was a Hungarian writer and journalist.

Gyula Krúdy was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a maid working for the aristocratic Krúdy family. His parents did not marry until Gyula was 17 years old. In his teens, Gyula published newspaper pieces and began writing short stories. Although his father wanted him to become a lawyer, Gyula worked as an editor at a newspaper for several years, then moved to Budapest. He was disinherited, but supported his wife (also a writer) and children through the publication of two collections of short stories. Sinbad's Youth, published in 1911, proved a success, and Krudy used the character, a man who shared the name of the hero of the Arabian Nights, many times throughout his career.

Krúdy's novels about Budapest were popular during the First World War and the Hungarian Revolution, but he was often broke due to excessive drinking, gambling and philandering. His first marriage fell apart. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Krúdy's health declined and his readership dwindled. In the years after his death, his works were largely forgotten until 1940, when Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai published Sinbad Comes Home, a fictionalized account of Krúdy's last day. This book's success brought Krúdy's works back to the Hungarian public.

He was called "a Hungarian Proust" by critic Charles Champlin in The New York Times.