John Rety

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John Rety
Born
Janos Réty

(1930-12-08)December 8, 1930
Budapest, Hungary
DiedFebruary 3, 2010(2010-02-03) (aged 79)
London, England
OccupationPoet, writer, publisher

John Rety, born Janos Réty (8 December 1930 – 3 February 2010) was a Hungarian-British anarchist, poet, publisher and chessplayer.[1][2]

Life[]

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Rety attended an English nursery school in Budapest. A child when World War II broke out, he was separated from his Jewish parents in 1944, carried messages for the Resistance,[3] his grandmother was shot on the last day of the war.[4] In 1947, after performing an anti-war play on the steps of the Budapest parliament,[5] he left for a holiday with his aunt in Britain, and was forced to stay after the aunt burnt his passport.

After a job translating for a Czech publisher who spoke no English,[3] he started a Soho underground paper, Intimate Review, with contributions from young writers including Doris Lessing, Bill Hopkins, , Frank Norman, Alun Owen, and Bernard Kops. Feliks Topolski and Ralph Steadman produced artwork. In 1953 he published a comic epistolary novel, Supersozzled Nights. After the threat of libel action forced Intimate Review to close, he co-edited other short-lived publications, Cheshire Cat and Fortnightly: Rety was the first to publish Colin Wilson. After meeting his partner Susan Johns in 1958, they opened a second-hand furniture shop in Camden High Street, and Rety also trained as a painter at City and Guilds Art School.

Politically involved in the anti-nuclear Committee of 100, from 1964 to 1969 he edited the anarchist weekly Freedom, increasing its circulation and smoothing over sectarianism in British anarchism with his cheerfully inclusive editorial approach.[6] (At the time, he later confessed, he'd never read any of the anarchist classics - and though he later found Kropotkin readable, he could never really understand Proudhon or Bakunin.[7]) He was active against the Vietnam War, participating in the Grosvenor Square demonstration as well as a 13-day fast at Speaker's Corner. Initially convinced of the innocence of Stuart Christie, accused of carrying explosives to assassinate Francisco Franco, Rety helped coordinate an international solidarity campaign, despite a personal feeling of betrayal on learning the truth.[6]

In 1982 he co-founded the Torriano Meeting House in Kentish Town, hosting weekly poetry readings. Stephen Spender and Adrian Mitchell were among the hundreds of poets who performed at Torriano.[6] A 2003 anthology included the work of Dannie Abse, John Arden, Oliver Bernard, John Heath-Stubbs and .[8] The anthology appeared with his Hearing Eye Press, founded in 1987, which ultimately published over 150 books. He also became poetry editor of the Morning Star: an anthology of work that appeared there, Well Versed, went into two editions.[8]

As a chess player, reaching a FIDE rating of 2034,[6] he played for Middlesex and London University as well as representing England in the European Senior Chess Championship.[3] For most of his life he travelled on a stateless person's document, but finally obliged to obtain a British passport in his late seventies, after Hungary joined the EU.[9]

Rety died in London, survived by his partner and two children: his daughter is editor of Peace News.

References[]

  1. ^ Pilgrim, John (18 March 2010). "John Rety obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  2. ^ Foxell, Nigel (23 October 2011). "John Rety: Poet and anarchist who ran the Hearing Eye publishing house". The Independent. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Obituary: John Rety", The Daily Telegraph, 1 March 2010.
  4. ^ Harry Eyres, "Tribute to a well-versed soul", 5 March 2010.
  5. ^ Dan Carrier, "Tributes to John Rety, celebrated poet from Torriano Meeting House who has died from a heart attack", Camden New Journal, 11 February 2010.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Milan Rai, John Rety: "The point is this", 26 February 2010.
  7. ^ Interview with Ian Bone.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b John Pilgrim, "John Rety obituary", The Guardian, 18 March 2010.
  9. ^ Richard Bagley, "Obituary: John Rety 1930 to 2010", Morning Star, 26 March 2010.

External links[]

Further reading[]

  • Kociejowski, Marius. God's Zoo: Artists, Exiles, Londoners (Carcanet, 2014) contains a biographical chapter "The Poet, the Anarchist, the Master of Ceremonies - Whose tale contains a desk inlaid with Midnight Blue"
  • Rety, John. "Notebook in hand, New and Selected Poems" (Stonewood Press, 2012), contains a biographical chapter by John Rety's daughter, Emily Johns.


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