Csokonai Vitéz Mihály

Hungarian poet. Born: 17 November 1773, Debrecen, Hungary. Died: 28 January 1805, Debrecen, Hungary. Having been educated in Debrecen, where he was born, Csokonai was appointed while still very young to the professorship of poetry there. Shortly thereafter he was deprived of the post on account of the immorality of his conduct. The remaining twelve years of his short life were passed in almost constant wretchedness, and he died in his native town, in his mother's house, when only thirty-one years of age. Csokonai was a genial and original poet, with something of the lyrical fire of Petőfi Sándor, and wrote a mock-heroic poem called Dorottya or the Triumph of the Ladies at the Carnival, two or three comedies or farces, and a number of love-poems. Most of his works have been published by Schedel (1844–1847).