Kuczka and Pohl date the beginnings of Hungarian science fiction to the late eighteenth century, following Enlightened examples from NorthWestern Europe.[2] Two early examples they note areGyörgy Bessenyei'sTarimenes utazdsa (The Voyage of Tarimenes) (1804) andSandor Barotzi'sA mostani adeptus (The Adept of Our Days) (1810), Ferenc Ney'sUtazds a Holdba (Voyages to the Moon) (1836), Miklós Josika'sYegnapok (The Last Days) (1847), and prominentlyMór Jókai'sJövő század regénye (Novel of the Next Century) (1872).
Some of Jókai's pupils continued this tradition: Titusz Tovolgyi'sAz uj vilag (The New World) (1888), and Istvan Makay'snovel Repidogeppel a Holdba (By Airplane to the Moon) (1899).
During this period the literary magazineNyugat (TheWest) was a key promoter of the genre. Prominently, some of the works by Frigyes Karinthy, Sándor Szathmári, and Mihaly Babits gained popularity.
During theKádár era (1956-1989), the work of Péter Kuczka, particularly his translation of Anglo-American science fiction was key in promoting the genre. According to Sohár, up to 1965, translation occurred indirectly vía publications in Russian, including works byIsaac Asimov.[3] A Science Fiction Work Committee was formed in the Hungarian Writers' Union that run the quarterly journal,SF Tajekoztato.[2]
Galaktika was ascience fiction magazine of Hungary, published between 1972 and 1995. The peak of 94,000 copies was very high (compared to the population of Hungary [pop. 10 million] whileAnalog magazine was printed in 120,000 copies in the United States [pop. well over 200 million]), when reached its peak period, it was one of the largest science-fiction magazines of the world, and the quality of individual volumes was high.
A newer publication with the same name has been published since 2004 that is known for its practice of translating and publishing works without obtaining the permission of the authors and without paying them.[20]
