Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897 – 7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary. Biography Béla Hamvas was born on 23 March 1897 in Eperjes, Sáros County, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Prešov, Slovakia). His father, József Hamvas was a Lutheran pastor, teacher of German and Hungarian, journalist and writer. The family moved to Pozsony (Bratislava) in 1898, where Hamvas completed his basic studies in 1915. After graduation, like his classmates, he entered voluntary military service and was sent to the front in Ukraine. He was sent back to Budapest for hospital treatment due to severe traumatic shock, but just after recovery, he was drafted to the front line in western Italy. He never reached the battlefield, as his train was hit by a shell, and the wounded Hamvas was discharged. In 1919 his father refused an oath of allegiance to the new nation of Czechoslovakia, whereupon his family was expelled from Bratislava. They moved to Budapest, where Hamvas attended Péter Pázmány Catholic University. After graduation he became a journalist at the newspapers Budapesti Hírlap and Szózat. Hamvas considered this job shallow and menial, but he had to support his family (although his father received a pension from 1924). Three years later he quit, as he had found a better job in the main library of Budapest. He was appointed as a senior librarian in 1927. By this time he was writing articles, reviews and essays for 25 different journals. He married Ilona Angyal in 1929, but divorced in 1936 to marry Katalin Kemény in 1937. She was his partner in founding the Sziget circle, a literary group which later gained prominent members like Antal Szerb, Károly Kerényi, László Németh, or Antal Molnár. Nearly 20 years of library work was ended by World War II. Hamvas was drafted for military service three times. He continued his literary work while on the front lines - translating Laozi and Heraclitus among others. His first essay collection was published in 1943. The couple survived the siege of Budapest. Their apartment was hit by bombing, destroying his library and manuscripts. Despite the Soviet siege and repeated harassment by the authorities, 1945 to 1947 were his most fruitful years. In 1948 he was placed on the b-list (banned from publishing) by the Soviet installed socialist government, and was