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John Rety

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Hungarian-British anarchist publisher (1930–2010)

John Rety
BornJanos Réty
(1930-12-08)8 December 1930
Budapest, Hungary
Died3 February 2010(2010-02-03) (aged 79)
London, England
Occupation(s)Poet, writer, publisher

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

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, and carried messages for the Resistance, His grandmother was shot on the last day of the war. In 1947, after performing an anti-war play on the steps of the Budapest parliament, 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, he started a Soho underground paper, Intimate Review, with contributions from young writers including Doris Lessing, Bill Hopkins, Laura del Rivo, Frank Norman, Alun Owen, Cressida Lindsay 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. He contributed the essay "So Much Work to Do" in Colin Wilson, a Celebration (Cecil Woolf,1988). This was reprinted in The Sage of Tetherdown: personal recollections of Colin Wilson by his friends published by Paupers' Press in 2020. 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. (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.) 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.

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. A 2003 anthology included the work of Dannie Abse, John Arden, Oliver Bernard, John Heath-Stubbs and Dilys Wood. 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.

As a chess player, reaching a FIDE rating of 2034, he played for Middlesex and London University as well as representing England in the European Senior Chess Championship. 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.

Rety died in London, survived by his partner and two children: his daughter Emily Johns 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. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  3. ^ "John Rety". The Daily Telegraph. 1 March 2010.
  4. Eyres, Harry (5 March 2010). "Tribute to a well-versed soul". Financial Times.
  5. Carrier, Dan (11 February 2010). "Tributes to John Rety, celebrated poet from Torriano Meeting House who has died from a heart attack". Camden New Journal.
  6. ^ Rai, Milan (26 February 2010). "John Rety: "The point is this"". Freedom. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011.
  7. "John Rety; Editor of Freedom Magazine | Anarchism in the UK with Ian Bone #2". YouTube. 11 October 2021.
  8. Bagley, Richard (26 March 2010). "Obituary: John Rety 1930 to 2010". Morning Star. Archived from the original on 12 January 2013.

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.
  • Rety, John. "So Much Work To Do," in The Sage of Tetherdown: personal recollections of Colin Wilson by his friends edited by Colin Stanley (Paupers' Press, 2020)
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