A poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, and translator, Illyes published his first volume of poems in 1928. His published works amount to more than 35 volumes in Hungarian. He was one of the leaders of the populist movement in literature, which attempted to "explore the village" and to write about the squalid condition of the peasantry. His largely autobiographical study of the peasantry, People of the Puszta, is considered a classic. Illyes always wrote in the "daily language of simple people," drawing on the wealth and rhythms of the Hungarian language.
020