Description:
Gyorgy Dalos: 1985 is a vintage Hungarian samizdat book designed by Laszlo Rajk.
Budapest: AB Független Kiadó. First Hungarian edition. In publisher's illustrated wrappers. Printed in red and black. 133 pages on 35 leaves 6 plates.
The book is a sequel of Orwell's 1984 written by Gyorgy Dalos. It was first published in 1984 in English with the title: 1985. A Historical Report (Hong Kong 2036) from the Hungarian of ***” The inner covers are illustrated as well as the text and four full pages. The cover design and the illustrations are by Laszlo Rajk who designed numerous covers for Samizdat publications as an emblematic figure of the movement. This is the first Hungarian edition of 1985, in A3 format, printed in red and black. Samizdat refers to forbidden literature printed illegally without professional equpiment.
László Rajk (1949 - 2019) was an architect and political activist, who published many of the famous illegal press documents (the so called 'szamizdat') during the communist era.
He was the son of László Rajk the elder, who was the Home Secretary in Hungary, and who was executed after a show trial in the 1950's - this was the most famous (and scandalous) fake trial of the time. Rajk wasn't yet one year old when his father died, and he only met here mother after she was released from prison in 1954.
Rajk studied architecture and started to work for Iparterv in the early 1970's. His workshop became a center for the democratic opposition. He was working in the field of graphic design, because he was the designer of many of the illegal "szamizdat" magazines.
In the 1980's he also started a career in politics.
