Ágnes Bálint

Ágnes Bálint was the first children’s editor at Hungarian Television, a creator of Hungarian children’s and youth television programs, one of the founders of children’s television in Hungary, and a writer and translator.

Bálint was born on October 23, 1922. Her father was Louis Valentin, and her mother was Charlotte Müller.

From an early age, the girl showed inexhaustible imagination as well as a talent for drawing.

Ágnes learned to read at the age of five, and her first books made a tremendous impression on her. At 12, she wrote her first six stories and illustrated them with her own drawings. One of the stories was called “Why Does an Elephant Have a Long Trunk?”

At 14, Ágnes wrote the fairy tale “Fanny, the Modern Enchantress” about the adventures of the fairy Fanny and her friend Peter Paul. The tale was published in a Hungarian children’s magazine in 1937 with illustrations by the author.

After graduating from school in Budapest, Ágnes moved to Vienna to study fine arts.

In 1941–1943, she wrote stories for children, many of which were not published.

In 1944, Ágnes married Dr. Sándor Németh. They had two daughters, Ágnes and Anna.

On February 1, 1958, Ágnes Bálint was appointed editor of the newly formed Department of Children and Youth at Hungarian Television. She held this position for thirty years until her retirement in 1986.

At children’s television, Ágnes, together with like-minded colleagues, produced a number of television programs featuring cheerful puppet characters. One of the popular characters was Izyumka. With her participation, both educational and entertainment programs were created that were very popular among Hungarian children.

“The central event of my life was television,” Ágnes Bálint herself admitted.

Beginning in 1962, the publishing house Móra published Bálint’s books almost every year. Among them were “What Is on Futrinka Street?”, “Captain Bruno,” “Ship’s Log,” “Dragonfly on the Island,” “The Diary of a