Minden Másképpen Van (Ötvenkét Vasárnap). [Everything is Different (Fifty-Two Sundays)].

FRIGYES, Karinthy.

$3,000.00

Item Number: 146211

Budapest: Athenaeum, 1929.

Rare first edition of this collection of stories in the original Hungarian which introduced the sociological phenomena of “six degrees of separation.” Octavo, original wrappers with titles in red and black. In very good condition. Exceptionally rare in the original wrappers.

Karinthy Frigyes was a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator who was the first proponent of the idea of six degrees of separation in human interaction. The concept is explained in his short story 'Láncszemek' ['Chain Links'] which appears at page 85: "one of us suggested performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth is closer together now than they have ever been before. We should select any person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth - anyone, anywhere at all. He bet us that, using no more than five individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances" (Adam Makkai, Translator).