Mária Szepes

Mária Szepes was a Hungarian author. She worked as a journalist and screenwriter, as well as an independent author in the field of hermetic philosophy since 1941. She would sometimes write under the pseudonyms Mária Papir or Mária Orsi. Szepes was born Magdolna Scherbach into a Hungarian family of theater stars in Budapest. Her father, Sándor Papir, was a bon vivant and great star of Budapest's stages. 

Her mother was primadonna. Her parents and her brother were to her like "brothers and sisters in spirit," and she admitted only spiritual relationship: "Everything else is just experience, engagement, disengagement – karma." From 1916 to 1933, she appeared as a film actress (mostly under the name Magda Papir). One year after marrying Béla Szepes on 2 January 1931, she accompanied him to Berlin, where they lived until Hungary's German occupation towards the war's end. 

In her book Magie der Liebe ("Magic of Love"), Szepes writes about the marriage, which lasted 56 years, and discusses the so-called "Alchemistic Marriage," the dissolution of the ego in the other. Szepes studied literature, art history, and biology in Berlin. She first worked as a journalist, screenplay writer, and author in Hungary. 

Her first novel, The Red Lion, was written in a hideout during World War II and became a worldwide bestseller of esoteric literature. The two Raguel volumes are referred to as her chief work by Szepes herself. The Red Lion, Mária Szepes' first novel, was published in 1946 in Hungary (original title: A Vörös Oroszlán). During the communist regime, Rákosi's The Red Lion was considered nonconformist and therefore prohibited. 

All copies of the book were ordered to be destroyed. However, the librarian and novelist Béla Hamvas managed to save four copies. Then, several supporters of the author typed up the novel, made templates for printing, and released self-made copies through the underground. Almost 40 years later, the novel arrived at the desk of the Heyne publishing company via the agency Utoprop. 

The book was translated into German by Gottfried Feidel and was published as a paperback in 1984. Hans Joachim Alpers reports more details regarding the history of origin in his preface of the 2002 re-issue. The Red Lion has been adapted to the stage and performed in various United States theaters.