Letters by John Maynard Keynes from Hungary and Vienna
Letters by John Maynard Keynes from Hungary and Vienna

Summary/Abstract: When in the Michaelmas Term of 1911–12 Ferenc Békássy began his studies at King’s College, Cambridge, he was not long in earning the attention of John Maynard Keynes, a Fellow of the College. Keynes was bisexual, before World War I heavily engaging in homosexual affairs, for many years a lover of the painter Duncan Grant, and also having casual affairs with many others. It seems that his interest in young Békássy was at first rather platonic. He described him in his letters to Duncan Grant as “the Hun” but over time became a self-appointed mentor and friend of the younger man, eventually promoting his rapid election to the exclusive debating society known as “The Apostles”. Békássy, who came from a family of landed nobility in western Hungary, had impressed Keynes not just with his looks, but also his intelligence, and near-perfect English thanks to his education in Bedales School, Hampshire.

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