The Red Lion: The Elixir of Eternal Life

The Red Lion

Maria Szepes was born Magdolna Scherbach in Budapest, Hungary December 14, 1908. From a theatrical family, she appeared as a film actress under the name Magda Papia from 1916 - 1933. On January 2, 1931 she married Bela Szepes and was happily married to him for 56 years. Initially they lived in Berlin where she worked as a journalist and screenwriter. The Red Lion, Szepes first novel, was published in 1946 in Hungary. It was an immediate bestseller. Considered dissentient by the communist regime, the book was banned and ordered destroyed. Four copies survived and the novel began to be distributed underground. It was eventually smuggled out of Hungary and appeared in the West in 1984. Maria Szepes died in Budapest, Hungary September 3, 2007. She was 98.