‘Children’s literature’ is not one of the first phrases that comes to mind when thinking of Hungary’s cultural impact on the world. But one of the last century’s most enduring films, was based on a children’s book written by a Hungarian. Everybody knows the story of Bambi. Few in the Western world grew up without having seen the Walt Disney animated feature film at one point in their childhood. Bambi is one of the highest grossing animated film in history, and a cultural touchstone. Few know, however, that the source material, the book Bambi, Bambi: the Story of a Life in the Forest, was written by a man named Felix Salten, born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Salzmann’s parents moved to Vienna, which precipitated the name change, when the writer was quite young. Salten showed early talent for writing, and was part of the Young Vienna movement, publishing his first collection of short stories in 1901. Sometime later, in 1923, he would write Bambi, originally intended as a parable of the dangers Jews faced throughout Europe. Indeed, Hitler would have the book banned in 1936. That was three years after the film rights were sold, first to American film director Sidney Franklin, then on to Walt Disney, who would release the film at the height of World War Two.

That wasn’t the end of Salten’s relationship with Hollywood. His stories were also source material for he films Perri (1957) and The Shaggy Dog (1959). His sequel to Bambi, Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forrest Family, has yet to be adapted to film, though last year a ‘photorealistic computer-animated remake’ of the original Bambi was announced to be in the works.

Bambi — in both print and film form — continues to be a cultural touchstone around the world, with its universal themes of loss and perseverance. In times of intolerance, and divide, the timeless parable continues to be as relevant as is was when it was written so long ago.

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