Born in 1873 into one of Transylvania's longest-established noble families. He studied law and embarked on a political career (serving as Hungary's Foreign Minister in 1921-2) but his inclinations were always artistic and he made a name for himself as a literary editor, as manager of the Hungarian Opera and as a talented designer of theatre sets and costumes. It is as a writer that he is best known: his Transylvanian Trilogy is one of the great works of twentieth-century European literature. When Europe's borders were redrawn after the First World War, Transylvania was assigned to Romania and though Bánffy took Romanian citizenship, he lost his land after the new national reforms. Following the Second World War, the communist regime blocked his ability to publish his writings. In 1949 he left Romania for Budapest, where he died in 1950.