Tânărul Eugen Ionescu

Eugen Simion studies the young Eugen Ionescu and his inner strife. He looks at Ionescu’s use of a pen name. He studies the poems in Elegii pentru fiinte mici. He also looks at Ionescu’s talks with Jeni Acterian. He seeks the person behind the theatre of the absurd.

This book of criticism looks at Ionescu’s early life and writing. It suits readers with an interest in these themes. Simion links the work to the writer’s traits and doubts. He leaves questions open, with no fixed view. His portrait shows both the poet and the man of theatre.

Simion was born in Chiojdeanca, Prahova, in 1933. He studied letters at the University of Bucharest. He earned his doctorate in 1969. Tudor Vianu was one of his teachers. So were Alexandru Rosetti and Iorgu Iordan. He wrote his thesis on Eugen Lovinescu. Serban Cioculescu guided that work.

From 1956 to 1962, Simion worked on Eminescu research. He served on the Romanian Academy’s team under Perpessicius. He began his career at university in 1963. In 1990, he became a professor in Bucharest. He also taught at Paris IV, Sorbonne, from 1970 to 1973. He began writing on books for the press in 1960. For decades, he wrote reviews for Gazeta literara and Romania literara.

He joined the Romanian Academy in 1991. He became its vice-president in 1994. He served as president from 1998 to 2006. In 1999, he founded the National Foundation for Science and Art. He served as its director. There he launched a series of Romanian classics. From 2002 to 2009, he also issued 38 volumes of Eminescu’s manuscripts. These were facsimiles, copies that show how the originals look.

He led the G. Calinescu Institute. In that role, he oversaw a dictionary of Romanian literature in seven volumes. He wrote more than 30 books of literary criticism and history. Universities in Romania and abroad gave him honorary doctorates. Academies in France and Denmark elected him as a member. Those in Athens and Serbia did too. This study forms part of the Critica literara series.