Adrian Maniu

Adrian Maniu (February 6, 1891 – April 20, 1968) was a Romanian poet, prose writer, playwright, essayist, and translator.

Born in Bucharest, his father Grigore, a native of Lugoj, was a jurist and professor of commercial law at the University of Bucharest; his paternal grandfather was the historian Vasile Maniu. His mother Maria (née Călinescu) was the descendant of an old Oltenian boyar family, with ancestors attested to the time of Matei Basarab; an artistically inclined woman, she cultivated a love of music, painting, and poetry within the family. All five children displayed marked intellectual and artistic leanings, while two devoted their careers to the arts: Adrian and his sister Rodica, a well-known painter during the interwar period. He had a city childhood, interrupted by brief vacations in a rustic natural setting at the Șopârlița estate on the banks of the Olteț River. Following primary school in his native city, he entered Gheorghe Lazăr High School. In the fourth year of high school, he was transferred to Matei Basarab High School, where he was classmates with Șerban Bascovici and where his teachers included Nicolae Coculescu, Ioan Nădejde, Theodor Speranția, and Constantin Banu. While still a student, he made his published debut in the high school magazine Răsăritul in 1906. Following graduation in 1910, he enrolled in the law faculty of the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1913. His 1930s work included the poetry books Drumul spre stele (1930), Cartea țării (1934) and Cântece de dragoste și moarte (1935). He published Versuri, a definitive edition of his poems, in 1938, the same year he won the national prize for poetry. He also edited selections of poetic and fantastic prose: Jupânul care făcea aur (1930) and Focurile primăverii și flăcări de toamnă (1935). After 1946 and with the rise of the Romanian Communist Party, he underwent a difficult period, living off an excruciating work of translation (among which, Basme de Pușkin, 1953; Balade populare ruse, 1954; Cântecul Niebelungilor, 1958) while wracked by illness. In 1965, in a slightly more relaxed political environment, he was able to publish two books, Cântece tăcute and Versuri în proză, a pair of not always inspired reworkings of older texts. Shortly before his death, he revised and published his entire lyrical work as the two-volume Scrieri (1968). A lucid art critic, he was equally attracted by modern manifestations as well as by old and folk Romanian art, the structures of which informed his own lyrical vision. In 1965, the Romanian Academy awarded him its Mihail Eminescu Prize.