Ion Clopoțel

Ion Clopoțel (November 10, 1892 – August 23, 1986) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian journalist, sociographer and memoirist. The native of a rural area west of Brașov, he attended high school in that city and ultimately earned a university degree in Vienna. While still a pupil, he entered the newspaper business, and his political writings during World War I led the authorities to imprison him for about a year. After the war, he resumed his journalistic activity, editing and leading a variety of publications, most notably the Cluj-based Societatea de mâine. A social democrat by conviction, he held a series of mid-level positions under the communist regime.

Biography Early life and education Born in Poiana Mărului, Brașov County, in the Transylvania region that was then part of Austria-Hungary, his parents were Ion Clopoțel and Susana (née Lăzăroiu).

Clopoțel pursued university studies at Cluj, Budapest and, after Românul was shut down in March 1916, Vienna. He took a degree in literature, specializing in Romance philology, and philosophy. While a student, he was especially interested in sociology; a member of his discussion circle was Lucian Blaga, whom he had known since high school. After Vienna, he deepened his sociological background by taking courses at the University of Paris. His publications there included reports from Vălenii de Munte and reflections on cultural life in the Old Kingdom. In 1917, he took a high school teaching post at Caransebeș. At the end of the year, together with leaders of the Romanian national movement in Transylvania, he was imprisoned at Szeged; amidst the breakdown of the empire that occurred near the close of World War I, he took part in negotiations for the union of Transylvania with Romania and attended the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia which ratified the union, serving as press secretary. Moving to the national capital Bucharest in 1934, he continued at Adevărul and Dimineața while moving Societatea de mâine with him. Due to his left-wing views, he was invited to join Lumea nouă in 1945 by Lothar Rădăceanu; there, he edited the foreign news and wrote about the situation in Transylvania. Among the pseudonyms he used were L. Ardelean, I. Bobei, Dumitru Corvinul, Euphraste, Traian Huniade, I. Poenaru, Dr. Titus Popa, Teofrast, Theophraste, I. Săgeată, and Horia Trandafir.

With the gradual onset of a communist regime, he became inspector-general of workers' schools (appointed by Rădăceanu), He authored the four-volume Antologia a scriitorilor români de la 1821 încoace (1917–1918), While this was his only large-scale work of literary history, his activity as historian and critic continued at Societatea de mâine, where he reviewed forty-six novels. His memoirs appeared as Frământările unui an. 1918 (1919) and Amintiri și portrete (1975). He won the Romanian Writers' Union prize in 1975, and a special prize from the same organization in 1982. He died in 1986 and was buried at Sfânta Vineri Cemetery in Bucharest.