Lucia Mantu

Lucia Mantu (pen name of Camelia Nădejde; September 22, 1888 – November 1971) was a Romanian prose writer.

Born in Iași, her parents were Gheorghe Nădejde and his wife Ecaterina (née Băncilă); she was a niece of Ioan and Sofia Nădejde, as well as of Octav Băncilă. The couple's second child, she began her education at home under her older brother's supervision, and was privately educated until completing high school in 1907. Although she had shown an inclination toward literature, she entered the natural sciences faculty of Iași University, attracted by prestigious faculty members who included Paul Bujor and Ion Th. Simionescu. She graduated in 1911, and was acquainted with Garabet Ibrăileanu and Mihail Sadoveanu.

In March 1944, with Soviet troops rapidly approaching as part of the Uman–Botoșani Offensive of World War II, the school was evacuated, and Nădejde, together with her gravely ill mother, withdrew to the national capital Bucharest. However, due to the bombing of Bucharest, they went to the rural area of Fundeni, remaining until October. At that point, she and her mother moved into the Bucharest home of Camelia's cousin, the widow of Nicolae N. Beldiceanu. They did not return to Iași, as the house there was almost entirely destroyed by bombardments. Until her retirement in 1947, she worked as a proofreader at two publishing houses, work she probably secured through Sadoveanu's help.

She made her debut in 1920 in Viața Românească, with sketches titled Pagini răzlețe. George Călinescu characterized her as being talented in "miniatures, moments, little observations, often delicate," capable of shedding light on "the provincial soul, indiscreet, malicious in its perseverance and hypocrisy". A more generous Mihai Ralea asserted that her "every impression, every phrase is deeply refined, chiseled, reworked not just for maximum effect, but up to the highest expression of perfection".