Profira Sadoveanu

Profira Sadoveanu (pen name Valer Donea; 21 May 1906 3 October 2003), also credited as Profirița and known after her marriage as Sadoveanu Popa, was a Romanian prose writer and poet, noted as the daughter, literary secretary, and editor of the celebrated novelist Mihail Sadoveanu. She was born during her father's stay in Fălticeni, on the traditional border between Western Moldavia and Bukovina, and is sometimes regarding as belonging to a Bukovinan literary tradition. She had fond memories of the place, where she had a carefree childhood on her paternal estate. During the campaigns of World War I, the family relocated to the urban center of Iași, purchasing a villa on Copou Hill. Profira's adolescence saw her socializing with some major figures in Romanian literature, who were friends of her father. Her own debut as a poet, in the 1920s, was overseen by George Topîrceanu.

In the early 1930s, Sadoveanu was an aspiring playwright and thespian, working with Ion Sava and Costache Popa on the production of independent plays, and contributing a musical comedy of her own. Popa, also active as a translator and interior designer, became her husband for the next four decades, and moved with her to Bucharest. Profira's choice for a career in theater was actively discouraged by her father, who was instead fully supportive of her becoming a writing professional; he personally handled the manuscript of her first novel, in 1933, and had her publish reportage works in his Adevărul. This second debut earned her critical attention, though her later efforts in the field were touched by allegations of immorality and plagiarism from Sadoveanu Sr. She spent much of World War II editing his works for print in a luxury edition—a project interrupted briefly by the fascist National Legionary State, during which the Sadoveanus and Popas went into hiding, fearing for their lives. Her attempt to return as a poet, in 1944, saw her most copies of her new book being destroyed by American bombers. During the final stages of the war, she also arranged for print a novel written by her brother Paul-Mihu, who had been killed in action at Turda.

The Romanian communist regime, inaugurated in 1948, openly celebrated Sadoveanu Sr, including by selecting him as republican head of state. At this stage, Profira, like Mihail and her stepmother Valeria, converted her style to Socialist Realism, contributing the screenplay to a 1952 film, Mitrea Cocor. Regarded as a leading authority on her father, whose secretary she had been for decades, she was allowed to continue with editing a definitive edition of his works, as well as numerous lifetime and posthumous biographies of him, and memoirs of her own childhood. She alternated these with a number of prose poems, which represent adaptations of his narrative style in verse form; with Mircea Drăgan and Alexandru Mitru, she also adapted his Frații Jderi into a 1974 film. In parallel, Sadoveanu Jr had a steady output as a translator of Russian-, French- and English-language works, introducing the Romanian public to the novels of Peter Neagoe and William Saroyan.

Childhood Born in Fălticeni, Profira was the favorite child of novelist-politician Mihail Sadoveanu and his wife Ecaterina née Bâlu. Her exact birthplace at No 40 Rădășani Street was part of the Bâlus' dowry. Profira had an older sister, Despina; her other siblings were Teodora "Didica", famed for her beauty, painter Dimitrie Sadoveanu, and the youngest boy, novelist Paul-Mihu Sadoveanu; another brother, Bogdan, died in 1920, at the age of seven. According to a memoir published in the 1980s, her father and mother (whom she called Catincuța) raised her an atheist, though she was never able to suppress her belief in angels. She attended the "girls' school" on Fălticeni's Rădăștenilor Street, then the local Nicu Gane High School (from 1917 to 1918). Some of her earliest memories include seeing her father dressed up in an officer's uniform in preparation for the Second Balkan War. In contrast, Profira viewed her child self as "the happiest being in existence", since she was "free to roam wherever I wished", and could walk everywhere barefoot. The entire family had relocated to that city, a regional capital of Western Moldavia, and occupied a villa on Copou Hill—the building had once been owned by politician Mihail Kogălniceanu. Her writings, some of which contain minute records of her life with Sadoveanu Sr, report that she and her siblings often assisted her father with proofreading; she had by then "devour[ed] our huge parental library". Sadoveanu Jr took pride in noting that she was the only one of her siblings whom Mihail consulted, when writing his novels.

Profira studied at the philosophy section of the literature and philosophy faculty at Iași University from in the 1920s (sources diverge, placing the range between 1923 and 1929). With her colleague and friend Valeria Mitru, she spent the period between December 1923 and May 1924 in Czechoslovakia. Sadoveanu Jr was encouraged to write by her father's colleagues, including Dimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, who rated one of her prose fragments as the seed of a potentially "colossal book". The young woman also intended to study the dramatic arts in Paris, but did not obtain Mihail's consent.

"Around 1933",

Still hoping to open up her own theater in collaboration with Sava and Clody Bertola, Profira focused part of her literary work on closet drama, noting in 1977 that she still found this to be a very pleasurable aspect of her career. Her first published volume was 1933's Mormolocul ("Tadpole"), introduced as a novel. Its publication was again mediated by her influential father, who personally recommended it, and even carried it with him, for publication at Cartea Românească. According to critic Constantin Gerota, the novel stood out as a worthy effort, and a sample of adolescent literature better than those by Marta Rădulescu, but was in fact a memoir. Poet and columnist Alexandru Robot remarked it as a "descriptive and elementary book, with no emotional states to speak of."

Breakthrough Burța-Cernat suggests that Sadoveanu and her colleague Otilia Cazimir represented a slightly more rebellious weave in interwar women's literature, which displayed their support for feminism. However, she cautions, "the 'feminist' subversiveness of their prose is extremely low-key", and their association with Viața Romînească meant subservience to a "patriarchal climate". Profira's success was acknowledged by Sadoveanu Sr, who in November 1933 dedicated her one of his own novels as "for my colleague Profira Sadoveanu". It was marginally inspired by the elder Sadoveanu: very interested in Australian topics, From 1935, the Popas had moved to Bucharest, the national capital, which was also Mihail's home after he agreed to take over as director of Adevărul newspaper (in 1936). She also published more reportage pieces, collecting them, alongside prose poems, in the 1940 volume Ploi și ninsori ("Rains and Snowfall", 1940).

In 1939 or 1940, Profira and her husband translated and published the Earl of Lytton's biography of Antony Bulwer-Lytton. It was put out by the official publishing house, Editura Fundațiilor Regale (EFR), in a conscious effort to familiarize Romanians with the more unfamiliar aspects of British society (and also to provide the public with a higher standard of translation from English). The EFR also selected Profira as head editor of her father's novels in what was supposed to be a definitive edition. Five volumes appeared during World War II. From 1936, Profira had been involved with caring for her mother, who was bedridden with illness. Ecaterina died in 1942, after a series of embolisms. A diary entry by Mihail Sebastian records his meeting with Profira, who confessed that her father was considering applying for membership in the Guard, noting that he was urged to do so by friends Ionel and Păstorel Teodoreanu. In a 1980 interview, Ionel's widow Ștefana Velisar mentions a mock-trial of Mihail Sadoveanu being carried through by a group of Guardists—her husband, a trained lawyer, was present to offer Sadoveanu's defense: "Ionel spoke for four and half hours. When he was done, instead of shooting him, they fired their pistols into the ceiling, and cartridges fell down on their plates."

As the National Legionary State gave way to Ion Antonescu's military regime, Profira was employed by Gorjanul publishing house, translating Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (announced for publication in December 1943). Sadoveanu's next work was a selection of lyrical poems called Umilinți ("Humiliations", early 1944). This was volume was rediscovered by Oprișan, who describes its content as "flowing verse of acute condensation, steadily punctured by a metaphysical shiver." According to an article published 40 years later, it was also here that she heard news of the successful anti-fascist coup, which saw Romania discarding its alliance with the Axis powers and opening up to the Allies. She notes that the Sadoveanus were enthusiastic, celebrating a "Day of Liberation". Profira was devastated by the loss, but corrected for print his one novel, "crying, wailing, and cursing" throughout the process. She also worked on a translation of Maxwell Anderson's versified social play, Winterset. It was published in 1946 as Pogoară Iarna, and was praised by Anglist Petru Comarnescu for being "so very faithful and relevant" to the source material. In early 1947, Frimu Workers' Theater and Marin Iorda produced Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third Floor Back, from a translation by Sadoveanu. In collaboration with the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union, she issued versions of poems by Ivan Krylov, Mikhail Lermontov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolay Nekrasov, and Alexander Pushkin. These were not immediately printed, but rather recited publicly by children from Bucharest's Lyceum No 50 during a bilingual gala. She also prepared another musical comedy, Țăndărică și Borzacul ("Matchwood Boy and His Imp"), which was in production with the Bucharest puppet theater in December 1948.

As presidential daughter During the onset of communization, Costache Popa was employed as artistic director by George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. On Christmas Day 1947, he reacted against political pressures by supporting its conductor, George Georgescu, who had been virtually banned from performing. The communist regime, inaugurated days after, had Sadoveanu Sr as a main literary figure. Seen by literary historian Mircea Iorgulescu as protected in a "gilded shelter", Later that decade, she and her sisters also used the Presidium Villa and Pelișor Castle, both of them located in the mountain resort of Sinaia. Despite Mihail's new status, Costache Popa had found himself in trouble with the governing authorities. In 1950, he had trafficked messages between the members of the since-outlawed PNȚ and his own sister, who was asked to help them go into hiding. The Securitate intercepted these notes, arresting Popa and various members of his family, including his niece Ioana Hudiță-Berindei.

Alongside Valeria Mitru, who had become Mihail's second wife, Alone or in collaboration, Profira also translated Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Ushinsky, Honoré de Balzac, Mihail, Valeria and Profira had all transitioned to Socialist Realism: the latter two Sadoveanus wrote the screenplay version of Mihail's communist novel, Mitrea Cocor; the 1952 film version, directed by and Victor Iliu, took the "social progress award" at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In later decades, Profira defended Mitrea Cocor as a genuine work by her father, against voices which suggested that it had been ghostwritten by Dumitru Ciurezu.

Profira was also involved in the renewed effort to republish and annotate her father's books, with some 40 installments appearing as luxury editions at ESPLA. In one of the tomes, printed in 1958, she identified the character Levi Tov with Jewish scholar Moshe Duff, who had been her father's close friend. This identification was rejected by journalist Simon Schafferman-Păstorescu, who argued that it had no basis in fact. Among the final events of her father's life, Profira Sadoveanu witnessed and recounted the intellectual drive behind his 1954 novel, Cîntecul mioarei (purposefully conceived as a less "artificial" rendering of the Miorița myth, and in direct opposition to the version standardized by Alecsandri).

As early as 1953, Profira was rediscovering Chritianity, writing to Câmpan that having faith was a beautiful thing. Shortly before Mihail's death in 1961, father and daughter returned for a visit to Fălticeni. Burța-Cernat sees Profira as a participant in his posthumous "cult". On his first commemoration, in October 1962, Viața Romînească hosted two of her poems of mourning, one of which was called La moartea tatii ("On Father's Death"). The same year, Editura Tineretului put out her volume Vînătoare domnească ("A Princely Hunt"). Enthusiastically prefaced by Demostene Botez, it reportedly contained poems that Mihail had selected as his favorites. however, as other critics observe, she infused her writing with a purely feminine sensibility. In tandem, Profira specialized in children's verses, published as Balaurul alb ("The White Balaur", 1955) and Ochelarii bunicii ("Grandma's Glasses", 1969). Three years later, she put out by herself a version of Anatole France's Red Lily. Her last published translation, in 1976, was Eudora Welty's Losing Battles. She reportedly joined the crew on location, directly supervising production. Later contributions include a teleplay version of Pogoară Iarna, produced and aired on Romanian Television in September 1982 (Dinu Cernescu was the director, and Gelu Nițu the star actor).

Sadoveanu was a widow from 18 September 1981, when Costache Popa, still employed by the Philharmonic Orchestra, suffered a fatal accident. The following year, she completed a book of her own stories and memoirs, put out by Editura Ion Creangă as Foc de artificii ("Fireworks"). It was meant to cover biographical detail that Mihail had not been interested in discussing—one partly fictionalized story describes a literary hoax that her father had attempted in complicity with Topîrceanu and Garabet Ibrăileanu. In 1993, she was included in a dictionary of Bukovina literature, but the biographical detail, as noted by scholar Dan Mănucă, was unexplainably sketchy or unreliable.

During the 1990s, Profira had a steady correspondence with scholar Constantin Ciopraga, who also interviewed her during summer pilgrimages that they both undertook at Văratec and Agapia. Aged 92 in January 1997, she raised controversy for accepting an award from the Greater Romania Party, a radical nationalist group led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Reporting on this in the Hungarian Romanian newspaper Erdélyi Napló, Kázmér Vajnovszki described her and her co-recipient Radu Boureanu (aged 91) as "forgotten persons". Sadoveanu died in Bucharest on 3 October 2003.