Romulus Dianu

Romulus Dianu (born Romulus Dima; March 22, 1905–August 25, 1975) was a Romanian prose writer, journalist and translator.

Biography Born in Bucharest, his parents were Căile Ferate Române worker Gheorghe Dima, a relative of composer Gheorghe Dima; and his wife Virgilia (née Maiorescu), descended from the family of Petru Maior. After attending primary school in Murfatlar and Bârlad, he enrolled in the classics section of his native city's Saint Sava National College, thanks to the help of his uncle, poet George Tutoveanu. In 1925, he entered the literature and philosophy faculty of the University of Bucharest. He made his published debut in Rampa in 1926, with opinion pieces. His first book appeared in 1929; co-written with Sergiu Dan, it was a fictionalized biography titled Viața minunată a lui Anton Pann. He translated Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Bertolt Brecht and Georges Duhamel.

On 8 May 1995, after the fall of Communism, 10 of the sentences pronounced during the Post-World War II Romanian war crime trials were overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice. They were part of the 14 war criminals convicted in the "Journalists' trial" of 1945. Attorney General Vasile Manea Drăgulin presented the convictions decided upon in 1945 as illegal, believing the interpretation of the evidence to have been “retroactive, truncated, and tendentious”, therefore amounting to a “conviction decision, whose content is a synthesis of vehement criticism of their activity, to which we forcefully ascribed the character of war crimes”. Dianu was among the 10 who were rehabilitated.

Literary activity The literature written by Romulus Dianu is highlighted by epic verve and a fast notation, "made from the flight of the pen". The writer presents a conventional, slightly cosmopolitan and exotic environment, showing an intellectual curiosity about the mystery of the eternal feminine. His characters, such as Victoria Gherman in the novel Adorata (1930) and to some extent those in Nights at Ada-Kaleh (1932) and the Girls' Fair. Simple Mental Journey (1933), I feel the need for absolute erotic fulfillment.