Vasile Demetrius, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetVasile Demetrius
Romanian prose writer, poet and translator
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Șcheii Brașovului, Brașov County, Romania
About Vasile Demetrius
- Vasile Demetrius (pen name of Vasile Dumitrescu; October 1, 1878–March 15, 1942) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian prose writer, poet and translator. Born in ?cheii Bra?ovului, his parents were Dumitru Ogea, who built and maintained wood-burning stoves, and his wife Elisabeta (née Bratu-Stinghe).
- While in school, his name was changed to Dumitrescu, while the sobriquet Demetrius was bestowed upon him in 1899 by Gala Galaction, a classmate at Saint Sava High School, along with N.
- D.
- Cocea and Ion G.
- Duca.
- After leaving for the Romanian Old Kingdom, he attended primary school and three months of high school in Bucharest, but was largely self-taught.
- Early on, he forged a lifelong friendship with Tudor Arghezi; a humanitarian in outlook, he turned to socialism.
- His jobs included: worker in a garment factory; butcher's assistant; bookseller for C.
- Sfetea; proofreader at Na?ionalul newspaper; chemist at a Chitila factory; substitute teacher in Vintila Voda village, Buzau County; estate administrator for a count in Ialomi?a County; civil servant at the Domains Ministry; founder of Caminul book series (1916) and director at Biblioteca pentru to?i (1923).His poetic debut came in Constantin Mille's Adevarul.
- In 1904, together with Tudor Arghezi, he published Linia dreapta magazine.
- He was close friends with Arghezi, Galaction and N.
- D.
- Cocea.
- Other publications where his work appeared include Via?a sociala, Viitorul, Diminea?a, Facla, Flacara, Scena, Luceafarul, Sburatorul and Rampa.
- He authored numerous translations of, among others, Guy de Maupassant, Honoré de Balzac, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Blasco Ibáñez and Stendhal.
- His volumes of poetry are said to lack originality (Versuri, 1901; Trepte rupte, 1906; Sonete, 1914; Canarul mizantropului, 1916; Fecioarele, 1925; and Cocorii, 1942).
- However, his prose, in particular the novels (Tinere?ea Casandrei, 1913; Ora?ul bucuriei, 1920; Domnul colonel, 1920; Domnul deputat, 1921), somewhat anticipate interwar realism.
- He also published a few volumes of short stories (Puterea farmecelor ?i alte nuvele, 1914; Cântarea?a, 1916; Nuvele alese, 1925).
- He won a prize from the Romanian Academy in 1916 and from the Romanian Writers' Society in 1928.Married to Antigona (née Rabinovici), a baptized Jew, he had a very poor household and numerous children.
- One of them, Lucia Demetrius, herself became a writer.
- Literary figures who visited the family home before 1918 included Oreste Georgescu, D.
- Nanu and Panait Istrati.
- By the 1920s, new visitors were arriving: ?erban Bascovici, Aron Cotru?, and later Felix Aderca and Sanda Movila.
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