Name Vasile Demetrius | Role Prose writer | |
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 Scheii Brasovului, his parents were Dumitru Ogea, who built and maintained wood-burning stoves, and his wife Elisabeta (nee 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 Nationalul newspaper; chemist at a Chitila factory; substitute teacher in Vintila Voda village, Buzau County; estate administrator for a count in Ialomita County; civil servant at the Domains Ministry; founder of Caminul book series (1916) and director at Biblioteca pentru toti (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 Viata sociala, Viitorul, Dimineata, Facla, Flacara, Scena, Luceafarul, Sburatorul and Rampa. He authored numerous translations of, among others, Guy de Maupassant, Honore de Balzac, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Blasco Ibanez 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 (Tineretea Casandrei, 1913; Orasul bucuriei, 1920; Domnul colonel, 1920; Domnul deputat, 1921), somewhat anticipate interwar realism. He also published a few volumes of short stories (Puterea farmecelor si alte nuvele, 1914; Cantareata, 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 (nee 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: Serban Bascovici, Aron Cotrus, and later Felix Aderca and Sanda Movila.