Constantin T. Stoika (February 14, 1892 – October 23, 1916) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n poet and prose writer. Born in

Buzău Buzău (; formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu'') is a city in the historical region of Muntenia, Romania, and the county seat of Buzău County. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Carp ...

to journalist Titus Stoika and his wife Irena (''née'' Ciorogârleanu), he attended primary school in

Piatra Neamț Piatra Neamț (; ; ) is the capital city of Neamț County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in northeastern Romania. Because of its very privileged location in the Divisions of the Carpathians, Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is con ...

and in the then-Austro-Hungarian

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

. He also began at a gymnasium there, and completed this stage of his schooling at Buzău and Slatina. This was followed by high school in

Pitești Pitești () is a city in Romania, located on the river Argeș (river), Argeș. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated in th ...

and the literature and philosophy faculty of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, from which he graduated in 1916. He made his published debut while still in high school, with poems (''Preludii'') and short prose works, published in 1909–1910 in ''Tinerimea literară și artistică'', which he edited together with his brother Cezar. He contributed to the

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a Municipiu, city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Ble ...

-based ''Curierul liceului'' in 1910–1911. He was a member of the Gion literary society and of ''Societatea critică'' student circle, led by

Mihail Dragomirescu Mihail Dragomirescu (March 22, 1868 – November 25, 1942) was a Romanian aesthetician, literary theorist and critic. Born in Plătărești, Călărași County, he completed primary school in his native village in 1881, followed by Bucharest's ...

. In 1914–1915, he edited ''Poezia'' magazine, which welcomed submissions from the younger generation while gaining prestige from the contributions of

Duiliu Zamfirescu Duiliu Zamfirescu (; 30 October 1858 – 3 June 1922) was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a whi ...

George Murnu George Murnu (; ; 1 January 1868 in Veria, Salonica Vilayet, Ottoman Empire – 17 November 1957 in Bucharest, Romania) was a Romanian university professor, archaeologist, historian, translator, and poet of Aromanian origin. After attending th ...

Ovid Densusianu Ovid Densusianu (; also known under his pen name Ervin; 29 December 1873, Făgăraș – 9 June 1938, Bucharest) was a Romanian poet, philologist, linguist, folklorist, literary historian and critic, chief of a poetry school, university professor ...

Gala Galaction Gala Galaction (; the pen name of Grigore or Grigorie Pișculescu ; April 16, 1879—March 8, 1961) was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman, theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic ...

and Dragomirescu. His work also featured in ''Drum drept'', ''Dumineca'', ''Epoca'', ''Neamul românesc literar'', ''Noua revistă română'', ''Ramuri'', ''Săptămâna politică și culturală a capitalei'', ''Universul literar'' and '' Vieața Nouă''. Pen names that he used include Delaziliște, Tarmes, Tartar, Sapiens, Micado, Costo, Amor, St., Troedo and Ego. He collected his verses in the 1910 book ''Licăriri''. He translated works by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

Sully Prudhomme René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme (; 16 March 1839 – 6 September 1907) was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. Born in Paris, Prudhomme originally studied to be an engineer, bu ...

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...

Ludwig Uhland Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862) was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician. Biography He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, b ...

and

Joséphin Péladan Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 – 27 June 1918) was a French novelist and Rosicrucian who later briefly joined the Martinist order led by Papus (Gérard Encausse). His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed ...

; the French poetry of

Iulia Hasdeu Iulia Hasdeu (; 14 November 1869 – 29 September 1888) was a Romanian poet, the daughter of writer and philologist Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and his wife Iulia Faliciu. From a very young age, Hasdeu wrote poems and prose in both Romanian languag ...

; and

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

and

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

. In 1914, he graduated from the military artillery school with the rank of second lieutenant. After Romania's entry into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in August 1916, he was assigned to a border regiment based in

Câineni Câineni is a commune located in Vâlcea County, Oltenia, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to ...

, on the frontier with

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. Two months later he was killed in action at

Boișoara Boișoara is a commune located in Vâlcea County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Boișoara, Bumbuești, and Găujani. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a hi ...

, near the

Turnu Roșu Pass Turnu Roșu Pass (, , , , all of these names meaning ''Red Tower Pass'' in the respective languages) is a mountain pass in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains, Carpathians, connecting Vâlcea County (Wallachia) and Sibiu County (Transylvania). It i ...

on the Carpathian front, during an artillery bombardment. He was buried on a hill next to Boișoara, and was decorated post-mortem. His war diary was published as ''Însemnări din zilele de luptă'' in 1921 and 1977.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 637. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoika, Constantin 1892 births 1916 deaths People from Buzău Romanian male poets Romanian magazine editors 20th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian translators University of Bucharest alumni Romanian military personnel killed in World War I 20th-century Romanian diarists