Alexandru Antemireanu (born Alexandru Damian; August 1, 1877 – June 29, 1910) was a Romanian poet, prose writer and literary critic. Born in Tomșani,

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/k ...

, his father Antemir Damian was a

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...

priest. He was sent to nearby Urlați for primary school, where his surname was changed after his father's first name. He attended high school in

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 ...

, followed by 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 ...

's faculty of literature and philosophy, where he audited courses by

Titu Maiorescu Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Culture of Romania, Romanian culture in ...

. Antemireanu became intensely involved in newspaper writing in order to earn a living, forcing him to abandon his studies. His first published work appeared in the daily newspaper ''Țara'' in 1895. He drew notice from Nicolae Filipescu, to whose conservative newspaper ''Epoca'' he migrated. There, he edited the literary section before becoming editing secretary. After furthering his education in Paris and Munich, Antemireanu returned home and returned to journalism at the newspapers ''Apărarea națională'', ''

Românul ''Românul'' (, meaning "The Romanian"; originally spelled ''Romanulu'' or ''Românulŭ'', also known as ''Romînul'', ''Concordia'', ''Libertatea'' and ''Consciinti'a Nationala''), was a political and literary newspaper published in Bucharest, Ro ...

'' and ''Conservatorul'', editing the literary features. He edited ''Epoca literară'' and, in 1898, founded ''Floare albastră'' magazine with

Ștefan Octavian Iosif Ștefan Octavian Iosif (; 11 October 1875 – 22 June 1913) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian poet and translator. Life Born in Brașov, Transylvania (part of Austria-Hungary at the time), he studied in his native town and in Sibiu befor ...

. Antemireanu contributed political articles, literary feuilletons, translations, verses, sketches, short stories, literary and dramatic news and reviews to '' Convorbiri Literare'', ''Litere – științe – arte'', ''Noua revistă română'', ''Povestea vorbei'', ''Revista literară'', ''Revista poporului'', ''Revista ilustrată'' and ''Secolul''. He signed using various pen names: Lys, Hyalmar, Elvira Santorino, Alan Damian, Demeter, Emir, Lysandros, Pollux, Seraficus, Ulys, Vindex, Zara, Zaratustra. Beset by material difficulties and burdened by the duties of newspaper work, Antemireanu lived in the bohemian milieu of Bucharest coffeehouses; he died young, of tuberculosis. He translated from

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

, wrote poetry and a novel, ''Din vremea lui Căpitan Costache'', which appeared in 1937. Initially serialized in 1898, it deals with the

Wallachian Revolution of 1848 The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sough ...

. Moderate in its politics, the book shows sympathy for

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Gheorghe Bibescu and contrasts

Ion Heliade Rădulescu Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as ''Eliade'' or ''Eliade Rădulescu''; ; 6 January 1802 – 27 April 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romanticism, Romantic and Classicism, Classicist poet, essayist, memoi ...

with the more liberal revolutionaries.John Neubauer ''et al.'', "1848", in Marcel Cornis-Pope and John Neubauer, ''History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe'', vol. I, p. 290. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 2004. In his literary criticism, which included the 1905 volume ''Încercări critice. Junimea și roadele ei'', Antemireanu attempted to break new ground.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 55. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antemireanu, Alexandru 1877 births 1910 deaths People from Prahova County Romanian historical novelists Romanian short story writers Romanian male short story writers Romanian male poets Romanian literary critics Romanian magazine founders Romanian newspaper editors 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian poets 19th-century Romanian novelists 20th-century Romanian novelists Romanian male novelists 19th-century Romanian translators Tuberculosis deaths in Romania