Eugen Simion (25 May 1933 – 18 October 2022) was a Romanian literary critic and historian, editor, essayist and academic. Born in

Chiojdeanca Chiojdeanca is a communes of Romania, commune in Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Chiojdeanca, Nucet, and Trenu. The commune lies on both banks of the river Chiojdeanca (river), Chiojdeanca, surrounded by the S ...

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the 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/km². It is Romania's third mos ...

, the son of two farmers, Simion completed his secondary education at the

Saints Peter and Paul High School Saints Peter and Paul School is a parochial, Roman Catholic, co-educational, day school in Easton, Maryland. It is located in the heart of the Eastern Shore. The school serves an area of seven counties. The High School shares a campus with the ...

in Ploiești. He then studied philology at the University of Bucharest, and made his professional debut as a literary critic in 1960, collaborating with the journals ''Tribuna'' and ''Gazeta literară''. With his first book, ''Proza lui Eminescu'', published in 1964, he was awarded the literary criticism prize of the Uniunii Scriitorilor (the Romanian Writers' Union). The same year he started working in his alma mater, first as an assistant, later as a lecturer, and from 1990 as a professor. He also held courses on Romanian culture and civilisation at the Sorbonne University between 1970 and 1973. Simion's body of work includes numerous monographs, essays, curation of anthologies as well as over 3,000 published articles and studies. A full member of the Romanian Academy since 1992, he served as president of the organization for two consecutive mandates, from 1998 to 2006, when he was nominated President of the Philology and Literature Department of the Academy, a role which he served until his death. He died on 18 October 2022 at the , aged 89, and was buried at Bellu Cemetery, in Bucharest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simion, Eugen 1933 births 2022 deaths People from Prahova County University of Bucharest alumni University of Bucharest faculty Paris-Sorbonne University faculty Mihai Eminescu scholars Romanian literary critics Romanian literary historians Romanian essayists Romanian publishers (people) Members of the Romanian Academy of Sciences Titular members of the Romanian Academy Presidents of the Romanian Academy Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania Recipients of the Order of the Republic (Moldova) Burials at Bellu Cemetery