Ion Pillat (31 March 1891 – 17 April 1945) was a distinguished

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 ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He is best known for his volume ''Pe Argeș în sus'' (''Upstream on the Argeș'') and ''Poeme într-un vers'' (''One-line poems''), and for his embryonic love for his Moldavian & Muntenian boyar villages Florica & Miorcani, depictured in all his Poetry. His maternal grandfather was

Ion Brătianu An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

. He studied at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

from 1910 to 1914, returning to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

after obtaining a law degree.

Biography

Childhood

Ion Pillat was born on 31 March 1891, in Bucharest. The Pillats were an old family of free farmers, originally from the

Prut River The Prut (also spelled in English as Pruth; , ) is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is long. Part of its course forms Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine. Characteristics The Prut originates on the eas ...

valley. His father, Ion N. Pillat, was a landowner and parliamentarian. His mother, Maria Brătianu, was the second daughter of the political leader Ion C. Brătianu. His elementary education took place in the town of

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 ...

. In 1910, he enrolled in a student at the Sorbonne, where he studied mainly literature, history and geography, but he also studied law.

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 ...

published some of his poems in 1911 in Convorbiri Literare. In 1912, while on holiday in Bucharest, he met

Alexandru Macedonski Alexandru Macedonski (; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky; 14 March 1854 – 24 November 1920) was a Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism (arts ...

, to whom he published the volume ''Flori sacre''. Ion Pillat, together with Horia Furtună, founded the collection White Books, in which the poets of the time were to be published; the debut volume of the entire collection was Sacred Flowers.

Adolescence and studies in France

At the age of fourteen, he finished a course of study at Saint Sava National College in Bucharest. His mother brought him, together with his younger brother Niculae and younger sister Pia, to study at the

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV () is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges ('' lycées'') in France. The school educates more ...

in Paris, living on the

Boulevard Saint-Michel The Boulevard Saint-Michel () is one of the two major streets in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France, the other being the Boulevard Saint-Germain. It is a tree-lined boulevard which runs south from the Pont Saint-Michel on the Seine and Place ...

. During a trip to

Chartres Cathedral Chartres Cathedral (, lit. Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres) is a Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the List of bishops of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres. Dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary ( ...

, inspired by the

gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

, he composed his first poem, În catedrală ("In the cathedral"). He enrolled in the SorbonneJean-Yves Conrad, ''Roumanie, capitale…Paris'', Oxus, Collection Les Roumains de Paris, 2006, . to study liberal arts and law, obtaining degrees in 1913 and 1914, respectively.

References

1891 births 1945 deaths Writers from Bucharest Romanian male poets 20th-century Romanian poets University of Paris alumni Gândirea Corresponding members of the Romanian Academy Lycée Henri-IV alumni {{Romania-writer-stub