Vasile Demetrius (pen name of Vasile Dumitrescu; October 1, 1878–March 15, 1942) was an Austro-Hungarian-born

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

n prose writer, poet and translator. Born in Șcheii Brașovului, his parents were Dumitru Ogea, who built and maintained wood-burning stoves, and his wife Elisabeta (''née'' 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 The Saint Sava National College (Romanian: ''Colegiul Național Sfântul Sava''), Bucharest, named after Sabbas the Sanctified, is the oldest and one of the most prestigious high schools in Romania. It was founded in 1694, under the name of t ...

, along with

N. D. Cocea N. D. Cocea (common rendition of Nicolae Dumitru Cocea, , also known as Niculae, Niculici or Nicu Cocea; November 29, 1880 – February 1, 1949) was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and left-wing political activist, known as a major but co ...

and Ion G. Duca. After leaving for the Romanian Old Kingdom, he attended primary school and three months of high school in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

, 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 ''Naționalul'' newspaper; chemist at a Chitila factory; substitute teacher in Vintilă Vodă village, Buzău County; estate administrator for a count in Ialomița County; civil servant at the Domains Ministry; founder of Căminul book series (1916) and director at ''Biblioteca pentru toți'' (1923). His poetic debut came in

Constantin Mille Constantin Mille (; December 21, 1861 – February 20, 1927) was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist. A Marxist for much of his life, Mille was noted for his vocal sup ...

's '' Adevărul''. In 1904, together with Tudor Arghezi, he published ''Linia dreaptă'' magazine. He was close friends with Arghezi, Galaction and

. Other publications where his work appeared include ''Viața socială'', ''Viitorul'', ''Dimineața'', ''Facla'', ''Flacăra'', ''Scena'', ''Luceafărul'', ''Sburătorul'' and ''Rampa''. He authored numerous translations of, among others,

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Blasco Ibáñez and

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de ...

. 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 (''Tinerețea Casandrei'', 1913; ''Orașul bucuriei'', 1920; ''Domnul colonel'', 1920; ''Domnul deputat'', 1921), somewhat anticipate interwar realism. He also published a few volumes of short stories (''Puterea farmecelor și alte nuvele'', 1914; ''Cântăreața'', 1916; ''Nuvele alese'', 1925). He won a prize from the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its by ...

in 1916 and from the Romanian Writers' Society in 1928.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 473-74. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Married to Antigona (''née'' 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 ''Oreste'' ("Orestes", HWV A11, HG 48/102) is an opera by George Frideric Handel in three acts. The libretto was anonymously adapted from Giangualberto Barlocci’s ''L’Oreste'' (1723, Rome), which was in turn adapted from Euripides' ''Iphig ...

, D. Nanu and Panait Istrati. By the 1920s, new visitors were arriving: Șerban Bascovici, Aron Cotruș, and later Felix Aderca and

Sanda Movilă Sanda Movilă (pen name of Maria Ionescu-Aderca; January 7, 1900–September 13, 1970) was a Romanian poet and novelist. Born in Cerbu, Argeș County, her parents were Ion Ionescu, a small-scale tradesman, and his wife Maria (''née'' Nicule ...

Al. Săndulescu AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

"între bunăcredinţă şi conformism (I)"
''România Literară'', nr. 6/2006

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demetrius, Vasile 1878 births 1942 deaths People from Brașov Romanian Austro-Hungarians Austro-Hungarian emigrants to Romania 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian novelists Romanian translators Romanian magazine founders Romanian civil servants Romanian schoolteachers Romanian socialists 20th-century translators Romanian male poets 20th-century Romanian male writers Burials at Bellu Cemetery