George Silviu (pen name of Silvius Goliger; January 2, 1901 – May 16, 1971) was a

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, and ...

n poet, playwright, translator and lawyer. Born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Focșani Focșani (; yi, פֿאָקשאַן, Fokshan) is the capital city of Vrancea County in Romania on the banks the river Milcov, in the historical region of Moldavia. It has a population () of 79,315. Geography Focșani lies at the foot of the Cur ...

, his parents were Iancu Goliger, an architect, and his wife Hermina. After graduating from Unirea High School in his native town, he took a law degree from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

in 1922. In 1923, he graduated from the officers' school as a second lieutenant in the

Romanian Land Forces The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

. He joined the

Socialist Party of Romania The Socialist Party of Romania ( ro, Partidul Socialist din România, commonly known as ''Partidul Socialist'', PS) was a Romanian socialist political party, created on December 11, 1918 by members of the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSDR) ...

in 1920, and worked as an editor for the left-wing newspapers '' Adevărul'', ''Dimineața'' (1920-1930) and ''Lupta'' (1925-1937). From 1920 to 1939, he was a regular contributor to ''

Gândirea ''Gândirea'' ("The Thinking"), known during its early years as ''Gândirea Literară - Artistică - Socială'' ("The Literary - Artistic - Social Thinking"), was a Romanian literary, political and art magazine. Overview Founded by Cezar Pet ...

'' magazine. He also wrote for ''Adevărul literar'', ''Rampa'', ''

Sburătorul ''Sburătorul'' was a Romanian modernist literary magazine and literary society, established in Bucharest in April 1919. Led by Eugen Lovinescu, the circle was instrumental in developing new trends and styles in Romanian literature, ranging from a ...

'', ''Aurora'', ''Farul'', ''Icoane maramureșene'', ''Năzuința'', ''Europa'', ''Secolul'', ''Răspântia'', ''Pinguinul'', ''Pământul nostru'' and ''Lumina''. He married writer and journalist Otilia Ghibu in 1930. His second marriage, to Renée Șaraga, the founder of Romania's first puppy theatre, took place in 1938.George Silviu, ''Poezii'', p. 15-17. Bucharest: Editura Meridiane, 1994. From 1927 to 1931, he was press attaché with the Romanian delegation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. He worked as a lawyer within the

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of Communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, which act like suburbs ...

bar beginning in 1924, but was excluded due to anti-Jewish regulations in 1939. After being fired, he was sent to perform military service in the garrisons in Focșani, Rânghilești and Cernavodă but was demobilized in June 1940, again due to his Jewish origins. Enrolled in forced labor, he was made to clean snow and farm. After the 1944 Romanian coup d'état and the reversal of anti-Semitic laws, he returned to the practice of law, and obtained a doctorate in the field with a dissertation titled ''Noile legiuiri și libertatea presei''. Beginning in 1945, he held important government posts, such as secretary general and committee president, but resigned in 1948, shortly after a

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

was established. From 1949 to 1953, he was banned from publishing under his own name. Arrested in March 1953, he was held without trial at a jail for political prisoners in Bucharest until being released, without explanation, in July 1954. During the next seven years, he continued to write, published two books, and worked as an insurance clerk. In July 1961, together with his wife and two daughters, he settled in Paris. During his remaining decade of life, Silviu continued to write poetry and work on a novel inspired by his incarceration. He is buried in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...

His literary debut took place in ''Gândirea'' in 1927, with the children's verse play ''Motanul încălțat'' ("

Puss in Boots "Puss in Boots" ( it, Il gatto con gli stivali) is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for ...

"), written together with

Adrian Maniu Adrian Maniu (February 6, 1891 – April 20, 1968) was a Romanian poet, prose writer, playwright, essayist, and translator. Born in Bucharest, his father Grigore, a native of Lugoj, was a jurist and professor of commercial law at the University of ...

. There followed a series of children's books, sometimes signed with the pen name Moș Grigore Sfătosu: versified stories (''Verde Împărat și Zmeii'', 1927), poems (''Jucării'', 1932; ''Flori și fluturi'', 1934) and plays (''Ciufulici'', 1927; ''Brumărel'', 1945; ''Salba fermecată'', 1958). In 1934, he published a poetry book for adults, ''Paisie psaltul spune…''; this was followed the same year by ''Înfrângeri, versuri inactuale'', ''Notații'' (1936) and the fables in ''Întâmplări cu tâlc'' (1956). He also translated texts by

Paul Bourget Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (; 2 September 185225 December 1935) was a French poet, novelist and critic. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. Life Paul Bourget was born in Amiens in the Somme ''département'' of Picar ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

and

Georges Duhamel Georges Duhamel (; ; 30 June 1884 – 13 April 1966) was a French author, born in Paris. Duhamel trained as a doctor, and during World War I was attached to the French Army. In 1920, he published '' Confession de minuit'', the first of a serie ...

.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 562-63. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silviu, George 1901 births 1971 deaths People from Focșani University of Bucharest alumni 20th-century Romanian lawyers League of Nations people Jewish Romanian writers Romanian children's writers 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian translators Romanian socialists Romanian Land Forces officers Adevărul editors Romanian newspaper editors Romanian prisoners and detainees Romanian expatriates in France Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Romanian male poets 20th-century Romanian male writers 20th-century translators