Mihail Celarianu (August 1, 1893 – 1985) was a

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

n poet and novelist. A native of

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 of ...

, he was the third of eight children born to Constantin Celarianu, an officer in the

Romanian Army 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 ...

, and his wife Antoaneta (''née'' Pricup). After middle and high school in Bucharest and

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2011 Romanian census there were 180,302 pe ...

, he took a technical course of study at the

Bucharest Conservatory The National University of Music Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea Naţională de Muzică București, UNMB) is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in ...

, hoping to launch a career in vocal music, an idea he abandoned. Celarianu spent two years in Paris (1912-1914) studying medicine, returning home upon the outbreak of World War I. (His 1936 novel ''Femeia sângelui meu'', which he considered "almost entirely autobiographical", would deal with this period; he was accused of immorality when it was published.) He enlisted for duty after Romania entered the war in 1916, first as an infantryman and then, after attending the

Pipera Pipera village is a neighborhood in Voluntari, Ilfov County, at the northern edge of the city of Bucharest, Romania. Development Until 1995, Pipera was an ordinary village. After that, an "El Dorado" of land transactions began. Plots of land th ...

-based bombardiers' school, as an air gunner. The war inspired his play ''Drapelul'', which was staged in

Onești Onești (; hu, Ónfalva) is a municipiu, city in Bacău County, Romania, with a population of 39,172 inhabitants. It is situated in the historical region of Western Moldavia, Moldavia. Administratively, the villages of Slobozia and Borzești ...

, as well as a lengthy episode in his 1940 novel ''Diamant verde''. From 1923 to 1929, Celarianu worked as a civil servant at

Ion Minulescu Ion Minulescu (; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latte ...

's office in the Arts and Religious Affairs Ministry, an experience that informed his 1934 novel ''Polca pe furate'', published on the recommendation of

Mihail Sebastian Mihail Sebastian (; born Iosif Mendel Hechter; October 18, 1907 – May 29, 1945) was a Romanian playwright, essayist, journalist and novelist. Life Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila, the son of Mendel and Clara Hechter. After c ...

. From 1929 to 1944, he was librarian and then specialist at the Labor, Health and Social Protection Ministry, where one of his office colleagues was

Felix Aderca Felix Aderca (; born Froim-Zelig roim-ZeilicAderca; March 13, 1891 – December 12, 1962),

. Between 1944 and 1949, he was secretary of the fellow-travelling Democratic Writers' Union. His wife Nina was the daughter of

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 in hi ...

, whose poems he selected and published in 1920 as ''Poezii alese''. He made his poetry debut in ''Duminica'' in 1906, aged thirteen. His first book, ''Poeme și proză'', appeared in 1913, during his Paris stay. He was a regular customer of the Oteteleșeanu Restaurant and, following a suggestion by

Tudor Vianu Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Literature of Roma ...

, began frequenting the

Eugen Lovinescu Eugen Lovinescu (; 31 October 1881 – 16 July 1943) was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the ''Sburătorul'' literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the u ...

-led ''

Sburătorul ''Sburătorul'' was a Romanian Modernism, 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, rangi ...

'' circle. He wrote two children's books (''Zâna izvorului sănătății'', together with

Jean Bart Jean Bart (; ; 21 October 1650 – 27 April 1702) was a French Admiral, naval commander and privateer. Early life Jean Bart was born in Dunkirk, France, Dunkirk in 1650 to a seafaring family, the son of Jean-Cornil Bart (c. 1619-1668) who has b ...

and ''Dr. Ygrec'', 1936; ''Isprăvile lui Stan cel cuminte'', 1939), as well as a volume of humorous sketches, ''Noaptea de fericire'' (1944). He translated

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 ...

Boris Polevoy Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (or Polevoi) (russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Полево́й; – 12 July 1981) was a Soviet writer. He is the author of the book '' Story of a Real Man'' about Soviet World War II fighter pilot Aleksey M ...

(in collaboration) and

Édouard de Keyser Édouard is both a French given name and a surname, equivalent to Edward in English. Notable people with the name include: * Édouard Balladur (born 1929), French politician * Édouard Boubat (1923–1999), French photographer * Édouard Colonne ...

. Magazines that publish his work include ''Sburătorul'', ''Universul literar'', ''

Flacăra ''Flacăra'' (Romanian for "The Flame") is a weekly literary magazine published in Bucharest, Romania. History and profile ''Flacăra'' was started in 1911. The first issue was published on 22 October 1911. The founder was Constantin Banu and ...

'', ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. Th ...

'', ''

Revista Fundațiilor Regale ''Revista Fundațiilor Regale'' ("The Review of Royal Foundations") was a monthly literary, art and culture magazine published in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern ...

'' and ''

România Literară ''România Literară'' is a cultural and literary magazine from Romania. In its original edition, it was founded on 1 January 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași until 3 December 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared on ...

''. He won the

Romanian Writers' Society The Romanian Writers' Society ( ro, Societatea Scriitorilor Români) was a professional association based in Bucharest, Romania, that aided the country's writers and promoted their interests. Founded in 1909, it operated for forty years before the e ...

Prize in 1929, 1935 and 1939; and 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 byl ...

's Mihai Eminescu Prize in 1966. During the interwar period, Celarianu was a promoter of novels that analyzed situations through satire and especially eroticism. He was a

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

poet of the elegiac and sensual or erotic tendency, as exemplified by his volumes ''Drumul'' (1928) and ''Flori fără pace'' (1938).Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 307-08. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celarianu, Mihail 1893 births 1985 deaths Writers from Bucharest Romanian male poets Symbolist poets Romanian dramatists and playwrights Romanian children's writers Romanian humorists Romanian translators Romanian civil servants Romanian librarians Romanian military personnel of World War I 20th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian novelists 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century translators 20th-century Romanian male writers