Tudor Arghezi (; born Ion Nae Theodorescu; 21 May 1880 – 14 July 1967) was a Romanian writer and political figure, widely considered one of his country's greatest poets (second only to Mihai Eminescu). An illegitimate, part-Hungarian child who was purposely vague about his roots, he had a troubled youth during which he held a variety of jobs—including a stint as a hierodeacon of the Romanian Orthodox Church, from which he gathered his extreme anti-clericalism. He debuted in the 1890s as an affiliate of the Symbolist movement, being welcomed as an outstanding poet. Arghezi renounced this career to study theology in Switzerland, but never graduated, training instead as a watchmaker and typographer. From 1910, his social poetry and leftist journalism became widely read, allowing him to return as a professional writer and art columnist. He soon became highly controversial for his apparent corruption and his mordant satire, as well as for his political positions during World War I—when, as editor of Seara and Cronica, he favored the Central Powers. Arghezi stayed behind in occupied Bucharest after the Romanian Debacle of 1916, collaborating with the German Empire in a manner that was judged as treasonous. In postwar Greater Romania, he was initially punished with imprisonment at Văcărești (an experience which informed his interwar poetry and prose), but amnestied within months.
Arghezi returned to political journalism, frequently changing sides and patrons, but remained constant in his promotion of avant-garde literature. Credited with having discovered the similarly influential Urmuz, he set up his own review, Bilete de Papagal, which helped launch careers. He only published his poetry as books when he was in his forties, becoming instantly famous. Initially well-liked for his bridging of modernist literature and thematic traditionalism, he became reviled, especially in conservative circles, for the extreme naturalism and grotesque expressionism found in his subsequent works. Arghezi had a consuming dispute with the nationalist ideologue Nicolae Iorga, but never fully rejected nationalism, and seemingly agreed with conservatives, as well as with far-right groups such as the Iron Guard, on a number of topics. By 1930, he was a virtual client of Carol II, Romania's authoritarian king. Largely with money obtained from Carol, Arghezi maintained his estate of Mărțișor, located outside his former prison; it is known as the setting of his other poetic cycles and his children's literature. For a while, he was absent from the literary scene due to a misdiagnosed disease, and preserved from this a hatred of the medical profession.
Initially, Arghezi was protected by Ion Antonescu, who, as dictator of Romania, aligned the country with Nazi Germany. He wrote a number of regime-sanctioned texts. In 1943, he published a satirical piece targeting Germany's envoy, Manfred von Killinger; though this text was likely vetted by some members of the governing apparatus, he was briefly interned at Târgu Jiu, and as such obtained cult status in anti-fascist circles. Upon Antonescu's toppling in 1944, he resumed publication of Bilete de Papagal; this period inaugurated his ambiguous relationship with the Romanian Communist Party, alternating polite cohabitation and outspoken independence. Eventually singled out as a "decadent", he found himself censored throughout 1948–1953, only finding work as a translator. He was progressively rehabilitated during the early stages of de-Stalinization, but only in return for major concessions to the official dogmas of Marxism-Leninism. His detractors criticized his quick adaptation to such tenets, but he was defended by others as constrained by circumstances, and as salvaging whatever was left of pre-communist culture. Arghezi was the subject of a cult of personality from the late 1950s, and served a term in the Great National Assembly. He was a member of the Romanian Academy and a recipient of the Herder Prize.
While widely disliked for his political compromises, he remains universally acclaimed for his talent, his inventiveness, and his reshaping of the literary language. He took pride in upgrading the lower-class register of speech, and also extensively used the Oltenian dialect, with which he identified culturally. In his creation of new poetic forms, he also borrowed the conventions of Christian poetry to contextualize his own embrace of agnosticism and delving into heresy. He is less celebrated as a novelist, since his work there was less rigorous, often creating prose poetry rather than full-fledged epics. His immense literary output was reissued in critical editions that took almost five decades to print, with his children Mitzura and Baruțu serving as curators. His first-born and estranged son was the expatriate photographer Eli Lotar.
Biography Origins and debut Arghezi, a lifelong critic of criminology, and notoriously shy about exposing his own past, equated biographical criticism with biostatistics, seeing both as undignified; he was also prone to self-mystification, always willing to astonish or simply amuse his audience.Crohmălniceanu (1994), pp. 25–26 As observed by the literary scholar Eugen Simion, his "immense body of work" has a "scarcity of intimate detail", and he "did not leave a diary".Simion (1993), p. 142 While is known for certain that Ion Nae Theodorescu, the future Arghezi, was born in Bucharest (then capital of the Romanian Principality) on 21 May 1880, the other details of his origins were only clarified by decades of posthumous research. Because the poet was an illegitimate child, his (possibly forged) birth certificate maintained an ambiguity about his parents. His mother was credited as Maria Theodorescu, who is known to have been married to a local Gendarme, Nae Theodorescu; the latter name appears under "father", but refers to another man of that name—namely, an Oltenian pastry cook from Târgu Cărbunești.Ferenczes, pp. 37–39, 43, 46; Tămăian & Simion, p. 345 Ion was always aware of his paternity, viewing himself as an Oltenian and maintaining close links with that town; he was resentful toward his actual mother, who was not Maria, but rather a Rozalia Ergézi or Arghesi, first mentioned as such in his vaccination certificate.Ferenczes, p. 44; Tămăian & Simion, p. 345 She was a domestic servant and a Catholic, sometimes presenting herself as a GermanFerenczes, p. 40; Tămăian & Simion, p. 344 or generically Transylvanian.Mircea Zaciu, "Lecturi și zile (XXV)", in Tribuna, Vol. XIX, Issue 30, July 1975, p. 3 As uncovered in the 2010s by researcher István Ferenczes, she was a member of the Hungarian community, and more specifically a Székely immigrant, and was only "German", in popular perception, in that she was from Austria-Hungary and could speak (some) German.Ferenczes, passim His maternal grandfather was a stonemason, János Ergézi of Szentegyháza (Vlăhița), through whom he traced his origins to the Székelys of Bukovina.Ferenczes, pp. 41–42
The poet had two half-brothers, Nicolae and Alexandru, respectively from Nae and Rozalia.Ferenczes, pp. 39–40, 43, 45, 46, 48 Ion spent his first months in Rozalia's rented apartment. In his infancy, she was a wet nurse, and as such breastfed him along with Jean Alexandru Steriadi, the future painter, whom he once introduced as a "milk brother".Ferenczes, pp. 43, 47 Rozalia taught her son Hungarian, possibly after taking him for a few years to Szentegyháza, at their Hungarian relatives.Ferenczes, pp. 44–45 He may have been briefly enlisted at a primary school in Romania, recalling that his teachers included historian Alexandru Odobescu—whom he remembered as "one of the most beautiful things I ever gazed upon".Theodorescu, p. 213 By his own admission, he did most of his early training outside formal schooling, at Brezoianu Church; when he finally enlisted at Bucharest's Cantemir School, aged eleven, he reportedly still switched between his two parental languages.Ferenczes, pp. 44–46 He could still speak Hungarian with some fluency in the 1960s—though he remained vague about where he had learned it.Ferenczes, pp. 37, 44 He rarely saw his father, and in old age claimed that they had grown fully estranged from one another around 1891.Ferenczes, pp. 43–44 According to multiple accounts, Ion preserved lifelong links with his mother, but never introduced her to his circle of friends, allowing it to be inferred that she was his housekeeper or a governess to his children.Constantin Beldie, "Memorii și memorialiști. Acasă la Arghezi (III)", in Argeș, Vol. XVIII, Issue 2, February 1983, p. 12Ferenczes, pp. 39–40, 44–45, 47; Tămăian & Simion, p. 345 Though his pseudonym and eventual surname was a variant of his mother's Hungarian surname, he entertained confusion, once telling journalists that it was from the river Argeș.Ferenczes, p. 41
Though he tutored other children for money from the age of eleven,Tămăian & Simion, p. 354 Arghezi nearly flunked every year he spent at Cantemir, whence he eventually graduated in 1896;Ferenczes, p. 45 some early biographers view him as a graduate of Saint Sava, which is where his friend Gala Galaction was enlisted.Rotaru, pp. 109, 371, 381 Immediately after completing regular school, he became an apprentice stonemason in a funeral home. By his own account, his only diploma was that of a master typographer, on the basis of which he would later operate his own printing press.Ion Larian Postolache, "L-am cunoscut pe Arghezi. Prima întîlnire", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXII, Issue 5, February 1979, p. 8 A schoolmate of Steriadi and Apcar Baltazar, he was passionate about drawing, and became a gifted if uncultivated artist (he continued to sketch in pencil during his entire career as a writer, and even sold some of his drawings).Barbu Brezianu, "Artă. Arghezi — uitat cronicar al avangardei", in Revista 22, Vol. IV, Issue 171, May 1993, p. 14 Theodorescu began writing poetry in 1894, originally to spite a colleague who had also taken up this occupation.Ferenczes, p. 46 He was pushed to read literature by two of his teachers, but also by his growing fascination toward bohemianism and what he understood to be a journalist's lifestyle.Tămăian & Simion, p. 345
As a subject of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Romania, Arghezi took an interest in left-wing politics, and, possibly in early 1895, attended a rally at the socialist club, where he also met the culture critic Garabet Ibrăileanu; he sent some of his poetry to Lumea Nouă, a socialist magazine, which offered him encouragement without printing it.Tămăian & Simion, pp. 345–346 Immediately after, he pivoted toward the Symbolist movement, joining a circle of youths that worshiped poet Alexandru Macedonski. He made his debut as a published poet in Macedonski's magazine, Liga Ortodoxă, on 30 July 1896—still signing himself "Ion N. Theodorescu", or "Ion Theo".Tămăian & Simion, pp. 346, 354. See also Rotaru, pp. 381–383 In October, the same magazine hosted his epigram against a senior traditionalist poet, George Coșbuc, later described by Arghezi himself as one of his most shameful writings.Cerna-Rădulescu, p. 103