Nicolae Dimitrie Xenopol ( or , also Nicu Xenopol; Francized Nicolas Xenopol; October 11, 1858 – December 1917) was a Romanian politician, diplomat, economist and writer, the younger brother of historian Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol and, like him, a member of Junimea society. Initially inspired by Junimea leader Titu Maiorescu, he was later a dissident of Junimism, a Positivist and a supporter of literary realism. Politically, Xenopol also moved away from conservatism and was embraced by the liberal current, serving as editor of two liberal newspapers: Românul and Voința Națională. He had a successful career in electoral politics, which began within the National Liberal Party and later saw him joining the Conservative-Democratic Party. In 1912, he was Minister of Commerce, and helped create an Academy of Economic Studies.
Xenopol was the author of two realistic novels criticizing the social environment of his day. His campaign for realism and his positive coverage of urban civilization pitted him against the conservative author Mihai Eminescu. Their violent debate of the 1880s is one of the highlights in Xenopol's career in cultural journalism. His passionate involvement in support of the liberal cause was another topic of controversy, and, on several occasions, he dueled with his colleagues in the press.
Late in his life, N. Xenopol supported Romania's involvement in World War I alongside the Entente Powers. He died while carrying out his final mission, as Romania's first Ambassador to Japan.
Biography
Early life The Xenopol brothers were of foreign origins: their father, known locally as Dimitrie (and allegedly born Xenopoulos), Dania-Ariana Moisa, " 'Ce citeau, cum citeau' locuitorii secolului 19", in Ramuri, Nr. 1/2008 was a British and Greek subject of the Protestant faith, who settled in the port of Galați and converted to Romanian Orthodoxy.George Călinescu, Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1986, p.441 "Cărți - Reviste. Amintiri de la Junimea de Iacob Negruzzi", in Școala Noastră, Nr. 6/1940, p.259 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library) Ionel Savitescu, "Memoriile și corespondența unui cărturar" , in Convorbiri Literare, January 2002 He was of Jewish descent. Dimitrie opened the way for his son's political, literary and diplomatic career: he was a Dragoman for the Prussian mission to Moldavia, a tutor of the Rosetti family children, a boarding house manager, and ultimately a prison warden.Cubleșan, p.20 The Xenopols' mother, (née Vasiliu), was of Greek origins.
Nicolae was born in the Moldavian capital, Iași, as one of Dimitrie's six children: he had two brothers (Alexandru and Filip, the future architect) and three sisters.Vorovenci, p.652 He completed his secondary education in that city. By 1877, he was affiliated with Junimea, a conservative literary society founded by Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Iacob Negruzzi and other Moldavian men of letters. The club members responded to his quest for affirmation, and provided him with money to study abroad: after attending the University of Paris, he took his Doctor of Law diploma at the University of Liège.Cubleșan, p.20-21; Vorovenci, p.652-653 It was during his training period that Xenopol met and befriended other young Romanian students, including the future dramatist and theater manager Alexandru Davila. Vera Molea, "Alexandru Davila și revolta studențească din 13 martie 1906", in the Mihail Sadoveanu City Library Biblioteca Bucureștilor, Nr. 3/2009, p.9 The grant did not meet all of his needs. He worked during most of college, and, for a while, gave up, trying to enlist in the Romanian Land Forces, or concentrating on writing his novel Brazi și putregai ("Fir Trees and Rot").
Xenopol made his debut as a novelist and a realist writer with the humorous work Păsurile unui american în România ("The Griefs of an American in Romania"), serialized by Junimeas Convorbiri Literare journal from late 1879 to mid 1880.Cubleșan, p.20, 21-22 Brazi și putregai first saw print as a series in the Junimist tribune Timpul (1880).
By 1882, N. Xenopol had drifted away from Junimea, and, as the Junimists noted, may have lured Maiorescu's protégé, Ion Luca Caragiale, to join him in anti-Conservative politics.Ornea, I, p.94 He was at the time involved with the newspaper Românul, a mouthpiece of left-wing liberalism, and became its main editor. Working under liberal chief C. A. Rosetti, he was seconded for a while by Constantin Bacalbașa, who came from the liberal gazette Telegraful. Constantin Bacalbașa, "Contrabandele bucureștene", in the Mihail Sadoveanu City Library Biblioteca Bucureștilor, Nr. 8/2008, p.5 Xenopol's Românul chronicles there pleaded for a realistic literature, capable of describing class conflict—for Xenopol, the model to follow was a young novelist from Transylvania, Ioan Slavici.Alex Drace-Francis, The Making of Modern Romanian Culture: Literacy and the Development of National Identity, I.B. Tauris, London, 2006, p.189. Another author highly praised by Xenopol was the Junimist Nicolae Gane: both Xenopol and his former patron Maiorescu believed that Gane's short story set the standard for a new literary language. Ilie Trăilă, "Bibliografíe", in Familia, Nr. 19/1882, p.224, 226 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
Xenopol called for Slavici's novels to be studied by other writers, and then be used in creating an urban-themed, fully modern, literature. The pillar of Junimist poetics, Mihai Eminescu, responded to this argument with a virulent article, which identified Xenopol's theories with cosmopolitanism and alienation. Initially overwhelmed by Eminescu's tone, Xenopol replied with a mordant piece in Telegraful (April 1882), where the focus was on Eminescu's own ethnic origins.Cubleșan, p.21 According to literary historian Constantin Cubleșan: "Politically, [Xenopol] became noted as a Junimea adversary, writing unusually violent lampoons against its members, with coarse and demeaning language".
PNL and Voința Națională In short time, Xenopol affiliated with the National Liberal Party (PNL), whereas Junimea had become an inner faction of the Conservative group. For a while in 1884, he was Head of the Bucharest Public Library. "Scíri din Românía", in Familia, Nr. 28/1884, p.339 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library) In 1885, PNL Prime Minister Ion Brătianu made Xenopol his personal secretary.Cubleșan, p.21; Vorovenci, p.653 Also then, Xenopol welcomed the Belgian visitor Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye, arranging him a meeting with C. A. Rosetti.Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye, The Balkan Peninsula, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York City, 1887, p.342 (online copy at the University of Michigan Library)
This period marked the start of another open conflict between Xenopol and the Junimists: the former took over as editor of the PNL mouthpiece Voința Națională, and began publishing essays denouncing the backwardness of Junimist ideology. By October 1886, Xenopol even sided with Junimeas Marxist adversaries at Contemporanul, and allowed Marxist leader Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea to publish anti-Maiorescu pieces in Voința Națională. He collected such articles, adding his own, into the brochure Contrazicerile d-lui T. Maiorescu ("Mr. T. Maiorescu's Contradictions").Ornea, II, p.319-320 During 1885, Xenopol also directed the antisemitic campaign against the Alliance Israélite Universelle, with unsigned articles which may or may not have been written by Caragiale.Șerban Cioculescu, Caragialiana, Editura Eminescu, Bucharest, 1974, p.21.
Another target for Xenopol's attacks was his former Românul colleague C. Bacalbașa. The latter demanded satisfaction for claims made about him in Voința Națională, and the two journalists dueled each other at the racecourse in Băneasa. The understanding was that the loser would be the first to shed blood: Bacalbașa's blade touched Xenopol's finger, and Xenopol conceded defeat. Marian Petcu, "Întâmplări cu ziariști morți și răniți. O istorie a agresiunilor din presă" , in the University of Bucharest Faculty of Journalism Revista Română de Jurnalism și Comunicare , Nr. 1/2007, p.58 Costi Rogozanu, "Știu ce ne lipsește: duelul! Și puțin Bourdieu", in Suplimentul de Cultură, Nr. 246, October 2009 Later in the year, Voința Națională focused its gibes on the Conservative paper Epoca. As a result, Xenopol was visited in his home by two Epoca men, Nicolae Filipescu and Alexandru A. Balș, who threatened him with physical harm; Xenopol pulled a gun on them, and the authorities were called in—Filipescu and Balș received prison terms, but were pardoned 3 months into their sentences. Xenopol himself was still a passionate duelist, and, in one other instance, is said to have charged an adversary with a blade after their duel of pistols ended in a draw.
N. Xenopol's activities reached into other fields. He and the Bukovinian composer Ciprian Porumbescu wrote a choral, Erna, published by the Armonia Music Society in 1885. "Salon. Teatru și musică", in Familia, Nr. 14/1885, p.167 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library) The same year, he lectured at the Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest. His conference, published as a booklet later in the year, was a satire of Romanian politics, and carried the title Hatîrul ("The Favor"). "Salon. Literatură și arte", in Familia, Nr. 16/1885, p.189 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
N. Xenopol married, in 1887, the daughter of Băicoianu (Baycoiano), Prefect of Mehedinți County.Vorovenci, p.653 In 1891, the young author collected his satirical articles into a single tome, Cronici glumețe ("Funny Chronicles"); Păsurile unui american în România was first published as a volume the following year.Cubleșan, p.20, 21 Still a PNL man, Xenopol was first elected to the Assembly of Deputies during the 1895 suffrage, and preserved his seat for several mandates, before moving to a similar position in the Senate. He was a member of all successive Romanian legislatures until 1917.
In parallel, N. Xenopol carried on with his cultural initiatives. In March 1895, he lectured at the Romanian Atheneum on the topic of "crowd psychology", criticizing Scipio Sighele's ideas on the topic. "Salon. Dela Bucureșci", in Familia, Nr. 11/1895, p.129-130 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library) In 1898, he accepted an invitation from art patron Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, and joined the steering committee of his Ileana art society, which grouped independent painters reacting against academic art.Jacques Lassaigne, Theodor Enescu, Ștefan Luchian, Editura Meridiane, Bucharest, 1972, p.51.
N. Xenopol made his return to journalism in 1904, when he founded a French-language magazine, Le Mouvement Economique ("The Economic Movement"), directed by him until 1915. By 1906, he had left the PNL and joined the Conservative Party. The Conservative cabinet of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino made Xenopol a member of its delegation, which negotiated a new trade agreement between the Kingdom of Romania and the French Republic. "Dépêches télégraphiques", in Le Temps, December 27, 1906, p.1 (digitized by the Bibliothèque nationale de France Gallica digital library) Well regarded by his superiors, he was later a Romanian negotiator of economic treaties with the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.
PCD, Țară Nouă and ministerial term