Nicolae Crevedia (born Niculae Ion Cârstea; December 7, 1902 – November 5, 1978) was a Romanian journalist, poet and novelist, father of the writer-politician Eugen Barbu. Of Muntenian peasant roots, which shaped his commitment to agrarian and then far-right politics, as well as his dialectal poetry and humorous prose, he preferred bohemian life to an academic career. As a writer at Gândirea, Crevedia became a follower of Nichifor Crainic, and worked with him on various other press venues, from Calendarul to Sfarmă-Piatră. His poetic output and his political outlook were both nominally influenced by his peasant background; in practice, however, he gave literary expression to the suburban environment (or mahala), and adored the modernist poetry of Tudor Arghezi.
Turning to fascism, Crevedia sympathized with the Iron Guard, and, in the late 1930s, contributed to the press campaigns vilifying ideological enemies, while also putting out novels, reportage pieces, and anthologies. His alleged affair with the Iron Guard muse Marta Rădulescu was at the center of a literary scandal, and was fictionalized by Crevedia in one of his novels. Fluent in Bulgarian, he became press attaché in the Kingdom of Bulgaria under the National Legionary State, serving to 1946. He was sidelined by the Romanian communist regime in the late 1940s and early '50s, when he was employed as a minor clerk—though he was largely spared persecution, leading his rival Ion Caraion to suggest that he was an asset of the regime. Alongside his mentor Crainic, he contributed to the propaganda review Glasul Patriei.
Crevedia was more fully recovered under national communism in the 1960s, and lived to see the communist ascendancy of his son Barbu. Various authors see him as partly responsible for the latter phenomenon, alleging that Crevedia had ghostwritten Barbu's debut novel, The Pit. Crevedia's own poetry, much of it heavily indebted to Arghezi, Ion Minulescu and Sergei Yesenin, was reprinted in various installments to 1977. It is regarded by critics as a minor but picturesque contribution to modern Romanian literature. Upon his death at age 75, he was survived by Barbu, who went on to establish the Greater Romania Party, as well as by his daughter Diana Cristev, a literary researcher.
Biography
Early life The future writer was born in the eponymous Crevedia Mare, Vlașca County (now Giurgiu County), on . Nicolae Scurtu, "Restituiri. O epistolă necunoscută a lui Nicolae Crevedia", in România Literară, Issue 3/2012Nicolae Scurtu, "Restituiri. Noi contribuții la biografia lui Nicolae Crevedia", in România Literară, Issue 34/2018, p. 6 His parents were the peasants Ion Cârstea and his wife Floarea née Antonescu,Alexandru Piru, "Crevedia N.", in Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. II, pp. 419–420. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. described the poet as: "well-to-do people of the plow. I am the first one in my family to have worn a necktie." Crevedia also saw himself as "purely Romanian and from a fully Romanian region", but was rumored to be of Bulgarian ethnicity. Vlaicu Bârna, "Un cuvânt nou în limba română", in România Literară, Issue 42/2001"Buletinul zilei. Tribulațiile lui Cârstoff", in Dreptatea, December 16, 1938, p. 3N. Rădulescu, pp. 91, 214–215 His birth name was Niculae (or Nicolae)Călinescu, p. 929 Ion Cârstea, although he later had it officially changed to N. Crevedia, his pseudonym of choice. His political adversaries at Dreptatea newspaper alleged that his ancestors were Bulgarian greengrocers (zarzavagii), originally called "Cârstoff".
One of two sons born to the Cârsteas, Niculae sponsored his younger brother to complete a high-school-level education, while his older sisters (one of whom had 17 children of her own) remained largely illiterate. After completing primary school in his native village, his own high-school education was interrupted by World War I. Niculae was mobilized as a telephone operator at the mayor's office in Crevedia Mare. He witnessed first-hand the Romanian defeat of November 1916, when Vlașca and all of Muntenia fell to the Central Powers; his father was drafted into the 45th Infantry Regiment, and withdrew with it to Iepurești. With Floarea and his sister Oana, Crevedia traveled there, meeting the caravans of refugees heading for Bucharest, the national capital.Crevedia, pp. 29–30 As revealed by his private notebooks, Niculae witnessed his father's humiliation by a young platoon leader, as well as his marching into the infantry counterattack of Bălăriile (part of the larger Battle of Bucharest).Crevedia, pp. 30–31 Upon the end of war, he walked to Bucharest in order to complete his education. In 1923–1924, he was a clerk at the War Ministry, making his published debut in 1924, in the journal Cultul Eroilor Noștri.Crevedia, p. 26
Crevedia was a student at Saint Sava High School in Bucharest, where he befriended the younger Simion Stolnicu, who also grew up to be a writer. Stolnicu recalls that his colleague, who wore puttees like most other lower-class students, was an avid reader with a taste for prosody, but never gave clue that he was also an aspiring poet.Simion Bărbulescu, "Simion Stolnicu — inedit", in Steaua, Vol. XVIII, Issue 7, July 1967, p. 73 Crevedia graduated in 1925, and then pursued a degree in Slavic studies at the University of Bucharest. Although he learned Latin and the rudiments of Bulgarian, he never in fact took his degree. He belonged to the sociological research teams led by Dimitrie Gusti and worked for a while as a substitute teacher, then as a private tutor. Notoriously philandering into his old age,C. D. Zeletin, "Poetul N. Crevedia în aducerea aminte (I)", in Ateneu, Issue 6/2012, p. 8 Crevedia boasted that his first sexual encounters were war widows. While moving between rented apartments, Crevedia had a sexual relationship with one of his landladies, resulting in the birth of son, the future novelist Eugen Barbu.Gheran, p. 370 Ștefan Agopian, "Cine scrie Groapa altuia", in Cațavencii, January 28, 2012 Dinu Săraru, "Aventura postumă a unui mare scriitor", in Adevărul, April 10, 2015 According to eyewitnesses, father and son resembled each other perfectly.Dan Ciachir, "Atelier. Amintiri secrete. 'Acest Pamfil Șeicaru al lumii proletare' (II)", in Litere, Arte, Idei. Supliment de Cultură al Ziarului Cotidianul, November 24, 2003, p. 4Crohmălniceanu (1994), p. 167 Crevedia recognized him as his own, but preferred to be discreet about his existence. Formally registered as the son of State Railways carpenter Nicolae Barbu, Eugen himself publicly denied his origins, but later admitted to them in private.
Complaining that teaching and studying made him a "misfit", Crevedia took up professional journalism, writing for Curentul, Epoca and Mișcarea; other magazines that ran his work include Rampa, Vremea, and Revista Fundațiilor Regale. In 1928, a Bulgarian newspaper in Balcic hosted two poems by Dimcho Debelyanov, translated into Romanian by Crevedia.Vasile Savel, "Scriitori români în bulgărește", in Dreptatea, September 8, 1928, p. 2 The following year, he was contributing to Bilete de Papagal, corresponding with its editors Tudor Arghezi and Felix Aderca from his temporary home in Sâmbăta de Sus (where he shared boarding with writers Cicerone Theodorescu and Ana Luca); he was also preparing an overview of Bulgarian literature, which was supposed to be printed by Adevărul Literar și Artistic. In 1930, Universuls literary supplement hosted his interview with writer Vasile Voiculescu, in which the latter spoke about his mystical experiences.Bianca Mastan, "Elemente simbolice în romanul Zahei orbul de Vasile Voiculescu", in Studia Theologica, Vol. III, Issue 3, 2005, pp. 172–173 Crevedia's first book, Epigrame ("Epigrams"), was published in 1930, followed in 1933 by poetry collection Bulgări și stele ("Clumps and Stars").Iosif Bâtiu, "Cărți. N. Crevedia: Buruieni de dragoste. Roman Editura Cugetarea", in Progres și Cultură, Issues 2–3/1937, pp. 63–64Munteanu, p. 45 After frequenting the modernist club at Sburătorul,C. D. Zeletin, "Poetul N. Crevedia în aducerea aminte (II)", in Ateneu, Issues 7–8/2012, p. 10 he became one of the most dedicated followers of the poet-theologian Nichifor Crainic, and "one of the most constant" contributors to his magazine, Gândirea.Crohmălniceanu (1972), p. 76
A journalist colleague, Teodor Al. Munteanu, sees young Crevedia as absorbed by peasant issues, adding: "of course, he jumped in to help without delving any deeper, into the real causalities, but rather for daily concerns, for the bare minimum."Munteanu, p. 46 Crevedia saw himself as "a man of the right, like my father before me". In his definition, this meant both "ardent" Romanian nationalism and calls for "social justice", with particular emphasis on "the peasant issue": "The [peasantry] is rotten with illness, still ignorant, morally ruined, and political parties have turned it into bedlam." In 1932, he was briefly associated with the leftist newspaper Azi, which began serializing his work of satirical prose, Dragoste cu termen redus ("Short-term Love"). Crevedia withdrew from this enterprise with a public announcement in July."Viața artistică și culturală. Calde proaspete... Dragoste cu termen redus", in Epoca, July 14, 1932, p. 2 Drifting toward Crainic's neo-traditionalist and Romanian Orthodox far-right,Ornea, pp. 116, 145 he served as editor-in-chief for the dailies Calendarul and Porunca Vremii. He also published in Cuvântul reportage pieces which documented the effects of the Great Depression on the Bucharest proletariat. As recounted by Munteanu, the young man was unusually sensitive and "ungentlemanly" in his contributions, carrying on disputes in which he "hit below the belt"; in one case, he responded to a literary reviewer at Curentul by drawing attention to his unkempt appearance. He also made a mockery of colleagues such as Maica Smara and Sandu Tudor—the former shamed him publicly, asking him to stop, while the latter published a "Response to All Crevidisms" in his own newspaper, Credința.Munteanu, pp. 45–46 His milder jibes at another colleague, Păstorel Teodoreanu, almost cost him a public beating.
Crevedia followed up with books of humorous prose: Bacalaureatul lui Puiu ("Puiu's Baccalaureate", 1933) was followed by a complete edition of Dragoste cu termen redus (1934); together with Al. C. Calotescu-Neicu, he published Antologia epigramei românești ("An Anthology of Romanian Epigrams", 1933).Grigore Bugarin, "Cronica literară. N. Crevedia: Burueni de dragoste", in Banatul Literar, Artistic și Social, Issue 1/1937, p. 17Călinescu, pp. 978, 1027; Munteanu, p. 45. See also Lovinescu, pp. 243–244 Crevedia won the Romanian Writers' Society prize in 1934 and enjoyed commercial success, but was soon after accused of plagiarism by his Calendarul colleague Pan M. Vizirescu and by the epigrammatist Paul I. Papadopol. Nicolae Scurtu, "Un pseudonim, o epistolă și câteva tușe la un portret", in România Literară, Issue 29/2015 One of the accusations referred to Crevedia's translation of a Bulgarian poem by Nikolay Rainov,Mihail Straje, "Cronica măruntă. Alonimul în publicistica noastră literară", in Argeș, Vol. III, Issue 6, June 1968, p. 19 which appeared as such in both Viața Literară and Frize. The piece was later exposed as nearly identical to one of Crevedia's own works; when asked to justify himself, he noted that both poems were his own, and that he had presented one as a translation piece so as to ensure that I. Valerian would publish it."Note. Interne", in Frize, Issues 1–2/1934, p. 12 His account was verified by literary historian Mihail Straje, who reports "Rainov" as Crevedia's quasi-pseudonym.
Iron Guard sympathizer