Iancu Constantin Vissarion (born Iancu Visarion, also credited as Ion Vissarion; 2 February 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Romanian writer and political agitator, also known as an inventor, esotericist, and promoter of pseudoscience. He lived most of his life in Costeștii din Vale village and was advertised as one of the rare and self-taught "peasant writers"; however, he held a variety of jobs, from notary to railway porter, and eventually to a wealthy landowner. His literary beginnings were as a student of Romanian folklore and poet-raconteur, with an inclination toward agrarian socialism. Vissarion's anti-establishment positioning saw his participation in the peasants' revolt of early 1907, which resulted in his capture by the Land Forces and his narrowly escaping the death penalty. This experience informed several of his works, some of which were taken up by the socialist newspaper România Muncitoare in the 1910s. Vissarion cultivated traditionalist themes in tune with Sămănătoruls group ideology, and for this reason, was rejected as inauthentic by left-wingers such as Ion Pas and Panait Istrati. By contrast, he was embraced by the literary mainstream and likewise became an outsider ally of the Symbolist movement, cultivating friendships with Gala Galaction and Tudor Arghezi.
Vissarion's literary career was paused by World War I and a German occupation—events which became the main focus in some of his later accounts. He was close to the "Germanophile" newspapers put out by Arghezi and Galaction but, unlike them, was not marginalized by Entente loyalists. His fame peaked in the 1920s, when he published steadily, with volumes of prose that earned critical accolades but also with poetry that critics regarded as "tasteless". During the interwar, Vissarion slowly adapted his narrative style to the objectivity of literary modernism, receiving some guidance from Eugen Lovinescu and his Sburătorul circle, but also pioneered Romanian science fiction, adapting it to the format of fairy tales. The latter passion blended with his work as an amateur scientist: having originally fabricated explosives in his home, he turned to fields such as aviation and agricultural mechanics and held several patents—including one for a quasi-helicopter; he was concerned about issues in environmental science, and proposed systems to harness wave power at a worldwide level. After parting with atheism, he became interested in mystical subjects, offering his musings on suggestion, the afterlife, and oneiromancy. In 1925, he contributed the screenplay for the silent film Legenda celor două cruci, where he also appeared as the narrator.
In middle age, Vissarion was an outspokent Romanian nationalist and anti-communist, who once gravitated toward fascism. The communist regime, established in 1948, still lionized him for his former status as a rebel, his scientism, and his cultivation of social realism, while allowing criticism of his mystical conceptions and unevenness of talent. He died in 1951; his work, comprising thousands of pages of unpublished manuscripts, was again promoted by Arghezi into the 1960s. Though largely unknown to the reading public of later generations, he inspired a cult in Dâmbovița County and was a model for local novelist Marin Ioniță. He had a museum in Costeștii din Vale dedicated to him and a literary club in Găești named after him. Vissarion's ten children include Cornelia Vissarion-Mănuceanu, a poet, memoirist, and Radio Free Europe personality.
Biography Early years Vissarion was born in Costeștii din Vale on 2 February 1879. The actual date was only settled in the 1960s when literary scholar Victor Crăciun exposed the various accounts that report dates between 1880 and 1883 as false.Aurel Iordache, "Măruntă. Simpozion I. C. Vissarion", in Argeș, Vol. II, Issue 6, June 1967, p. 18. The novelist's father was of Greek ethnicity, originally from Thessaloniki, Salonica Eyalet.A. Vissarion, p. 24. Working as a merchant in the Kingdom of Romania, he was not officially married to Iancu's mother Ilinca,Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. II, p. 816. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. . who was herself an ethnic Romanian peasant.George Ioniță, "Document. Am fost acasă la I. C. Vissarion", in Climate Literare, Issue 25, November–December 2009, p. 21. Iancu attended primary school in his native village from 1886 to 1891, but resented the experience of formal education since it asked him to memorize things, in particular "ideas disseminated by the so-called savants."Victor Crăciun, I. C. Vissarion, "100 de ani de la naștere. Foi răzlețe de jurnal", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXII, Issue 7, February 1979, p. 8. In one account of his childhood, he mentioned having been sponsored by a male benefactor, who died before he could help him with his studies.Ion Dic Dicescu, "Aviațiunea la noi. De vorbă cu Vissarion — Literat și inventator. — Odiseia uneĭ vieți. — Visuri și amărăciuni", in Dimineața, 28 July 1911, p. 1. Though believed by some biographers to have been abandoned by his mother from birth,Ovidiu Papadima, "Cronica edițiilor. O restituire generoasă", in Ramuri, Issue 9/1984, p. 14. he lived in her house until 1891, when she also died. He subsequently moved to Titu and then to his grandfather's home in Bucharest, where he learned the shoemaker's trade from 1892 to 1895. His father, meanwhile, married another woman, from whom he had nine children.
Iancu's family name was originally spelled "Visarion", but he later added another "s". This was either because he intended to separate himself from his half-siblings or because he wanted to honor a church he once visited during a trip to Greece. As a youth, Iancu "read anything I could get my hands on", and was soon prompted to write things of his own, sending poetry and prose fragments to various magazine editors. He recalls that he was largely shunned and derided for his spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. He only decided to follow such advice after Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș and Alexandru Valescu, as editors of the rural magazine Gazeta Țăranilor, noted his talent but informed him that he still needed to "learn from books". He took pains re-learning the literary idiom from a standard textbook by Heimann Hariton Tiktin, and from closely reading literary works by Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea and other authors held in high regard. At some point in his youth, Vissarion met Delavrancea, who reportedly encouraged him to continue writing.Pas, p. 32. Vissarion was trying to obtain informal assistance for being accepted into a regular school. He asked for support from Delavrancea, as well as from other "great men" (such as Ion Luca Caragiale and Alexandru Vlahuță), but found himself shunned by the education system.Aurel Iordache, "De vorbă cu Florența Vissarion", in Secera și Ciocanul, 9 February 1963, p. 2.
His retouched poems finally appearing in Gazeta Țăranilor and in the satirical newspaper Hazul Satelor, Vissarion felt encouraged to continue his self-education. He had befriended a military cadet, Costică Zaharescu, who let him read his schoolbooks, introducing Vissarion to geometry, trigonometry, and ballistics. He memorized their content and understood their meaning much later in life. His first contact with algebra was through a book that he reviewed in an antiquarian's shop.Lovinescu II, p. 129. He then applied himself to learning French, which allowed him to expand his familiarity with scientific literature.A. Vissarion, pp. 24–25. Vissarion studied to become a courthouse clerk in Titu and was qualified as a notary. Despite never graduating primary school,Victor Crăciun, "I. C. Vissarion inedit", in Argeș, Vol. II, Issue 6, June 1967, p. 10. he entered the civil service and briefly worked as a clerk at the sub-prefectural office, also located in Titu. By some accounts, he also clerked at the Tobacco Monopoly and kept the books for a local mill.
In 1898, Vissarion married a woman known as Gheorghița or Gherghița,Aurel Leon, "Cafeaua de dimineață. Scriitorul țăran I.C. Vissarion", in Monitorul, 5 June 1996, p. 6A. who was the granddaughter or niece of Popa Nica, the Orthodox parish priest in Patruzeci-de-Cruci (later the hero of two stories by Vissarion).Emil Păunescu, "Bibliografie giurgiuveană (191). Preoți de mir", in Jurnal Giurguvean, 13 January 2017, p. 6. The young clerk still continued to declare his search for an "ideal love", describing his imaginary partner as having "tender breasts [and] an angel-like delicacy". In the "erotic circumstances" of his youth, he composed love songs, including a romance called Maria neichii, Marie ("Maria, My Maria"), which still enjoyed great success some 50 years after its release.I. M., "Întîmplări cu Iancu Vissarion", in Secera și Ciocanul, 20 November 1966, p. 2. He would sire thirteen children with Gheorghița, of whom ten survived into adulthood.Șerban Cioculescu, "Breviar. Umorul lui Vasile Bogrea", in România Literară, Issue 11/1971, p. 5. The writer sparked public ridicule when he insisted on baptizing them after scientific pioneers or known leftists—including Edison, Galileo, Garibaldi, Giordano, Franklin, Marconi,Șerban Cioculescu, "Breviar. Lumea nouă a lui Gala Galaction", in România Literară, Issue 3/1971, p. 3. and Voltaire."Impușcarea unui lup turbat", in Curentul, 10 April 1937, p. 10.
Gheorghița's "continuous bearing of children" pushed Vissarion to work as a farmer throughout the day, only able to read and write at nighttime. Despite settling down in this way, he still focused on his research, which at the time was mainly in chemistry and in the search for obtaining perpetual motion. It included experiments with nitroglycerin, which he washed down in a regular sieve and which resulted in his building up a stock of explosives. The Vissarion home was heavily damaged by an explosion, after which Gheorghița made him swear to focus his attention on less risky pursuits. Vissarion's first book was the collection Draci și strigoi ("Devils and Strigoi", 1899), which retold staples of Romanian folklore from his corner of Muntenia. For a few months in 1901, he served as mayor of Costeștii din Vale.
Revolutionary and traditionalist
Vissarion's life became more violent with his participation in the peasants' revolt of March 1907. As noted by critic Ion Roman, in his series of poems, retaken by Gazeta Țăranilor between 1906 and February 1907, Vissarion "dared to prophesy, and in some ways even stoke", these revolutionary events.Ion Roman, "Scriitorii și 1907. I. C. Vissarion și Lupii", in Contemporanul, Issue 10/1957, p. 3. He also expressed this radicalism in a poem he sent to the mainstream daily Universul, which was read by the authorities; Vissarion himself believes that he was detested for his pieces in Hazul Satelor, which, though pseudonymous, were easily attributable to him. An account by eyewitness Stan G. Perșinaru suggests that Vissarion was caught while recruiting thousands of peasants for an attack on Titu train station; Perșinaru also claims to have seen Vissarion captured and escorted by a cavalry guard. Other reports of the train-station attack have it that was leading thousands of rebels, picked out from Răzvad and other neighboring localities.Mircea Alexandrescu, "80 de ani de la crearea P.S.D.M.R.: Acțiuni ale mișcării socialiste și muncitorești din județul nostru înainte și după crearea P.S.D.M.R.", in Dîmbovița, 25 March 1973, p. 3. Investigators added claims that he had used his talents as a chemist to fabricate homemade bombs.Manolescu, p. 234.