George Calinescu

Călinescu, George 

Born June 19, 1899, in Bucharest; died there Mar. 12, 1965. Rumanian specialist in literature, writer, and publicist; academician of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Rumania (1946).

Călinescu headed the Institute on the History of Literature and Folklore, which now bears his name. He is author of the works The Life of Mihai Eminescu (1932), The Creative Work of Mihai Eminescu (vols. 1–5, 1934–36), The Life of Ion Creangă (1938), History of Rumanian Literature From Its Beginnings to the Present Day (1941, 3rd ed., 1968), N. Filimon (1959), Gr. Alexandrescu (1962), and other studies in Rumanian and world literature. In the novels The Riddle of Otilia (1938; Russian translation, 1959), Poor Ioanide (1953), and The Black Chest of Drawers (1960), Călinescu depicted bourgeois society in sharply critical terms. He was awarded the State Prize of the Socialist Republic of Rumania in 1964.

REFERENCES

E. Ch. (Reviewer). “Khvala veshcham”; “Khronika optimista.” Sovremennaia khudozhestvennaia literatura za rubezhom, 1965, nos. 2, 4. Bălu, I. G. Călinescu: Eseu despre etapele creaƫi ei. [Bucharest, 1970.]