Strange, shockingly original, unique in Romanian literature, Mircea Horia Simionescu is being rediscovered with awe and admiration by the younger generation of readers, after his major works have been republished by the prestigious Humanitas Publishing House. Considered by many to be one of the most interesting 20th century Romanian artists and one of the forerunners of Postmodernism, he was very successful before 1989 and nowadays is coming back in bookshops and prefferences.
Born on the 23rd of January 1928 in Targoviste, he enrolled in 1948 at the University of Bucharest, at the Philology Faculty, but due to financial hardships he had to abandon his studies by the second year. He would finally get his diploma in 1962, in the meantime doing menial jobs and also writing his first literary tries. He reads a lot, he tries to find a new way and style of expressing his ideas, wanting to break away from the common style and techniques which were used at the time. Strongly influenced and impressed by Tudor Vianu and George Calinescu, two major intelectuals, writers and teachers, who helped Mircea Horia Simionescu into discovering and loving the great names and titles of universal literature.
He was a close friend of Costache Olareanu and Radu Petrescu, two other important members of the so-called Targoviste School, an important moment and group in postwar Romanian literature. He also worked for the official Communist Party Newspaper, Scanteia, but gave up press activities in 1969, working as a deskclerk and later as the director of the Romanian Opera, in 1971 - 1973. He retired in 1974 and decided to dedicate himself solely to literature.
He had published his first ever volume in 1969, titled "Dictionar onomastic", which was only the first part of the "Ingeniosul bine temperat" cicle, which continued with "Bibliografia generala" (1970), "Jumatate plus unu (Alt dictionar onomastic) (1976), "Breviarul. Historia calamitatum" (1980) and "Toxicologia sau Dincolo de bine si dincoace de rau" (1983). The critics would be shocked by the writer's style, images, language and manner of writing, which was all shockingly modern, rich in senses and understandings, surpringly fresh and very much in touch with what was going on abroad, at the same time staying very original. Mircea Horia Simionescu also published several other novels, stories and travelling notes, all highly regarded by the critics and the public.
Despite the fact that his books were anything but easy, provoking the reader into really trying to understand the text and to make the necessary connections, the writer's books were very succesfull and Mircea Horia Simionescu was one of the best names in those times. Yet, after 1989, he was mostly ignored and almost forgotten, as people didn't read as much as before, many new titles - mainly foreign - were finally translated and all was changing. Still, over the last few years, Mircea Horia Simionescu once again came back into the public eye, as his books are being reprinted. And are selling surprisingly well.
2008-06-27
