92 Facts About Benjamin Fondane

Benjamin Fondane, who was of Jewish Romanian extraction and a nephew of Jewish intellectuals Elias and Moses Schwartzfeld, participated in both minority secular Jewish culture and mainstream Romanian culture.

Benjamin Fondane began a second career in 1923, when he moved to Paris.

In parallel, Benjamin Fondane had a career in cinema: a film critic and a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures, he later worked on Rapt with Dimitri Kirsanoff, and directed the since-lost film Tararira in Argentina.

Benjamin Fondane was eventually captured and handed to Nazi German authorities, who deported him to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Benjamin Fondane was sent to the gas chamber during the last wave of the Holocaust.

Benjamin Fondane's work was largely rediscovered later in the 20th century, when it became the subject of scholarly research and public curiosity in both France and Romania.

Benjamin Fondane was born in Iasi, the cultural capital of Moldavia, on November 14,1898, but, as he noted in a diary he kept at age 16, his birthday was officially recorded as November 15.

The young Benjamin Fondane was an avid reader, primarily interested in the Moldavian classics of Romanian literature, Romanian traditionalists or neoromantics and French Symbolists.

Benjamin Fondane divided his time between the city and his father's native region.

The adolescent Benjamin Fondane took extended trips throughout northern Moldavia, making his debut in folkloristics by writing down samples of the narrative and poetic tradition in various Romanian-inhabited localities.

At the time, Benjamin Fondane became known to his family and friends as Mieluson, a name which he later used as a colloquial pseudonym.

In 1913, Benjamin Fondane tried his hand at editing a student journal, signing his editorial with the pen name Van Doian, but only produced several handwritten copies of a single issue.

Late in 1914, Benjamin Fondane began his short collaboration with the Iasi Symbolist tribune Vieata Noua.

Around 1915, Benjamin Fondane was discovered by the journalistic tandem of Tudor Arghezi and Gala Galaction, both of whom were modernist authors, left-wing militants and Symbolist promoters.

The pieces Benjamin Fondane sent to Arghezi and Galaction's Cronica paper were received with enthusiasm, a reaction which surprised and impressed the young author.

Benjamin Fondane had more success in contacting Flacara review and its publisher Constantin Banu: on July 23,1916, it hosted his sonnet Egloga marina.

Benjamin Fondane completed work on a translation of the Ahasverus drama, by the Jewish author Herman Heijermans.

In 1917, after Romania joined the Entente side and was invaded by the Central Powers, Benjamin Fondane was in Iasi, where the Romanian authorities had retreated.

At around that time, Benjamin Fondane began work on the poetry cycle Privelisti.

In 1919, upon the war's end, Benjamin Fondane settled in Bucharest, where he stayed until 1923.

Around the time of his relocation to Bucharest, Benjamin Fondane first met the moderate modernist critic Eugen Lovinescu, and afterward became both an affiliate of Lovinescu's circle and a contributor to his literary review Sburatorul.

Benjamin Fondane's work was again featured in Flacara magazine : the poem Ce simplu and the essay Istoria Ideii were both published there in 1922.

Probably aiming to enrich this program with samples of Yiddish drama, Fondane began, but never finished, a translation of S Ansky's The Dybbuk.

Benjamin Fondane was at the time working on his own play, Filoctet.

In 1923, Benjamin Fondane eventually left Romania for France, spurred on by the need to prove himself within a different cultural context.

Benjamin Fondane was at the time interested in the success of Dada, an avant-garde movement launched abroad by the Romanian-born author Tristan Tzara, in collaboration with several others.

Not dissuaded by the fact that his sister and brother-in-law had returned impoverished from an extended stay in Paris, Benjamin Fondane crossed Europe by train and partly by foot.

Benjamin Fondane translated into French Zissu's novel Amintirile unui candelabru.

Claudia Millian, who was spending time in Paris, described Benjamin Fondane's new focus on studying Christian theology and Catholic thought, from Hildebert to Gourmont's own Latin mystique.

Benjamin Fondane coupled these activities with an interest in grouping together the cultural segments of the Romanian diaspora: around 1924, he and Millian were founding members of the Society of Romanian Writers in Paris, presided upon by the aristocrat Elena Vacarescu.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Fondane acquired a profile on the local literary scene, and, in his personal notes, claimed to have had his works praised by novelist Andre Gide and philosopher Jules de Gaultier.

Benjamin Fondane's ideas brought him into conflict with Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, who was moving away from an avant-garde background and into the realm of far right ideas.

In 1929, as a frequenter of Shestov's circle, Benjamin Fondane met Argentinian female author Victoria Ocampo, who became his close friend.

Benjamin Fondane's essays were more frequently than before philosophical in nature: Europe published his tribute Shestov and his comments of Edmund Husserl's phenomenology, which included his own critique of rationalism.

In October 1929, Benjamin Fondane was back in Paris, where he focused on translating and popularizing some of Romanian literature's milestone texts, from Mihai Eminescu's Sarmanul Dionis to the poetry of Ion Barbu, Minulescu, Arghezi and Bacovia.

Benjamin Fondane came into contact with unu, the Surrealist venue of Bucharest, which was edited by several of his avant-garde friends at home.

Between 1931 and 1934, Fondane was in regular correspondence with the unu writers, in particular Stephan Roll, F Brunea-Fox and Sasa Pana, being informed about their conflict with Voronca and witnessing from afar the eventual implosion of Romanian Surrealism on the model of French groups.

Also in the 1930s, Benjamin Fondane's work received coverage in the articles of two other maverick modernists: Perpessicius, who viewed it with noted sympathy, and Lucian Boz, who found his new poems touched by "prolixity".

Benjamin Fondane's eponymously titled study-portrait of German philosopher Martin Heidegger was published by Cahiers du Sud in 1932.

Benjamin Fondane worked first as an assistant director, before turning to screenwriting.

Benjamin Fondane enjoyed a warm friendship with Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian-born modern sculptor, visiting Brancusi's workshop on an almost daily basis and writing about his work in Cahiers de l'Etoile.

Benjamin Fondane witnessed first-hand and described Brancusi's primitivist techniques, likening his work to that of a "savage man".

Benjamin Fondane left the Paramount studios the same year, disappointed with company policies and without having had any screen credit of his own.

Under contract with the Falma-film company, Benjamin Fondane was received with honors by the Romanian Argentine community, and, with the unusual cut of his preferred suit, is said to have even become a trendsetter in local fashion.

Benjamin Fondane, who had earlier complained about the actors' resistance to his ideas, left Argentina before the film was actually finished.

Benjamin Fondane followed up on his publishing activity in 1937, when his selected poems, Titanic, saw print.

At around that date, Benjamin Fondane was a presenter for the Romanian edition of 20th Century Fox's international newsreel, Movietone News.

Only months after this event, with the outbreak of World War II, Benjamin Fondane was drafted into the French Army.

Benjamin Fondane was captured by the Germans in June 1940, and was taken into a German camp as a prisoner of war.

Benjamin Fondane managed to escape captivity, but was recaptured in short time.

Benjamin Fondane was eventually released, the German occupiers having decided that he was no longer fit for soldierly duty.

Benjamin Fondane was working on two poetry series, Super Flumina Babylonis and L'Exode, as well as on his last essay, focusing on 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire, and titled Baudelaire et l'experience du gouffre.

Benjamin Fondane was still in contact with writers of various ethnic backgrounds, and active on the clandestine literary scene.

Benjamin Fondane preserved his column in Cahiers du Sud for as long as it was possible, and had his contributions published in several other clandestine journals.

In 1943, transcending ideological boundaries, Benjamin Fondane had dinner with Mircea Eliade, the Romanian novelist and philosopher, who, like their common friend Cioran, had an ambiguous connection with the far right.

Benjamin Fondane was eventually arrested by collaborationist forces in spring 1944, after unknown civilians reported his Jewish origin.

Optimistically, Benjamin Fondane referred to himself as "the traveler who isn't done traveling".

Benjamin Fondane befriended two Jewish doctors, Moscovici and Klein, with whom he spent his free moments engaged in passionate discussions about philosophy and literature.

Benjamin Fondane was aware of impending death, and reportedly saw it as ironic that it came so near to an expected Allied victory.

Benjamin Fondane's body was cremated, along with those of the other victims.

Micu notes that the young Benjamin Fondane sent his verse to be published by magazines with incompatible agendas, suggesting that his collaboration with Vieata Noua was therefore incidental, but that, around 1914, Benjamin Fondane's own style was a "conventional Symbolism".

However, as a way of cultivating a cosmic level of poetry, Benjamin Fondane's work veered into synesthesia and vitalism, being commended by critics for its tactile, aural or olfactory suggestions.

The affiliation to the avant-garde came with a sharp critique of Romanian culture, accused by Benjamin Fondane of promoting imitation and parochialism.

In parallel, Benjamin Fondane criticized the cultural setting of Greater Romania, noting that it was so Bucharest-focused that Transylvanian authors only became widely known by attending the capital's Casa Capsa restaurant.

Benjamin Fondane went on to draw a comparison between the idea of Jewish chosenness and that of Romanian Latinity, concluding that they both resulted in positive national goals.

Several of Benjamin Fondane's exegetes have discussed the links between his apparent traditionalism and the classical themes of either secular Jewish culture or Judaism, with a focus on his Hasidic roots.

Paul Cernat too argued that the traditionalist elements in Benjamin Fondane's work reflected Hasidism as it was experienced in Galicia or Bukovina, as well as the direct influence of Iacob Ashel Groper.

Benjamin Fondane expanded on his interest in the Jewish heritage in his early prose and drama.

Benjamin Fondane's progressive focus on Jewish Biblical sources mirrored the Christian interests of his mentor Arghezi.

In one of Integral chronicles, Benjamin Fondane himself explained that the movement, described as superior to Dada's "joyous suicide", had created a "new continent" with its rediscovery of dreams.

Furthermore, he noted that, under the influence of Lucien Levy-Bruhl, Benjamin Fondane described reality exclusively in primitivist terms, as the realm of savagery and superstition.

Benjamin Fondane found himself opposed to the general trend of intellectual partisanship, and took pride in defining himself as a politically independent skeptic.

Genevieve Tissier-Benjamin Fondane later recalled that her husband was "profoundly Jewish" to his death, but that he would not abide by any formal regulation within the Halakha tradition.

Benjamin Fondane was critical of Maritain's worldview, but remained a passionate reader of his work; in contrast, Genevieve attested that the Maritains' beliefs shaped her own, leasing her back into the Church.

The spiritual crisis experienced in France was the probable reason why Benjamin Fondane refused to write poems between 1923 and 1927.

Benjamin Fondane saw poets as waging an unequal battle with both scientific perspectives and moralism, urging them to place their unique faith "in the mysterious virtue of poetry, in the existential virtue that poetry upholds".

In Cioran's account, Benjamin Fondane lived his final years permanently aware "of a misfortune that was about to happen", and built a "complicity with the unavoidable".

Benjamin Fondane is the subject of a 1930 sketch by Constantin Brancusi, a 1931 Surrealist painting by Brauner, and an artistic photograph by Man Ray.

Benjamin Fondane was commemorated with a mention on the Pantheon plaque, among the Morts pour la France.

In February 1930, Benjamin Fondane explained that he did not consider revisiting his land of birth until such time as his earlier volumes would be printed, indicating that these included : Ferestre spre Europa, Imagini si scriitori romani, Caietele unui inactual, Probleme vesele, Dialoguri and an introduction to the work of art critic Walter Pater.

In France, the copyright to Benjamin Fondane's work was passed on in the late 20th century to scholar Michel Carassou, who was personally involved in several publication projects.

In France, the caretaker of documentary enterprises regarding Benjamin Fondane was for long Sernet, who released part of Super Flumina Babylonis and other previously unknown texts, while supervising a new edition of L'Honneur des poetes, where Benjamin Fondane was properly credited.

Since 1994, it publishes the academic review Cahiers Benjamin Fondane, which has recovered and published much of Fondane's correspondence and political texts.

In 2006, following a Benjamin Fondane Society request, a square on Paris' Rue Rollin was renamed in honor of the Romanian-born writer.

Three years later, on the 65th commemoration of Benjamin Fondane's killing, the Memorial de la Shoah museum hosted a special exhibit dedicated his life and literary work.

The first-ever volume of Hebrew translations from Benjamin Fondane's verse saw print in 2003, with support from Tel Aviv University.

Awareness of Benjamin Fondane's philosophy was nevertheless judged unsatisfactory by scholar Moshe Idel.

Benjamin Fondane was the subject of a Surrealist poem in prose, or "short-circuit", by Stephan Roll, where he was referred to as "a Don Juan of the brain's lineage from God".

Posthumous Romanian editions of Benjamin Fondane's works included the selection Poezii, edited by the former Surrealist author Virgil Teodorescu, and Daniel's new version of Privelisti, followed in 1978 by the Martin and Daniel selection, and in 1980 by Teodorescu and Martin's Imagini si carti.

The hidden parts of Benjamin Fondane's contribution became accessible only after the anti-communist uprising of 1989.

Eight years later, comparatist Irina Georgescu assessed that interest in the more unknown aspects of Benjamin Fondane's work had been rekindled by public conferences and new monographs.

The 65th commemoration of Benjamin Fondane's death was marked locally with several events, including the premiere of Andreea Tanasescu's Exil in pamantul uitarii, a contemporary ballet and performance art show loosely inspired by his poetry.