49 Facts About Caton Theodorian

Caton Theodorian, or Teodorian, was a Romanian playwright, poet, short story writer and novelist.

Caton Theodorian's most treasured contribution was a 1915 comedy, Bujorestii, which synthesizes his recurrent themes.

Caton Theodorian had jobs with various state regulatory bodies, and several times with the Romanian Police, briefly serving as commissioner in Valcea County.

Caton Theodorian then had a prominent position in the Romanian Writers' Society, but resigned due to political disagreements during the early stages of World War I Like his brother Mariu Theodorian-Carada, Caton disliked the Entente Powers, and opposed Romania's entry into the war.

Caton Theodorian spent the war years fleeing occupation and bombardments, moving from Valea Mare to Iasi, then to Paris, Lausanne, and Bern.

Caton Theodorian returned to a prominent job in the Romanian Arts Ministry, and, in his final year, took an executive position in the new General Directorate of the Press and Propaganda; he was the founder, and for long president, of the Society of Romanian Dramatic Authors.

Caton Theodorian was head of the police of Craiova, and then the deputy prefect of Falciu County, where, in 1867, he quelled a tax riot of the local Jews.

In 1870, having returned to Oltenia, Caton Theodorian Sr organized the city's riotous opposition to Domnitor Carol of Hohenzollern, and then, helped by Carada, advanced through the party ranks.

Caton Theodorian had two other sons in addition to Mariu and Caton: Stefan and Ion "Nonu" Theodorian.

Mariu was adopted by his uncle Eugeniu and his aunt Sultana, while Caton began his education at the private C Dima Popovici Institute in his native city, where his mother was the principal.

Caton Theodorian then attended Craiova's D A Sturdza College, and, according to his own testimony, was briefly colleagues with writer Traian Demetrescu.

Caton Theodorian's uncle wished for him to become an officer, but Caton ran away from school, allegedly spending some time studying in Paris, then working for Teodor Popescu's theatrical troupe as a prompter, copyist and extra.

Caton Theodorian secured his first government post in 1888, possibly through Carada's contacts.

Caton Theodorian headed ephemeral provincial publications such as Lumina, which hosted his literary debut, and was for a while both editor and writer at Adevarul and Nationalul, often signing as Alexandru Razvan, Olymp, and Zavera.

Caton Theodorian was again in Valcea as a village inspector on the Lotru, putting out the magazine Ramnicul.

Caton Theodorian returned to short-story writing with Prima durere, followed by Calea sufletului, then La masa calicului, debuting as a novelist with the 1908 Sangele Solovenilor.

Caton Theodorian's work took him to Buzau County, where he was a field inspector for agriculture, but he returned to Bucharest where, in 1910, with Mariu and Ion I C Bratianu, he visited his uncle Eugeniu at his deathbed.

Caton Theodorian was at that time a frequent guest of Casa Capsa restaurant, known to others as "the man with glass in his eye", for his habit of wearing monocles.

Between 1910 and 1926, Caton Theodorian was a member in the reading committee at the National Theatre Bucharest.

When Caton Theodorian refused to fight, Anghel published a letter calling him various names, including an "intriguer" and "ridiculous Oltenian knight".

Caton Theodorian had left the National Liberals during the municipal elections of 1914, rallying with the Conservative Party as a disciple of Alexandru Marghiloman and Titu Maiorescu, and therefore of its Junimea inner faction.

Caton Theodorian was in France as the war started, and had to take an unusually long trip back to Romania, through Italy, Greece, and the Turkish Straits.

In July 1916, as the conflict of visions split the SSR into factions, Caton Theodorian resigned his position on the committee.

Caton Theodorian politely declined when asked by the prestigious novelist Duiliu Zamfirescu to return and ensure "continuity"; later, he resigned from the syndicate altogether.

Caton Theodorian ran for reelection at the reading committee, against George Ranetti.

Ranetti claimed that, although he lost, Theodorian was still appointed, being favored by Education Minister Ion G Duca.

Caton Theodorian awaited the arrival of the German Army, confident that the Germans were chivalrous enemies.

Caton Theodorian fled again, just before the area was engulfed.

Caton Theodorian proposed to Eftimiu that they work together on a screenplay about the legendary Romanian ancestors of Pierre de Ronsard.

Caton Theodorian's Catholicism having been revealed to the public, he was forced two resign a few days into his office.

Caton Theodorian ran in the 1918 election, taking a seat in Senate for Ilfov County, and resuming his work for the unification of churches.

Mariu Caton Theodorian suggested that Orthodox Romanians, forcefully integrated into Bulgarian Orthodoxy, protect themselves by mass-converting to Catholicism.

Caton Theodorian rushed out of Paris in February or March 1918, when the Germans dropped incendiary bombs on that city, and took his family to Switzerland.

Caton Theodorian returned to Bucharest before or during April 1919, when he took part in the founding of Sburatorul, a modernist magazine and literary circle.

Caton Theodorian then had his new play, Comedia inimei, performed at the National Theater.

Caton Theodorian then resumed his activity as a translator, with a version of L'affaire Clemenceau, by Alexandre Dumas, fils, coming out in 1921.

Caton Theodorian put out the prose volume Epice si dramatice, and two other new plays: Nevestele domnului Plesu, and Stapana.

Nonu Caton Theodorian, who was ill with tuberculosis from about 1919, died in 1922.

Caton Theodorian represented the body as a speaker at the funerals of Garabet Ibraileanu, Petre I Sturdza, and Eugeniu Botez.

Caton Theodorian attended congresses of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, promoting Romanian works for an international audience, and playing host to Coolus when the latter visited Bucharest in November 1934.

Caton Theodorian's Bujorestii was translated into Italian by Venere Isopescu, and published in Lanciano by Casa editrice Rocco Carabba.

Caton Theodorian's penultimate published work was Greseala lui Dumnezeu, taken up by the National Theater in 1926, issued as a book in 1929, and turned into a radio play by Radio Prague in 1939.

Jucarii sfaramate, which came out in 1927, unusually premiered at Chisinau National Theatre, Bessarabia, Caton Theodorian having decided he preferred this over the Bucharest equivalent.

Caton Theodorian left fragments of plays, titled Obsesia, Micobul, and Numarul de telefon ; a one-act comedy in manuscript, titled Autorul ; and a sketch for the novel Sa vrei sa iubesti.

Caton Theodorian was survived by his daughter Alice, who was pursuing an on-off affair with the novelist Mihail Sebastian, and by his brother Mariu.

Calinescu suggests that Caton Theodorian's sketches were "amateurish", and the humorous ones "very weak".

Caton Theodorian reserved some praise for the more "dramatic" ones, such as Calea sufletului, in which the protagonist, an Orthodox priest, confronts the notary and a band of robbers to protect his charity box.

Bujorestii, presenting a dramatic version of Caton Theodorian's stories, was a direct inspiration for the interwar theater of various authors.

Caton Theodorian suggested publishing it as a book, and rehashing it in a shortened version for the stage.