56 Facts About Perpessicius

Much of Perpessicius' career was dedicated to collecting, structuring and interpreting Eminescu's texts, resulting in an authoritative edition of Eminescu's writings, the 17-volume Opere.

The future Perpessicius rallied with Symbolism while still an adolescent, and, at his Baccalaureate examination of 1910, gave a spoken presentation of innovative poet Ion Minulescu.

Perpessicius subsequently left for Bucharest, where he attended the city university's Faculty of Letters, specializing in Romance studies.

Perpessicius notably attended lectures on modern Romance-language literature given by Ovid Densusianu, patron of the Symbolist school, which he himself deemed a formative experience.

Perpessicius graduated in 1914, the same year when he married Alice Paleologu.

Perpessicius was by then working on a novel, titled Veninul.

Perpessicius joined the Romanian Army in 1916, as Romania rallied with the Entente against the Central Powers.

Perpessicius was sent to Northern Dobruja in the wake of the Turtucaia defeat, when southern Romania was being invaded by Bulgarian and Imperial German forces.

Late in 1921, Perpessicius made his return to Bucharest, where, until 1929, he held teaching positions at various high schools and business education establishments.

Perpessicius favored a characteristic blended of modernist theater and influences from defunct traditionalist currents such as Samanatorul.

Perpessicius was by then noted as an advocate of public causes: his articles reacted against the decision to publicly auction the large art collection of Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti, a controversial politician and former convict who had bequeathed it to the state.

Perpessicius's critically acclaimed collection of war poems, Scut si targa, was published in 1926.

Perpessicius was one of the moderate figures to sign contributions for the cosmopolitan avant-garde magazine Contimporanul, published by his friends Vinea and Janco, part of a small group which included, at the time, Minulescu, Pillat, Camil Baltazar, Claudia Millian, Alexandru Al.

In 1927, Perpessicius took over as chronicler for Nae Ionescu's Cuvantul, and, in 1929, became a teacher at the Matei Basarab High School in Bucharest.

Perpessicius focused part of his subsequent research on Mateiu Caragiale, compiling and transcribing his unpublished notes and diaries.

Perpessicius published a definitive edition of Caragiale's collected works in 1936, and, in 1938, returned with an anthology of French literature, comprising texts which, he argued, blended fiction and theoretical viewpoints.

Perpessicius published a second volume of his poetry, Itinerar sentimental.

Perpessicius integrated his condemnation of antisemitism in a radio broadcast of 1934.

In reaction to this, Perpessicius seconded his colleague Pompiliu Constantinescu in creating Gruparea Criticilor Literari Romani, a professional association which aimed to protect its members' reputation and reacted in particular to accusations of modernist "pornography".

Perpessicius tried his hand at mediating the parallel conflict between Streinu and Tudor Vianu, speaking out in writing and on the radio against Streinu's uncharacteristically harsh treatment of Vianu's contributions.

Perpessicius controversially remained active in the cultural mainstream after 1938, when authoritarian King Carol II banned political activities and created a corporatist and fascist-inspired regime around the National Renaissance Front, thus countering the threat posed by revolutionary fascism.

Perpessicius took a stand against the regime's adoption of antisemitism.

Perpessicius thus spoke out against the Romanian Writers' Society decision to eliminate its Jewish members, being, with Nicolae M Condiescu and Rosetti, one of just three members to voice support for their Jewish colleague Mihail Sebastian.

Perpessicius left ironic notes on National Legionary propaganda, recording the Romanian Radio speakers' disjointed and unprofessional praise for the new government, the self-proclaimed purge of Romanian culture by the Guard's Legionary critics, or the rapid fascization of modernist poets such as Ion Barbu.

In late 1944, Perpessicius joined the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union, set up by the newly legalized Romanian Communist Party in order to attract intellectuals and professionals to its cause, and supporting the Soviet occupation forces.

Perpessicius was, with Mihai Ralea, vice president of ARLUS' Literary Section.

Perpessicius had by that stage resumed his activity as a chronicler, publishing articles in Familia, Gazeta Literara, Lumea, Tribuna, Universul, as well as in Steaua, Jurnalul de Dimineata and Tanarul Scriitor.

Perpessicius' career was affected in various ways by Romania's communist regime.

Also in 1949, Perpessicius joined the communist-endorsed Writers' Union of Romania, created on the Writers' Society structure.

Perpessicius was contributing prefaces to books published by Editura Cartea Rusa, a newly created institution which exclusively published works of Russian and Soviet literature.

Perpessicius received the State Prize for 1954, in recognition for his work in editing Eminescu, and, on June 21,1955, received full Academy membership, with Camil Petrescu as rapporteur.

At around the same time, Perpessicius focused some of his studies on the work of Lazar Saineanu, a linguist and folklorist whom specialized criticism of the time had come to ignore.

Perpessicius was appointed head of the Academy Library in 1957, with a mission to create the Museum of Romanian Literature.

Perpessicius created the museum itself, and presided over it until his death.

Perpessicius returned with a new volume of Opere in 1958, by gathering the printed versions of Mihai Eminescu's original drafts and apocrypha.

Perpessicius began publishing his own Opere, largely based on Mentiuni critice, in four volumes.

One year before his death, Perpessicius founded the MLR archive's press venue, Manuscriptum.

Perpessicius is seen by various researchers as one of the most authoritative and recognizable figures among the Romanian critics of the interwar.

Lovinescu referred to himself and his colleagues as "the third post-Maiorescian generation", and, in the 1942 homage to Lovinescu, Perpessicius's essay, called "deepest and most convincing" by 21st century literary historian Nicolae Manolescu, focused primarily on Lovinescu's own study of Maiorescu.

Out of this environment, Perpessicius emerged with a personal style, characterized by literary historian Paul Cernat as both "eclectic" and "impressionist".

Perpessicius declared himself disappointed by Lovinescu having disregarded the post-Symbolist poetry of George Bacovia, and criticized him for deriding the lyricized prose of traditionalist author Mihail Sadoveanu.

Perpessicius commented with irony on Lovinescu's primarily historicist perspective, arguing that it closely resembled what he criticized in the didacticism of Mihail Dragomirescu and Henric Sanielevici, and that his rival's Sburatorul society aggravated "the dependence on literary schools".

Unlike many of his generation colleagues, Perpessicius welcomed the birth of an avant-garde movement in his native country, and offered encouragement to some of its members.

Perpessicius did not share Emilian's viewpoint and, in line with his pronouncements against a "Jewish quota", explicitly rejected the belief that avant-garde poetry was subversive, arguing instead that, at its best, the current displayed a modern "virtuosity".

Perpessicius was especially sympathetic to poet Tudor Arghezi, a former Symbolist who had created a mixture of radical modernism and traditionalism, and who was hailed as a hero by the avant-garde circles.

Perpessicius's essays included ample comments on Urmuz's following, discussing his influence on diverse authors, avant-garde as well as mainstream: Arghezi, Geo Bogza, Jacques G Costin, Adrian Maniu, Tudor Musatescu, Sasa Pana, Stephan Roll and Ion Vinea.

Perpessicius believed that Costin's parody of Don Quixote needed only "a mild process of purification" in order to join the "Romanian models" of its genre.

Perpessicius backed Fondane's verdict according to which Minulescu was "the first bell-ringer of Romania's lyrical revolt".

Perpessicius's interest covered Mateiu Caragiale, but his surviving renditions of the latter's texts have been criticized for being selective.

Perpessicius believed this change had brought Voronca close to the types of poetry illustrated by classics such as Novalis, Walt Whitman and Eminescu, or by former Dadaist doyen Tristan Tzara in his The Approximate Man, while protesting that the Romanian Writers' Society had failed to honor Voronca with a prize.

Perpessicius was welcoming of other Surrealist productions, among which was a cryptic prose poem by Stephan Roll, Moartea Eleonorei.

Perpessicius' research is credited with having tracked down and compared the various drafts of Luceafarul, a process which, according to Ene, might not have otherwise been attempted.

Contrary to his contemporaries, Perpessicius believed the work of a critic to be not the imposition of a direction, but the "registry office" and panorama of naturally occurring trends, an idea notably present in the title of his article In tinda unei registraturi.

Perpessicius thus sees a connection between Rimbaud's The Sleeper of the Vale and scenes of "solar putrefaction" he associates with Perpessicius' lines for men killed by firing squads:.

For Calinescu, Perpessicius combined a Rimbaudesque appetite for "vagrancy" with a love for his native Baragan Plain, providing him with "a sense for the vigorous eternity of the fields, indifferent as they are to human waste".

Perpessicius's work was itself anthologized, most notably in a 1971 edition by Eugen Simion.