21 Facts About Vasile Alecsandri

Vasile Alecsandri was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia.

Vasile Alecsandri fought for the unification of the Romanian Principalities, writing "Hora Unirii" in 1856 and giving up his candidacy for the title of prince of Moldavia, in favor of Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

Vasile Alecsandri became the first minister of foreign affairs of Romania and was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.

Vasile Alecsandri was born in the Moldavian town of Bacau and he was of Greek origin.

Vasile Alecsandri's parents were Vasile Alecsandri, a middle-ranking nobleman, from the noble Greek family of Alecsandri, and Elena Cozoni, a Romanianized Greek woman.

The young Vasile Alecsandri spent time there studying with a devout monk from Maramures, Gherman Vida, and playing with Vasile Alecsandri Porojan, a Gypsy boy who became a dear friend.

Vasile Alecsandri moved to Paris in 1834, where he dabbled in chemistry, medicine, and law, but soon abandoned all in favor of what he called his "lifelong passion", literature.

Vasile Alecsandri penned his first literary essays in 1838 in French, which he had mastered to perfection during his stay in Paris.

Vasile Alecsandri began writing love poems until a sudden illness forced Elena to head abroad to Venice.

Vasile Alecsandri met her there, where they shared two torrid months.

Vasile Alecsandri channeled his mourning into a poem, "Steluta".

Vasile Alecsandri wrote a widely read poem urging the public to join the cause, "Catre Romani", later renamed "Desteptarea Romaniei".

Vasile Alecsandri toured the Moldavian countryside, collecting, reworking, and arranging a vast array of Romanian folklore, which he published in two installments, in 1852 and 1853.

Vasile Alecsandri was one of the most vocal unionists, supporting the union the two Romanian provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia.

The end of 1855 saw Vasile Alecsandri pursuing a new romantic interest, in spite of promises made to Elena Negri on her deathbed.

Vasile Alecsandri found satisfaction in the advancement of those political causes he had long championed.

Vasile Alecsandri toured the West, pleading to some of his friends and acquaintances in Paris to acknowledge the newly formed nation and support its emergence in the turbulent Balkan area.

Vasile Alecsandri married Paulina more than a decade and a half later, in 1876.

Long suffering from cancer, Vasile Alecsandri died in 1890 at his estate in Mircesti.

Vasile Alecsandri was one of the supporters of slave emancipation.

Vasile Alecsandri was allegedly antisemitic, although, according to some Romanian historians, he had distant Jewish roots.