26 Facts About Vladimir Colin

Vladimir Colin's 1951 novel Soarele rasare in Delta was an early representative of local socialist realist school, but earned Colin much criticism from the cultural establishment of the day, for what it perceived as ideological mistakes.

Progressively after the mid-1950s, Vladimir Colin concentrated on his literary career and abandoned communist ideology.

Vladimir Colin authored celebrated works such as the mythopoeia Legendele tarii lui Vam and fairy tale collections, making his debut in local science fiction literature with Colectia de Povestiri Stiintifico-Fantastice journal.

Vladimir Colin was given posthumous recognition for his contribution to the genre, and an award named in his honor is regularly granted to established Romanian science fiction authors.

Vladimir Colin was the son of Lazar Colin, a civil servant, and his wife Ella.

Vladimir Colin's mother was the sister of Ana Pauker, a prominent activist of the Romanian Communist Party and later one of Communist Romania's political leaders.

On his paternal side, he was the nephew of Liviu Cohn-Vladimir Colin, who was a known lawyer employed by the Ministry of Commerce.

Later, Vladimir Colin was again married, to graphic artist Marcela Cordescu.

Vladimir Colin studied at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters, but left the institution after only one year, spending much of his time working for the UTC, which employed him as publisher of its books.

On that occasion, several of his writer colleagues expressed criticism on behalf of the Union, among them Ben Corlaciu, Petru Dumitriu, Alexandru Jar, and Mihail Novicov, most of whom expressed the view that Vladimir Colin was indebted to "formalism".

Vladimir Colin made his science fiction debut contributing short stories for Colectia de Povestiri Stiintifico-Fantastice, which functioned as a literary supplement for the magazine Stiinta si Tehnica and was edited by Adrian Rogoz.

Vladimir Colin became especially noted for his works in the science fantasy genre, beginning with the 1964 novel A zecea lume.

Vladimir Colin continued to publish non-science fiction works, such as the 1967 mythopoeic novel Pentagrama and the 1984 narrative poem for children, Xele, motanul din stele.

In 1970, Vladimir Colin became a member of the editorial staff for Viata Romaneasca, an office which he held until his death.

Vladimir Colin was acknowledged as one of the few Romanian comic book writers, and for thus contributing to an art and literary genre which was just building a tradition in Romania under communism.

Vladimir Colin's text is noted for having largely preserved Verne's original spellings of Romanian-language words, whereas later translations attempted to identify their supposed source variants.

In 1984, Vladimir Colin suffered a stroke, which permanently impaired his writing abilities.

For much of his early career, Vladimir Colin was known for his proletkult poems and agitprop articles in the official press.

However, Vasilescu introduced criticism of Vladimir Colin's style, claiming that it failed in "deepening [its] central idea, the issue of vigilance", and that the investigations made by communist protagonists seemed "casual".

Vladimir Colin's move to the modern fantasy genre, which he helped pioneer in Romania, came at a time when science fiction literature was used by the regime to further popularize its ideological messages.

At the time, Vladimir Colin made controversial statements such as claiming that the fantasy genre was supposed to be employed as "a weapon in the hands of the people".

In Broasca, one of his few purely science fiction stories, Vladimir Colin probably takes inspiration from Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space, showing alien beings attempting to contact humans, an experiment which fails when their amphibian emissary is unwittingly killed by a girl, who in turn becomes the source of a radiating purple light.

Vladimir Colin's work is one of the best-known samples of the local science fiction genre known outside Romania.

Mihai Iovanel nevertheless argues that, "outside of fandom", Vladimir Colin's work remains "mostly forgotten" in Romania.

Artists who have provided the original illustrations for Vladimir Colin's books include Jules Perahim and Marcela Cordescu.

Pruncul nazdravan, part of Vladimir Colin's Basme, was the basis for a puppet theater adaptation, first showcased in 2004 by the Gong Theater in Sibiu.