Tudor Arghezi

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Tudor Arghezi : biography

21 May 1880 – 14 June 1967

In 1933-1934, he completed two satirical pieces, the dystopian novel Tablete din Ţara de Kuty, povestiri swiftiene ("Tablets from the Land of Kuty. Swiftian Stories") and Cimitirul Buna-Vestire ("Buna-Vestire Cemetery" – a large-scale pamphlet described as an "apparent novel" by George Călinescu),Călinescu, p.324 as well as a long novel on the topic of maternal love and filial devotion, Ochii Maicii Domnului ("Our Lord’s Mother’s Eyes").

He routinely visited art shows throughout the 1920s (accompanied by Vasile and Lucia Demetrius), helping to establish the artistic reputation of painters such as Oscar Han, Nicolae Dărăscu, Camil Ressu, Francisc Şirato, and Nicolae Vermont. He also authored the preface to Nicolae Tonitza’s first art catalog, and welcomed Arta Română, the modernism group established by Tonitza and Gheorghe Petraşcu in 1920.Zambaccian, Chapter II, Chapter XII By the mid-1930s, Arghezi contributed the art chronicle to the newspaper Mişcarea – mouthpiece of the National Liberal Party-Brătianu.Simuţ

Interwar polemic

In 1934, his lyrical works were virulently attacked by Nicolae Iorga, who saw them as "comprising all of the most repulsive in concept and all of the most trivial in shape";N. Iorga, 1934, in Ornea, p.445 such accusations against Arghezi and the group of writers around him became commonplace in the Iron Guard’s press – writing in Sfarmă-Piatră, Vintilă Horia accused Arghezi of "a willing adhesion to pornography" and of "betrayal".Vintilă Horia, 1937, in Ornea, p. 447 The latter statement centered on Arghezi’s earlier collaboration with Gândirea – the newspaper published by Nichifor Crainic, an intellectual figure on the far right who shared Arghezi’s initial religious traditionalism. Gândirea and its affiliated magazines alleged that the influence of Crainic’s thought (Gândirism) had played a major part in Arghezi’s early works,Gândirea, 1937, in Ornea, p.448 while attacking his Jewish editors with anti-Semitic slurs (and implying that his works would have decreased in quality because of their influence).Victor Puiu Gârcineanu, T. Arghezi şi spiritul iudaic, 1937, in Ornea, p.448 To these, Argezi replied with a dose of irony: "[…] I have never ever read Gândirea, not even when I was contributing articles to it".Arghezi, Meşterul Nichifor, 1937, in Ornea, p.448

Shortly before his death, Arghezi reflected upon his status in the interwar period, rendering a dramatic picture: "[…] for a while, all the cultural institutions were associated against my writing: the University, the Academy, the poets, the press, the police, the courts, the censorship, the Gendarmerie and even the closest colleagues."Arghezi, Un recital, in Scrieri, p.780

His political attitudes at the time were more complex, and he continued collaboration with left-wing magazines such as Dimineaţa and Adevărul while expressing staunchly monarchist views and support for King Carol II. According to some views, Arghezi developed a sympathy for the Iron Guard towards the end of the 1930 (his poem Făt-Frumos was contended to be a homage to the movement’s leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, assassinated in late 1938).Pop, p.47 This perspective, notably favored by essayist Alex Mihai Stoenescu, was disputed by the literary critic Ion Simuţ, who argued that evidence to support it was sporadic and contradictory.

World War II

In 1939, Arghezi became suddenly and severely ill, being incapacitated by sciatica. The extreme pain and mysterious causes became topics of major interest, and it was rumored that his was an unprecedented disease.Zeletin Upon examination (made difficult by Arghezi’s iatrophobia), some of Romania’s top physicians, including Nicolae Gh. Lupu, George Emil Palade, and Constantin Ion Parhon, decided that Arghezi’s sciatic nerve was being pressed on by an unknown body. Dimitrie Bagdasar identified the cause as a cancerous tumor, and Arghezi underwent radiation therapy — the verdict and suffering caused the poet to maintain a growing animosity towards Bagdasar, which he later expressed in writing. After a period of deterioration, he regained his health unexpectedly.