Adrian Păunescu

Adrian Păunescu
Păunescu in July 2009
Born	(1943-07-20)20 July 1943 Copăceni, Bălţi County, Romania, now Republic of Moldova
Died	5 November 2010(2010-11-05) (aged 67) Bucharest, Romania
Resting place	Bellu Cemetery
Occupation	poet, politician, journalist
Language	Romanian
Period	1960–2010
Notable works	Ultrasentimente (1965), Flacăra magazine
Spouse	Constanța Buzea (1961–1976), Carmen Păunescu (b. Antal) (1990–2010)
Website
www.adrianpaunescu.ro

Adrian Păunescu (20 July 1943 – 5 November 2010) was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet" in an Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.

Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic of Moldova, Păunescu spent his childhood in Bârca, Dolj County. He did his secondary studies at Carol I High School in Craiova.

Păunescu studied philology at the University of Bucharest and became a writer and journalist. He was an influential public figure for Romanian youth throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Though he was criticised for writing flattering poems about dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu remained popular in Romania, where he appeared on television several times a week.

As posthumously summarized by newspaper România Liberă, Păunescu "is still viewed as a hero by the man in the street" although "intellectuals continue to question his integrity and the literary value of his work".

A member of the Union of Communist Youth between 1966 and 1968, and, between 1968 and 1989, of the Romanian Communist Party, Păunescu gained control over a major weekly publication, Flacăra and became the producer and host of the only itinerant folk and pop show in the country, Cenaclul Flacăra, founded in 1973.