Al. T. Stamatiad

Al. T. (Alexandru Teodor Maria) Stamatiad
Stamatiad in an etching by Constantin Artachino, first published in 1920
Born	May 9, 1885 Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
Died	December 1955 (aged 70) Bucharest, Communist Romania
Pen name	Adrian Alexandru
Occupation	poet, journalist, translator, playwright, schoolteacher, censor
Nationality	Romanian
Period	ca. 1903–1945
Genre	lyric poetry, prose poetry, haiku, fantasy, fable, short story
Literary movement	Symbolism Literatorul Sburătorul

Al. T. Stamatiad (common rendition of Alexandru Teodor Maria Stamatiad, or Stamatiade; May 9, 1885 – December 1955) was a Romanian Symbolist poet, short story writer, and dramatist. A late arrival on the local Symbolist scene, he was primarily active as a literary promoter and, in 1918, editor of Literatorul review. Discovered and praised by Alexandru Macedonski and Ion Minulescu, he combined his presence in radical Symbolist circles with stints on more culturally conservative ones, crossing between the extremes of Romanian literature. By 1911, he had established himself in cultural and social circles as an exotic and vocal, sometimes violent, cultural debater.

Stamatiad's parallel career as a schoolteacher took him to the city of Arad, where he lived at two distinct intervals, animating cultural life in the Romanian circles. Beyond his own poetry and prose, which received mixed reviews, Stamatiad worked on popularizing foreign literature, translating Symbolists such as Maurice Maeterlinck and Charles Baudelaire, but also more traditional works of Omar Khayyám and Li Bai, and experimenting with genres such as haiku. He was generally considered an authority on, and imitator of, Oscar Wilde.

At the center of controversies with Macedonski, and later with the youth at Sburătorul circle, Stamatiad sided with the anti-modernist side of Romanian Symbolism, folding back on conservatism. He faded into relative obscurity during World War II, and lived in isolation and poverty after the establishment of a Romanian communist regime.