I. M. Rașcu

I. M. Rașcu (most common rendition of Ion Rașcu; March 31 [O.S. March 19] 1890 – 1971) was a Romanian poet of Symbolist verse, cultural promoter, comparatist, and schoolteacher. He is remembered for his participation in the Romanian Symbolist movement: a founder and co-editor, with Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo, of Versuri și Proză magazine, he became one of the leading Symbolist figures in his native city of Iași before 1914. In later years, he lived more discreetly as a scholar and educationist, earning both praise and opprobrium for his sternness and erudition.

A Catholic convert and devotional writer, Rașcu spent several years in France. He made a belated attempt to revive Symbolism with the 1930s magazine Îndreptar, where he also published his Catholic prose and fragments of his work in literary history. He became noted, and challenged, for his critical reviews of Mihai Eminescu's poetry. His late works in travel literature document his increasing isolation and monastic fervor, as well as his dedication to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. In his final years, Rașcu returned to literary life as an authority on, and biographer of, his Symbolist colleagues.

Rașcu's maternal great-grandfather was the French upper class tailor Frédéric Ortgies (described in one of Rașcu's poems as having "a rosy and melancholy face"). Originally from Picardy, he settled in Moldavia before its 1859 merger into Romania. Ortgies' daughter, Eugenia, married Ioan Tudor Curius (1816–1898), an actor and French-language teacher from Wallachia, who had played a minor part in the 1848 upheaval before settling with his wife in Iași. Their daughter, Clelia (1865–1950), was Rașcu's mother. His father, born in Odobești, worked as an art and calligraphy teacher. The couple also had three daughters, of whom Clelia (1897–1944) went on to marry University of Iași physician Emil Hurmuzache; and another son, Gheorghe, who made his living as a teacher of geography.

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