Ion Heliade Rădulescu

Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Portrait of Heliade Rădulescu, by Mişu Popp
Born	(1802-01-06)January 6, 1802 Târgovişte, Wallachia
Died	April 27, 1872(1872-04-27) (aged 70) Bucharest, Principality of Romania
Pen name	Ion Heliade, Eliad
Occupation	poet, essayist, journalist, translator, historian, philosopher
Nationality	Wallachian, Romanian
Period	1828–1870
Genre	lyric poetry, epic poetry, autobiography, satire
Subject	linguistics, Romanian history, philosophy of history
Literary movement	Romanticism Classicism
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Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as Eliade or Eliade Rădulescu; Romanian pronunciation: [ˈi.on heliˈade rəduˈlesku]; January 6, 1802 – April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician. A prolific translator of foreign literature into Romanian, he was also the author of books on linguistics and history. For much of his life, Heliade Rădulescu was a teacher at Saint Sava College in Bucharest, which he helped reopen. He was a founding member and first president of the Romanian Academy.

Heliade Rădulescu is considered one of the foremost champions of Romanian culture from the first half of the 19th century, having first risen to prominence through his association with Gheorghe Lazăr and his support of Lazăr's drive for discontinuing education in Greek. Over the following decades, he had a major role in shaping the modern Romanian language, but caused controversy when he advocated the massive introduction of Italian neologisms into the Romanian lexis. A Romantic nationalist landowner siding with moderate liberals, Heliade was among the leaders of the 1848 Wallachian revolution, after which he was forced to spend several years in exile. Adopting an original form of conservatism, which emphasized the role of the aristocratic boyars in Romanian history, he was rewarded for supporting the Ottoman Empire and clashed with the radical wing of the 1848 revolutionaries.