Ion Minulescu

Ion Minulescu
Minulescu in 1934
Born	(1881-01-06)January 6, 1881 Bucharest
Died	April 11, 1944(1944-04-11) (aged 63) Bucharest
Pen name	I. M. Nirvan Koh-i-Noor
Occupation	poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, literary critic, journalist, civil servant
Nationality	Romanian
Period	1904–1944
Genre	lyric poetry, drama, memoir, satire
Literary movement	Symbolism Avant-garde Sburătorul

Ion Minulescu (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈon minuˈlesku]; 6 January 1881 – 11 April 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latter being derived from the famous diamond), he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and Parisian Bohemianism. A herald of Romania's own Symbolist movement, he had a major influence on local modernist literature, and was among the first local poets to use free verse.

Born in Bucharest to the widow Alexandrina Ciucă (the daughter of a shoemaker in Slatina, she was 20 at the time), he was the posthumous child of Tudor Minulescu (a leather salesman who had died on New Year's Eve, probably as a result of a stroke). Originally, Minulescu was meant to be born in Slatina, but bad weather prevented his mother from leaving the capital city. Adopted by Ion Constantinescu, a Romanian Army officer who married Alexandrina Ciucă, he lived much of his childhood in Slatina and completed his primary and most of his medium studies in Piteşti at Ion Brătianu High School. He was a colleague of Al. Gherghel, who would also become known as a Symbolist writer: the two edited the school magazine Luceafărul, which only published a few issues before being closed down by the headmaster.