Pompiliu Eliade

Pompiliu Eliade (April 13, 1869 – May 24, 1914) was a Romanian literary critic and historian.

Born in Bucharest, he attended primary and high school in his native city, followed by the University of Bucharest, where he obtained a literature degree in 1891. He then studied at the École Normale Supérieure under Ferdinand Brunetière from 1892 to 1895, obtaining a doctorate in literature in 1898. His thesis dealt with French influence on Romania's public spirit during the Phanariote era. Hired as a substitute professor at Bucharest in 1900, he advanced to associate status in 1901 and full professor in 1904. He was the university's first important professor of French. In 1912, he was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy. He was part of the Religious Affairs and Public Education Ministry's permanent council. A member of the National Liberal Party, he was elected to the Assembly of Deputies in 1907, serving for several months.

In 1908, he became director general of theatres, and from that year until 1911, served as chairman of the National Theatre Bucharest. He arrived with grand designs and a serious intent to stage a repertoire of an elevated cultural level, but lacked a practical understanding of the theatre's values and activities. Two individuals took particular issue with Eliade's tenure: the first was Alexandru Davila, whom he had replaced and who formed his own acting troupe in 1909. The second was Ion Luca Caragiale, whose plays Eliade considered too tied to passing phenomena and thus obsolete (an opinion later taken up by Eugen Lovinescu). In protest, Caragiale withdrew the rights to his plays from the National Theatre. Eliade nevertheless considered O noapte furtunoasă "a jewel of the genre", and O scrisoare pierdută the pinnacle of the Romanian theatrical repertoire.

...
Wikipedia