Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești

Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești (January 1, 1868 – December 14, 1946) was a Romanian short story writer and politician. The scion of a minor aristocratic family from Târgoviște, he studied law and, as a young man, drew close to the Junimea circle and its patron Titu Maiorescu. He began publishing fiction as an adolescent, and put out his first book of stories in 1903; his work centered on the fading provincial milieu dominated by old class structures. Meanwhile, after a break with Maiorescu, he drew toward Viața Românească and Garabet Ibrăileanu. In 1907, Brătescu-Voinești entered the Romanian parliament, where he would serve for over three decades while his written output declined. In his later years, he became an outspoken anti-Semite and fascist, a stance that, following his country's defeat in World War II, gave way to anti-communism near the end of his life.

Biography

Literary work

Born in Târgoviște, his parents were Alexandru Brătescu, a low-ranking boyar and the son of a pitar (bread supplier), and Alexandrina, daughter of Ion Voinescu, a major in the Wallachian Revolution of 1848. He was the second of four children. His childhood took place amidst the traditional environment of old Târgoviște and at the Brătești estate. He attended primary school in his native town from 1875 to 1879, then at the Cocorăscu boarding school and finally at Saint Sava High School in Bucharest from 1879 to 1883.