Iosif Vulcan (March 31, 1841 – September 8, 1907) was an ethnic Romanian Austro-Hungarian magazine editor, poet, playwright, novelist and cultural figure. He founded the literary magazine Familia, which he published for four decades.
Biography
Early life
Vulcan was born in Pusztahollód, Bihar County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, now Holod, Bihor County, Romania. His father Nicolae was the local Greek-Catholic parish priest from 1831 to 1844. Nicolae was a nephew of Bishop Samuil Vulcan and was born in Șinca Veche to a family originating in Wallachia. His mother Victoria (Viktória) Irinyi came from an old family of Romanian origins called Irimie before its name was Magyarized. The daughter of a schoolmaster from Létavértes (Leta Mare), her brother was János Irinyi. Vulcan's parents had six children, five of whom died early. His father was transferred to the Létavértes parish in 1844 before being named canon in Oradea (Nagyvárad) in 1879. Vulcan was attached to his parents as well as to Létavértes, where his mother is buried. He attended primary school there from 1847 to 1851, returning for his high school and university vacations. In later years, he came back for leisure as his busy schedule permitted.
He attended the Premonstratensian high school in Oradea from 1851 to 1859, followed by a law degree from the University of Pest. In 1853, while in high school, he helped start a magazine that appeared until 1870. There are poems of his written in Pest in 1859, when he was eighteen. He became involved with Gura Satului ("The Voice of the Village") in Pest in 1861 and thereafter with Concordia and Aurora Română. Vulcan often spent time in Létavértes during his student days, writing his first love poems there, about a sweetheart who lived in the town.
Familia and later activity
He launched Familia literary magazine in Pest-Buda in 1865 and would lead it for some forty years. In 1866, he published his first volume of poetry. The same year, "De-aș avea" ("If I Had"), a poem that marked the proper literary debut of sixteen-year-old Mihai Eminovici, appeared in Familia. Vulcan received it with enthusiasm, publishing him under the more Romanian-sounding name Mihai Eminescu. A good part of the latter's work would continue to appear in Vulcan's magazine until 1883. In 1867, Vulcan visited France, a bold act for a resident of Austria-Hungary, which encouraged close ties with Germany instead. In 1868, he visited Romania. In 1869, in addition to a volume of short stories, he published a biography of Prince Carol, as well as an anthology of writings by Andrei Mureșanu, Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Timotei Cipariu, August Treboniu Laurian, Mihail Kogălniceanu, George Bariţ and Vasile Alecsandri. He showed a sincere admiration for Romania and its prince. In 1870, in Pest, he helped launch an appeal for funds to set up a Romanian-language theatre. Iosif Hodoşiu was the first head of the cultural society behind the appeal, with Vulcan presiding from 1895 to 1907.
In addition to his work in Romanian, Vulcan published Hungarian-language translations of Romanian poets in various magazines. In 1871, he was elected as an external member of the Kisfaludy Society, giving his first speech on the topic of Romanian poetry. He married Aurelia Popovici in 1871; the couple led a happy life together and she inspired a number of his poems. The daughter of a lawyer and landowner from Comlăuș, she lived until 1928. In 1877, he collaborated on a Hungarian-language anthology of Romanian folk poetry, contributing twelve ballads, sixteen romances and a preface on the general subject. Over the course of the 1870s, he continued publishing short stories, novels, travel accounts and a comedy play. He made periodic trips to Bucharest, where he developed connections, gathered material for his writing but also savored the cultural and national atmosphere he found in the Romanian capital. These visits increased starting in the early 1890s as his involvement there deepened.