George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the most important Romanian literary critics of all time, alongside Titu Maiorescu and Eugen Lovinescu, and is one of the outstanding figures of Romanian literature in the 20th century.
Biography
Early childhood
George Călinescu was born Gheorghe Vișan on 19 June 1899, the son of a housekeeper, Maria Vișan; the child was brought up by his mother's employers, Constantin Călinescu, a worker for Romanian State Railways, and his wife Maria, in their house in Bucharest. The Călinescu family, along with their housekeeper and the child, moved first to Botoșani, then to Iași, where Gheorghe Vișan, the future writer, matriculated at the școala "Carol I" (affiliated to the Boarding High School). In 1907, Maria Vișan accepted the Călinescus' offer to formally adopt her son, who then took the name Gheorghe Călinescu. This was his real name until his death, but, because he used the pen name G. Călinescu, after his death an apocryphal, wrong, "George Călinescu" name was forged by the common use. As a child Călinescu did not know who his real mother was. Finding out that the housekeeper that he used to humiliate was his real mother caused him a psychological trauma. He tried to hide his real origins for the rest of his life.
A model: Ramiro Ortiz
, who taught Italian language and literature at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, exercised a seminal influence over Călinescu's development. Călinescu developed a strong friendship with Ortiz; years later, he would give Ortiz credit for helping him "seize" a literary education of extraordinary quality. Under Ortiz's guidance Călinescu made his first translations from Italian; during his student days he translated Giovanni Papini's autobiographical novel Un uomo finito and a novella from Boccaccio's Decameron. Again with Ortiz's help, he began work at the literary review Roma, the first issue appearing in January 1921, and travelled to Italy with his university colleagues. Călinescu's first book was written in Italian under the title which appeared in 1925 and treated the Vatican's counter-reformationary propaganda efforts in Baroque Moldavia with heavy reliance on unpublished sources found in the Vatican Archives.
Another model: Vasile Pârvan
If in Bucharest, alongside Ramiro Ortiz, Călinescu realized his vocation as a creative artist and scholar, his attention in Rome was focused on Vasile Pârvan, the director of the Accademia di Romania. Călinescu was captivated by Pârvan's erudition and work ethic, but also by his existential philosophy. Călinescu would always return to this "spiritual father" whenever the difficulties of life seemed to bring him to his knees. Călinescu observed that while Pârvan's natural aptitude was fairly common, his tendency to exercise all the powers of his mind in the ascetic pursuit of an intellectual ideal was transformed into an existential philosophy: Life is transitory, but man can defeat death and oblivion through creation, thus leaving a permanent record of a temporary existence. Călinescu later said, "even if not everyone is in a position to become a Pârvan, everyone can see in him a model, that is to say a way in which he too can accomplish the same renunciations."
Doctorate in Literature - and beyond
In 1936, Călinescu received his doctorate in literature from the University of Iași with a thesis on Avatarii faraonului Tla ("The Avatars of Pharaoh Tla"), a posthumous work of Mihai Eminescu whose value he was the first to publicize. In fact, this thesis was an extract from Călinescu's earlier work, Opera lui Mihai Eminescu ("Mihai Eminescu's Work"), which he wrote out longhand in five copies and sent to the members of the Examination Committee. Afterwards he was named lecturer in Romanian literature at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Iași, after having won the competition for the post with the maximum possible score. In 1945, he transferred to the University of Bucharest, from which point he collaborated on the prestigious Revistă a Fundațiilor Regale, edited by Alexandru Rosetti and Camil Petrescu, until it was closed down when the King abdicated in 1947. After 1947, he was published consistently in magazines such as Gazeta literară (later to become România literară) and Contemporanul, also collaborating on Roma, Universul literar, Viața literară, Sburătorul, and Gândirea.