Eugen Jebeleanu

Who was Eugen Jebeleanu?

Eugen Jebeleanu, Romanian poet, was born in Câmpina, where he attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Braşov at age 11 in 1922, he published his first poems five years later in the literary review Viaţa literară. His first book of poetry, Schituri cu soare, appeared in 1929, the year he moved to Bucharest to study law at the University of Bucharest. He published another volume of poems, Inimi sub săbii in 1934, but Jebeleanu's principal literary activity in the 1930s was as a journalist closely allied with the left-wing press.

After World War II, he solidly supported the new Communist leadership and ardently promoted socialist realism. Most of his postwar poetry deals with the struggle against fascism, the Romanian revolutionary tradition going back to 1848, and championing the new regime's ideology. Despite his political engagement, his poetry rose above the level of a verse pamphleteer. His postwar volumes of poetry include Ceea ce nu se uită; Scutul păcii; Poeme de pace şi de luptă; În satul lui Sahia; Bălcescu, a long poem written in honour of the historian and revolutionary Nicolae Bălcescu; and Cîntecele pădurii tinere.