Early life Stelaru's parents were Dumitru "Mitică" Petrescu, a boot-maker and later a farmer and cobbler who was killed, shortly before his only son's birth, on the front in World War I, and his wife Pasca (
née Popescu, also known as Pasca Preutu or Preotu). Memoirist
Petre Pandrea reports that, in his private circle, Stelaru was seen as a
Romani man, isolated "among us
whites". Pandrea cites as his source the sculptor Ion Vlad, who further alleged that this "Gypsy" origin explained why Stelaru acted as an asocial nomad. Dimitrie Jr had great respect for his deceased father, but, as noted by Pandrea (and ultimately by Vlad), he displayed a "historical illiteracy" which allowed him to confuse Mitică's first wartime experience, in the
Second Balkan War (1913), with the
Romanian War of Independence (1877–1878). The date was once verified by Stelaru himself, who noted that the official record had "March 9", due to his family waiting a full day before reporting the event; This account also contradicts earlier claims that he had been born in 1916. Stelaru likewise suggested that his birthplace was
Turnu Măgurele—though also recording his belief that: "It doesn't matter what city I'm from. [...] Small cities [...] have no tradition. They're pretty much all the same." As noted by writer Gabriela Ursachi, Stelaru was always casually discreet about his biography, encouraging confusion. The school's austere, vegetarian and dogmatic regimen did not agree with Petrescu, and he escaped in 1935 or 1936; his trace was lost. Various sources suggest that he engaged in petty theft (of "forks, knives, money"), For a while, he traveled the
Jiu Valley, employed there as a coal miner. No public records exist to suggest that Petrescu was ever a graduate of any institution beyond primary schooling, though he much later claimed that he took a diploma from the
University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters. In 1970, Stelaru declined to answer a direct question about his studies, while noting: "I never contradicted anyone, not even those who swore to have seen me in the [university] lecture halls." Throughout his travels in the provinces, he allegedly maintained links with the various literary circles, reading profusely from
Edgar Allan Poe and
Paul Valéry. In 2016, his first cousin Natalia Popescu recalled that her father, Melinte, had in fact sponsored Mitea to continue writing, and eventually publish, his poetry. The claim to have discovered and promoted "Orfanul" was stated by poet-journalist
Eugen Jebeleanu. Another generation colleague,
Ion Caraion, suggests that Jebeleanu, "his eye like a
nib", found Petrescu among the "tramps" (
cloșarzi), and then propelled him into literary life. He created the pen name Dimitrie Stelaru ("The Stellar One") in 1938 he became an unwilling mentor to debuting poets who had lionized him, primarily including
Miron Radu Paraschivescu and
Geo Dumitrescu. He took credit for establishing a connection between Jebeleanu and Paraschivescu, as well as for having introduced Tonegaru to
Surrealism. Similarly, Stelaru was dismissive of Ion Vlad, to whom he addressed an
epigram: Stelaru was also sporadically attending the
Sburătorul literary circle, formed around literary scholar
Eugen Lovinescu—who noted that Stelaru was a "frightened bat", near-silent in the presence of other writers. Writer
Eugen Barbu, who first encountered Stelaru's work through Lovinescu's portrait, notes that the effect was a "jolt[ing] of the bourgeois mindset that was prevalent in that age, now ready to admit that poets could wear greasy
trench coats directly over their skin." This was also reported by poet
Virgil Gheorghiu, an eyewitness: "those in the audience noted that [Stelaru] was wearing his cape directly over his naked body." Sometimes described as Lovinescu's final discovery, From May 1941, Dumitrescu began putting out the literary journal
Albatros, with Stelaru published therein from the very first issue—with poems celebrating individual freedom, but also with a
madrigal for Olivia. Later in life, Stelaru took credit for getting the magazine being banned by the
Ion Antonescu regime, In March 1942, a group of actors, including
Maria Filotti and
Tantzi Cocea, decided to stage a benefit show, collecting money "toward editing a book by poet Dimitrie Stelaru." Novelist
Ionel Teodoreanu was announced as the master of ceremonies.
Noaptea geniului ("A Night of Genius"), which appeared later that year, and
Ora fantastică ("That Fantastic Hour", printed in 1944, with Lovinescu's laudatory preface) are seen by reviewers as Stelaru's core works, encompassing all the lyrical motifs of his mature years. Writer and critic
Gheorghe Grigurcu discusses Stelaru's "nervous, fevered theatrics", adding: "Still, no infatuation can be found here. Only the thrill of a bitter confraternity which excludes the ambition of hierarchies". On such grounds, Grigurcu finds "no sacrilegious flavor" in
Prea tîrziu, where Stelaru likens himself to
Jesus: As read by Comarnescu in 1945, Stelaru was at core a figure in
neo-romanticism, "in line with" Poe,
William Blake,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and
Arthur Rimbaud. The same author believes that
Ora fantastică also incorporated the poetic experiments of Surrealism. In a 1947 chronicle,
Ion Negoițescu assessed that Stelaru and Tonegaru were the "first heralds of [the] new Surrealism, perhaps of a more organic kind, because it was not as programmatic as the prewar kind". Another critic, Aurel Martin, notes that Stelaru shied away from
social realism and revolutionary rhetoric—in contrast with 1930s poets such as
Mihai Beniuc and
Aron Cotruș. "Despite his own existential experiences", "Orfanul" was indifferent to the social message. He was instead fascinated by the biographies of Poe and
Panait Istrati, and, stylistically, preferred to be absorbed by the staples of neo-romanticism and
Symbolism. Grigurcu similarly remarks that, "though a proletarian through and through, Stelaru showed no interest in left-wing ideas. A romanticism recast in modernist trappings pushed him into a poetic creation that stood at odds with his precarious situation." Mușatescu invited Stelaru into his own rented home, located in the Bucharest area of Chibrit, where they spent Christmas together, in destitute conditions. Stelaru reportedly sold one of Mușatescu's trench coats, and nearly prostituted himself with the landlady, in order to obtain food and
rachiu for their two-man party. Like Dumitrescu, he had come to display a "fraternal affection" toward Istrati. The novelist appears in one of Stelaru's poems for
Albatros as one of the "three dead ones" who watch over a war-torn humanity (the other ones are Jesus and
Lord Byron). Stelaru's situation was changed for the better when the Antonescu government was toppled by a
multi-party coup, which Stelaru later labeled as Romania's "unchaining" (
descătușare). he had returned to Sighișoara, where he was employed to teach art at a private school founded by physician Alexandru Culcer. He later presented himself as a co-founder of the school, which he depicted as an institution of higher learning—with himself as a "university professor". Barbu first met Stelaru around that time, "in the home of a lady artist". He discovered that Stelaru was not romantic and violent, as he had been depicted by Lovinescu and others, but rather practicing a "puerile
Gandhism, stirred up in him by drinks he consumed with so much patience that he made me suspicious." According to one notice from November 1948, Stelaru was preparing for print a children's book,
Copilul negru ("The Black Child"), and had been commissioned to write a
working-class novel, centered on his fellow stevedores. From Chirnogeni, he sent his manuscripts including
Copilul negru, to Bucharest's state-run publishing houses, but complained to Dumitrescu that he was never informed about their fate. Stelaru also tried to persuade "Comrade Dumitrescu", who had been embraced by the new regime, to feature his texts in
Flacăra. In 1949, he was included on a political-and-cultural panel which was organizing the Eminescu Centennial celebrations in Constanța.
Censoring and obscurity In 1952, an audit of the
Writers' Union of Romania (USR) reported that "Dumitru Stelaru of Constanța" was one of several "so-called writers, people who are either suspect or downright hostile to [our] regime", and who had still managed to obtain state loans. Stelaru's sum ran at almost 125 thousand
lei. He had been effectively
banned from publishing the same year, and as such prevented from joining the USR—until October 1955, when he was allowed there by the nonconformist chairman
Zaharia Stancu, who may have shielded Stelaru from more serious persecution. He abandoned his wife and daughter in mid-1950, and moved back to Bucharest; he was later spotted as an antiquarian bookseller on Zalomit Street. In 1952, he spent some time "on the Jiu Valley, collecting material for a play which he never wrote." Also in 1952, Stoica and
Alexandru Leca Morariu welcomed Stelaru into their improvised lodging, which was a Bucharest basement on Armenească Street 17A; they stayed together "for about a year", to "mid-1953." According to Stoica, he was often in a state of drunken stupor, alternating between "delirious optimism" and threatening behavior. In one episode, recounted by Stoica, Stelaru tried to convince a waiter, who had never heard of Eminescu, that he should hang himself. A "child enamored with risky games", he annoyed his roommates by returning to theft, and once absconded with Morariu's bibliophile edition of
Molière. The two objects always found on his person were a
scalpel, which he used for self-defense, and a wooden "mushroom", for
darning his socks. Around 1954, Stelaru had joined an informal "literary circle" of social drinkers, which included Ion Vlad, poet
Tiberiu Iliescu, actor
Ludovic Antal, journalist
Emil Serghie, philosopher
Sorin Pavel, and, more marginally, Pandrea. The divorce from Despina was pronounced final in May 1955, when Stelaru married painter Rodica Pandele. They lived together in Bucharest until mid-1960, when Stelaru moved back in with his mother's family in Turnu Măgurele; his second divorce was recorded in May 1961. Stelaru still declined to publish adult literature under the guidelines imposed by Socialist Realism; he only wrote short dramatic poems which at the time were classified as children's literature, beginning with a "lyrical fairy tale",
Fata pădurarului ("The Forester's Daughter", 1955). with
Gelu, a
rhyming epic which borrowed heavily from
Romanian folklore; its originality was in personifying Time itself as a major figure of the narrative, as Ciobdestea ("Star-fragment"). According to reviewer Gloria Barna: "children cannot but love this story, a real accomplishment for the author." Two children's plays appeared together in 1957, as
Șarpele Marao; Vrăjitoarele ("Marao the Snake; The Witches"). Depicting love stories in the language of folk mythology, it was lambasted by critic H. Fabian in November 1957. Fabian found it to be "below what is required", unappealing, and written as "some sort of rhyming prose." A more lenient review was published by Al. Andriescu, who criticized the pieces for being "somewhat arid", doubting that they could ever be used for a theatrical production. Andriescu also described
Vrăjitoarele as more folkloric than
Șarpele Marao, seeing the latter as somewhat tributary to a "very natural bookish contamination", including from
Goethe's Faust. In a 2009 reappraisal, scholar Veronica-Alina Constănceanu noted that Stelaru's text was "clear, simple, leaving no problems for interpretation", and with only a few nods to theatrical modernity. In 1958, he earned more unwanted attention from the political establishment, and was attacked for his alleged anti-communism in two official magazines—
Gazeta Literară and
Lupta de Clasă. During that year, he returned to print in a USR journal,
Luceafărul, beginning with a
reportage about the
Romanian Black Sea resorts. It attracted positive attention from a reviewer for
Contemporanul, who noted that Stelaru had managed to craft "an original way of describing things that are largely known from the press."
Luceafăruls June issue also featured one of his poems—it "sketched from the quiet, transparent and multicolored sunset, to evoke the joy of a metalworker upon entering in his new home." In July, he spent a few days at a rice farm on
the Olt. In sharp contrast to his interwar bohemianism,
Oameni și flăcări included odes to the miners, anti-war pieces, and a title poem about the
Grivița strike of 1933. In his reception of
Oameni și flăcări, communist poet
Camil Baltazar noted that Stelaru was confiding his "somber" style to describing Romania's capitalist past, while seeking to find an optimistic tone for the "luminous present", though still lacking definition and concision.
Final return By June 1964, Stelaru had sent one of his manuscripts for review at
Editura pentru Literatură, though he complained that the staff there, including
Mihai Gafița, were ignoring him. Stelaru's subsequent recovery included being published in
Steaua, where he was promoted by Stoica, as well as in
Gazeta Literară,
Tribuna, Stelaru's rehabilitation was made final with the publication of a 1967 short-story collection,
Fata fără lună ("A Moonless Girl"). In 1968, in addition to completing
Zeii prind șoareci, he produced a selection of new poems,
Nemoarte ("Undeath"). These were welcomed by Barbu in
Informația Bucureștiului newspaper: "His lyrics have a thrilling pathos which cannot be rendered banal even by the occasional repetition. [...] A slow, patient swimmer, [...] Stelaru will reach Judgment Day on the true headland of art, whereas others, the award-winners, will have drowned on the way there, dragged down by their own swagger". Interviewed by the younger poet
Adrian Păunescu in early 1969, when he was already gravely ill with
cirrhosis Stelaru noted the "spiritual liberty" of Romania's literary scene, but expressed his disdain for the
Onirists, who, he argued, had "jumped overboard". As noted by Corlaciu, this was a formal recognition by Romania, and put an end to Stelaru's bohemian career; Stoica reconnected with his mentor at this stage: feeling like a rich man in a "golden palace", and "won over by the charms of family life", Stelaru could now pay for his own upkeep, and could afford prestige goods, such as
Pepsi,
Pall Mall, and foreign medicine. He was fearful of dying and an insomniac, though he still had not given up drinking. He spent much time with his boy, whom he nicknamed "Nouraș" ("Little Cloud"), nurturing his passion for doodling. A "drawing by Eunor Stelaru" illustrated Dimitrie's selection of poems in a June 1970 issue of
România Literară. As a writer, Stelaru followed up in 1969 with a second print of
Mare incognitum (prefaced by
Lucian Raicu), and another fairy tale,
Cei din lună ("Those of the Moon"); and in 1970 with two more volumes:
Înalta umbră ("The Tall Shadow"), and
Poeme dramatice. Leru ṣi Împăratul Nix ("Dramatic Poems. Leru and Emperor Nix"). By November 1971, Stelaru had submitted three more volumes for review at
Cartea Românească publishers. These were a memoir, called
Doi lei planeta ("Two Lei for the Ticket"), a collection of theatrical plays,
Saltimbancul sinistru ("That Sinister Mountebank"), as well as a new version of
Preamărirea durerii. Diarist
Pericle Martinescu described
Doi lei planeta as a highly mendacious book, but noted that such was to be expected of Stelaru, since "the poet never held an ounce of literary conscience." Stelaru died in Bucharest on 28 November, three days after being visited by Moldovan, to whom he addressed what were probably his last written lines. He was buried among other writers in
Bellu cemetery on 1 December. A clerical error assigned him the name "Dimitrie Sterescu", making it impossible to locate his tomb. The following day,
România Literară offered a brief overview of his poetic work, arguing that his wartime activity with
Albatros and
Sburătorul evidenced his "anti-fascist attitude". In that same issue, Caraion mourned his friend as "one of this country's great true poets", adding: "He shall sleep in the insomnia of Romanian literature, in the insomnia that is restlessness and a 'timeless king'." As he noted, Stelaru had never been translated into any foreign language. ==Legacy==