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. One theory, unsupported by documentary evidence, is that his literary debut occurred with a poem in Târgoviște's
Armonia magazine in 1883; a likelier scenario is that it took place in
România magazine in 1887, when he published the short story "Dolores" with the help of
Alexandru Vlahuță. He attended the medical faculty of the
University of Bucharest from 1889 to 1890, but switched to law. At the same time, he audited the logic and history of philosophy course taught by
Titu Maiorescu, entered Bucharest's
Junimea circle, and in 1890 began contributing to its
Convorbiri Literare. After graduating in 1892, he practiced as a lawyer after leaving the bench. the couple had two children. He also steadfastly refused to marry the niece of Maiorescu's wife. The cumulative effect of these transgressions was to prompt the mentor to cut off ties that were never renewed, in spite of the younger man's attempts to restore relations. A postscript took place in 1903, when Brătescu-Voinești submitted the short story "Neamul Udreștilor" (later published in
Voința națională) for Maiorescu's review. Although some critics have speculated that the changes suggested by the latter caused their break, the writer in fact accepted nearly all of them. In either case, after that date, he split with
Junimea and became affiliated with the
Viața Românească group. edition of 1927 His first book was the 1903
Nuvele și schițe, enlarged and re-edited as
În lumea dreptății (1906), followed by
Întuneric și lumină (1912), after which his fiction gave way to opinion journalism, collected as
În slujba păcei (1919). In 1913, he served as a platoon commander in the
Second Balkan War; he was amused by the respect his troops showed due to his white hair, but also became a vehement pacifist thanks to the experience. This caused a break with
Viața Românească, which he believed was leading public opinion in the wrong direction. He was credited with co-writing the 1915 play
Sorana alongside
A. de Herz, but later claimed the latter had not contributed a single line. He reissued the play in 1920 without Herz' name on the cover, prompting the latter to sue and win the case. From 1918 to 1919, he worked on
Dacia and
Lamura, magazines he headed together with Vlahuță and, following the latter's death, alone from 1919 to 1922.
Move toward politics (1934) After entering political life, he was a member of parliament continuously from 1907 until 1940, and served as secretary of the
Assembly of Deputies from 1914 to 1940. Elected a corresponding member of the
Romanian Academy in 1908, he advanced to titular member in 1918. Between 1920 and 1940, he published only sporadically:
Rătăcire (1923),
Firimituri (1929),
Cu undița (1933) and
Din pragul apusului (1935). Between 1920 and 1932, he wrote school textbooks in collaboration with other authors. Brătescu-Voinești was friends with Antonescu, who in March 1943 granted him an interview in which he thanked Germany for supporting his efforts to rid the country of parasites and internal enemies, and pledged to continue the fight until
Jewish Bolshevism was eradicated. In his 1942
Originea neamului românesc și a limbii noastre, he built on discredited pre-World War I theories of
Nicolae Densușianu to claim that all
Romance languages were of
Dacian origin, that the Romans were descended from Geto-Dacians, with Latin a literary form of Dacian, and that Italian, French, and Spanish had "Romanian" roots. Near the end of his life, he engaged in a polemic against the rising
Romanian Communist Party: eschewing the invective and incitement of other Romanian fascists, he adopted a feeble biologism, claiming that Marxist doctrine is contradicted by the example of wasps, bees, ants and termites. Concurrently,
Scînteia and other newspapers affiliated with the party hurled copious epithets at the aging figure, denouncing his wartime collaborationism and printed output. ==Notes==