Literary critic Nicolae Manolescu died on Saturday, Mircea Miheesh, a close friend of the cultural figure, wrote on Facebook.

According to HotNews.ro sources, who confirmed the literary critic’s death, Nicolae Manolescu was 84 years old and was hospitalized at the Elias Hospital. Nicolae Manolescu was the president of the Union of Writers.

“Nicolae Manolescu, the most important Romanian literary critic and historian after World War II, has died. May the Lord rest in peace!” Mircea Mikhayesh wrote on Facebook.

“One of the great literary critics and teachers of Romanian culture, Nicolae Manolescu, died at the age of 84 after a heart attack. I will keep his memory,” Christian Tudor Popescu also wrote on Facebook.

For his part, literary critic Daniel Cristea-Enake mourns the death of Professor Nicolae Manolescu. “Another dark day for Romanian culture,” Cristea-Enake wrote on Facebook.

“Today, March 23, 2024, Acad. Nicolae Manolescu, a professor at our faculty, is the author of a monumental work that rethought Romanian literary criticism and historiography in the post-war period. Colleagues and students of the Faculty of Literature with family and friends, with everyone who nurtured him, read his books and chronicles and who learned from him. Rest in peace!” – said the message published on Saturday evening on Facebook also by representatives of the Faculty of Literature of the University of Bucharest.

“The Union of Writers of Romania is deeply saddened to announce the death of academician Nicolae Manolescu (1939-2024), president of the Union of Writers, director of the weekly “Romania literară”, critic and historian of literature with a great reputation, one of the greatest figures of Romanian literature of all time. Nicolae Manolescu identified himself with Romanian literature, he was constantly at the center of living literature, he was a mentor to hundreds of students and doctoral students, as a teacher, as well as to young writers of several generations. As a politician and journalist, he advocated democracy and freedom. With the disappearance of Nicolae Manolescu, Romanian culture will suffer a heavy, irreparable loss,” the Writers’ Union said in a statement.

Who was Nicolae Manolescu

Nicolae Manolescu, critic, literary historian and essayist, was born on November 27, 1939 in Rimnik-Vilca. His mother, Sabina Apolcăn (née Manolescu), was a French teacher, and his father, Petru Apolcăn, a professor of philosophy, is mentioned in the General Dictionary of Romanian Literature, published under the auspices of the Romanian Academy (Univers Encyclopedic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2005).

He attended secondary school in Sibiu, then began his studies at secondary school in Rymnik-Vilca. He graduated from high school in Sibiu, after which he studied at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Bucharest (1956-1962), with a break in 1958 and 1959, when he was expelled because of the file, according to the cited source. He received a license in 1962, and in the same year began to cooperate with “Contemporanul”.

In 1963, he began his university career as a teacher at the Department of History of Romanian Literature of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Bucharest, later became an assistant (1964–1968), a teacher (1968–1989), and then, after 1990, a professor at the same department. He defended his doctoral thesis – “Majorescu’s Contradiction” – in 1974.

Nicolae Manolescu’s early vocation as a literary chronicler was constantly realized for three decades (1962-1992). The debut takes place in “Contemporanul”, where G. Ivashku offers him a literary chronicle in the spring of 1962. He will continue to support it until 1972, when he will be appointed columnist of “Romania literară” by the same H. Ivascu (. . . )” (“General Dictionary of Romanian Literature”, Encyclopedic Publishing House Universe, Bucharest, 2005).

In 1990, he became the director of the magazine “Romania literară”. He gave up the column, but from April 1990 to September 1991 he signed the political analysis column “Ochiul magiya”. His activity as a critic was present in almost all cultural publications of that time.

He made his debut with the volume “Modern Romanian Literature”. 1944-1964″, written in collaboration with Dumitru Miku (1965). This was followed by: “Infidel Readings” (1966), “Metamorphoses of Poetry” (1968), “Maorescu’s Contradictions” (1970), “Themes” (vols. I-VII, published between 1971-1988), “Introduction to Alexander the Work of Odobescu ” (1976), “Sadoveanu, or the Utopia of the Book” (1976, prize of the Union of Writers and the prize of the Romanian Academy), “Noah’s Ark” (I-III, 1980-1983), “About Poetry” (1987), “Critical History of Romanian of literature” (1990), “The right to normality. Political discourse and reality” (1991); “Books have a soul” (1995); “Metamorphoses of poetry. Metamorphoses of the novel” (1999); “Romantic Poets” (1999); “Homework” (2000); “Post-war Romanian literature. List of Manolescu” (Vols. I-III, 2001); “Reading and writing” (2002); “Modern Poets” (2003); “Reading for everyone’s understanding” (2003), “Life and books. Memories of a distant reader” (2009).

In November 2008, Nicolae Manolescu presented the work “Critical history of Romanian literature” at the Gaudeamus fair. 5 centuries of literature”, which has more than 1500 pages and on which he worked for 25 years.

On October 24, 1997, Nicolae Manolescu was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and on March 28, 2013, he became a full member of this high scientific and cultural forum.

He has been a member of the Writers’ Union of Romania since 1963, according to the dictionary “Members of the Romanian Academy (1866-2003)” (Editura Enciclopedică/Editura Academiei Române, Bucharest, 2003). He was elected president of the Writers’ Union of Romania (USR) in 2005. On November 23, 2009, he was elected to a second term as USR Chairman and then re-elected as USR Chairman on October 7, 2013. On May 5, 2018, he was re-elected as the President of the Ukrainian SSR for 2018-2023.

He was one of the founders of the Civic Alliance and a member of its Steering Committee (1990), then, from July 1991, the president of the Civic Alliance Party (PAC), according to the work “Personalities of modern Romania. Protagonists of public life”, edition of the ROMPRES National Press Agency (Bucharest, 1995). He served as president of the Civic Alliance Party until 1998, when the PAC and PNL merged. He was a senator from Sibiu in the parliament in 1992-1996, in September 1992 he was elected on the lists of the Romanian Democratic Congress.

In November 1996, he ran for the post of President of Romania from the National Liberal Alliance (ANL). In 2006-2015, he was the ambassador of Romania to UNESCO.

On December 1, 2000, he was awarded by the President of Romania with the National Order “Faithful Service” Grand Cross, and on December 1, 2008 – with the National Order “Star of Romania” Grand Cross.

He was awarded the prizes of the Romanian Academy, the Union of Writers, the Bucharest Association of Writers, as well as the title of “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French state.

In October 2004, he received the Prometheus Lifetime Achievement Award – Opera Omnia, awarded by the Anonymous Foundation, and at the Manuscriptum Gala Awards on December 11, 2008, he received the main Manuscriptum Award for the book Critical “history” of Romanian literature. He received the title of honorary doctorate from the University of Oradea (2010), the University “1 Decembrie 1918” Alba-Iulia (2011), the National School of Political and Administrative Sciences (2012), the University “Babes-Bolyai” from Cluj-Napoca (2012), the University ” Vasile Alecsandri” from Bacău (2016). On January 14, 2017, Nicolae Manolescu received the title of honorary doctorate from the “Alecu Russo” University in Balti (Republic of Moldova) during the ceremony on the occasion of “Eminescu Days”. In 2011, the Senate of the University of Bucharest awarded him the title of honorary the professor

At the solemn meeting of the Romanian National Commission for UNESCO on the occasion of the centenary, which took place on November 27, 2018, the literary critic Nicolae Manolescu was among the personalities who were awarded diplomas in high recognition of outstanding contributions to the realization of the affirmation of the ideals and goals of UNESCO. According to the draft decision adopted by the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest in October 2019, he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the capital.