PANAIT ISTRATI (b. 1884, Braila - d. 1935, Bucharest)

This Romanian writer who published in French was born in Braila, natural son of laundress Joita Istrate and a Greek smuggler. Raised in Baldovinesti, his mother village, he studied in primary school for 6 years, including being held back twice. He apprenticed to a pub-keeper, pastrycook, and pedlar to maintain his existence. Though poor, this child was an early and prolific reader. His wanderings took him to Bucharest, Constantinople, Cairo, Naples, Paris, and Switzerland. He is admired by the syndicalist movement and by socialists. Living in misery, ill and alone, he attempted suicide in 1921 on his way to Nisa, but was saved. He wrote a letter to Romain Rolland, who immediately replied, and in 1923 his story Chira Chiralina was published, with a preface by Rolland. In 1927 he visited Moscow and Kiev (and was later to assist at the filming of a movie depicting his adventures there). In 1929 he travelled again to the U.S.S.R. and learned the truth of Stalin's communist dictatorship, out of which experience he wrote his famous book, The Confession of a Loser. Thereafter, he suffered a crisis of conscience mainly due to being branded a fascist by his former communist friends. He returned to Romania ill and demoralised, was treated for tuberculosis in Nisa, then returned to Bucharest. Isolated and unprotected, he died at Filaret Sanatorium. He is remembered the world over for his astute remark, "All right, I can see the broken eggs. Where's this omelet of yours?"

Other works: Codin, Haiducii, Nerantula, Ciulinii Baraganului.

Last update: 2004, October 28
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