Romanian writer Tudor Arghezi, nominated for Nobel prize in literature in 1965

Romanian writer and poet Tudor Arghezi (dead in 1967) was on the nominees list for Nobel prize in literature in 1965, next to great authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett, W. Somerset Maugham, Heinrich Böll, Ernst Jünger and André Malraux. That year the Nobel in literature went to Russian Mikhail Sholokhov.

The Swedish Academy, which nominates authors for the Nobel Prize, released the list of the nominated authors in 1965. Nobel nominations are usually kept secret for 50 years. The 1965 list comprises no less than 90 writers, among whom there is also Romanian Tudor Arghezi. He was proposed for the Nobel distinction by the Italian philologist Angelo Monteverdi (1886-1967), professor teaching Romanian at the University of Rome.

Arghezi, whose real name was Ion N. Theodorescu, explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeș River. Argezi is best known for his contribution to poetry and children’s literature.

A controversial intellectual, Arghezi had a fluctuating relationship with the newly established Communist regime. Although he was awarded several literary prizes under during the period of Soviet-induced transition to a people’s republic he became a harsh critic of censorship and state control in media, and was targeted as a decadent poet very soon after the communist-dominated republican institutions took power (1948).

His house in Bucharest, also known as Mărțișor, became an interesting memorial house museum, luring many visitors, especially in the spring, summer and autumn, when one can also admire the large surrounding garden and cherry orchard. It’s definitely worth seeing while in the Romanian Capital city.