Marin Preda

Marin Preda (5 August 1922, Siliștea Gumești, Teleorman County, Kingdom of Romania – 16 May 1980, Mogoșoaia, Ilfov County], Socialist Republic of Romania) was a Romanian novelist, post-war writer and director of Cartea Românească publishing house.

He is considered by some to be the most important novelist in post-World War II Romanian literature.

However, he has also garnered an ambivalent perception in post-socialist Romania: Preda's final novel, Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni ("The Most Beloved of Earthlings"), published just a couple of months before his death, is considered a daring critique of the beginnings of communism in Romania; in contrast, Preda was well-regarded by party leaders and received high distinctions in socialist Romania, and did not position himself as an open opponent of the regime.

At the time of his death, Marin Preda was a member of the Great National Assembly.

Preda was born in Teleorman County in a village called Siliștea Gumești, the son of Tudor Călărașu, a ploughman, and Joița Preda.

He legally bore his mother's name, as his parents were not legally married due to the fact that Joița was a war widow, and a second marriage would annul her pension.

Joița had two daughters from her first marriage: Măria (nicknamed Alboaica) and Mița (Tita).

Tudor Călărașu was also a widower, and had three sons from his first marriage: Ilie (Paraschiv), Gheorghe (Achim) and Ion (Nilă).

In the family of the two spouses were also born: Ilinca, Marin and Alexandru (Sae).

Marin Preda spent his childhood in this large and rural family which — despite owning two plots of land — did not have financial security.

In September 1929, the teacher Ionel Teodorescu enrolled Marin Preda in the first grade, but Preda's father did not let him attend, as he usually enrolled his children only at the age of 8.

The following year, Preda was re-enrolled in the first grade in his native village.

Due to the family's rural lifestyle, Preda participated in agricultural work at home, which meant that he was often absent from school.

Gradually, however, he proved to be among the best students in his grade, and was awarded for his academic success (this childhood scene was later evoked in his novel Moromeții).

The year 1933–1934 (4th grade) was one of the hardest in the student's life: his father could no longer buy textbooks and came down with malaria.

Due to the intervention of a teacher, Preda was lent books and was able to complete the school year.

When he could not find school supplies in his village, he borrowed textbooks from the neighbouring communes.

With repeated pleas and insistence, he obtained a promise from his mother that she would convince his father to send him to a teaching academy.

Between 1934 and 1937 he attended grades five to seven, being taught by Ion Georgescu from the neighbouring village of Balaci.

The teacher would remember in his old age that the student Marin Preda "was a dreamer in the classroom", but that "he did well in writing", and that on a given topic about the Union of Principalities Preda did "sensational work".

In 1937, avoiding the Teacher Training School in Alexandria, where the fees were too high, Preda instead sought to attend school in Câmpulung-Muscel, but was rejected at the medical examination due to myopia.

His father then tried to send him to a trade school; however, a librarian, Constantin Păun from Miroși, intervened and sent Preda to school in Abrud, where he received a successful grade of 10 in the scholarship examination.

Preda soon integrated into daily life at a pedagogical institute.

The teaches were satisfied with him and he got along well with his Transylvanian colleagues; in 1939 he spent the winter holiday with a colleague from Abrud.

In the autumn of 1939 he was transferred to a school in Cristur-Odorhei, where he continued his studies for another year.

As with Abrud, he showed a special interest in history, Romanian, and mathematics.

At the meetings of the Literary Society in the school, he was noticed by the teacher Justin Salanțiu, who predicted that "he will become a great writer".

While in the Literary Society he wrote and read some short sketches, which were chosen for publication in his school's literary magazine; however, due to changing political circumstances in Romania, the magazine shut down and his writings went unpublished.

The three years of Transylvanian life were later evoked in the semi-autobiographical novel Viața ca o pradă ("Life as Prey") and in Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni ("The Most Beloved of Earthlings").

In 1940, following the Second Vienna Award, which transferred parts of Transylvania to Hungary, Preda began to attend school in Bucharest.

At the end of the 1940–1941 school year, with help of the school's headmaster, he took the skills examination, but due to material difficulties he dropped out of school.

In January 1941 he witnessed the turbulent events of the Legionary Rebellion and its repression by Ion Antonescu.

He kept contact with Transylvanian refugees and met with soldiers settled in Bucharest.

Three decades later, he would recount these events in Viața ca o pradă and Delirul ("The Delirium").

During the summer, Preda did not return to his native village: "I had the impression that if I return, I will not be able to leave." He had failed to publish anything and not even found a job, Marin Preda found increasingly difficult: "It is impossible for me to remember and understand how I was able to live, from what sources, all autumn and all winter of 1941 -1942. Only unrelated, unnatural things ... I had nowhere to sleep, there was sleet all over Bucharest, and I walked non-stop by tram from Gara de Nord to Gara de Est. All day and all night." Sometimes he visited his brother Nilă, in a tiny attic where "he was lost for hours, with his elbows under his neck."

In the collected volume of poems Sârmă ghimpată ("Barbed Wire"), Romanian poet Geo Dumitrescu intended to include Preda's poem, "The Return of the Wandering Son", but the collection was banned from print.

In 1941, also through Geo Dumitrescu, Preda was hired as a proofreader for the newspaper Timpul.

He finished 7th grade with an overall average of 9.78.

Preda's final graduating exam was taken at the Central School in Ciolănești (a commune ten kilometres away from Siliștea Gumești).

On 18 June, Preda was issued graduation certificate no. 71, with a general average of 9.15 in all classes.