Marin Preda

Marin Preda

Marin Preda (born August 5, 1922 in Siliştea Gumeşti, Teleorman County ; † May 16, 1980 in Mogoşoaia, Ilfov County ) was a Romanian writer .

Life

He was born in the Romanian province as the son of a farmer and grew up in a large family. In elementary school he proved to be particularly bright, but, as usual, only attended it up to seventh grade. Afterwards he attended secondary schools in Abrud and Cristuru Secuiesc - always under economically tense conditions . In 1940 he finally dropped out of school and went to Bucharest , where he found a job as a proofreader for the Timpul newspaper . It was here that he had his first literary contacts with the circle around the writer Eugen Lovinescu . From 1943 to 1945 he did his military service and was then proofreader for the newspaper România liberă and from 1952 editor of Viaţa Românească .

In 1948 he was able to publish his debut Întâlnirea din pământuri and was awarded the state literature prize in 1956 for the very successful novel Moromeţii ( Shadow over the plain ) (the novel was also made into a film in 1988). In 1965 Preda became vice-president of the Romanian Writers' Union and in 1970 (until his death) head of the publishing house Cartea Românească ( The Romanian Book ). In 1975 he published Delirul ( The Great Madness ), a historical novel about Ion Antonescu , which was very controversial because it illuminated Romanian fascism from the point of view of the perpetrators. Preda was also a Member of the Grand National Assembly and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences .

In 1980 the novel Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni ( The Most Beloved of the Earthly ) came out. The book was considered a bitter criticism of the communist system and the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu , caused a sensation and was banned a few weeks after publication. The book had to be withdrawn from trading and removed from all libraries. Shortly thereafter, the writer was found dead in the writers' home near Mogoșoaia Castle . The official cause of death was asphyxia , but the exact circumstances are unclear. The family assumes that the Securitate was involved in the death.

plant

• 1955 departure . Novelle (translated by Renate Molitori), The Book: Bucharest
• 1958 Shadows over the plain . Roman (translated by Leo Hornung), Verlag Volk und Welt : Berlin
• 1965 fever . (Translated by Gisela Richter), youth publisher: Bucharest
• 1974 The expelled . Roman (translated by Erika Schar), Facla Publisher: Temesvar
• 1976 The lonely one . Roman (translated by Georg Scherg), Kriterion-Verlag: Bucharest and Verlag Volk und Welt: Berlin
• 1980 The great madness . Roman (translated by Werner Söllner), Kriterion-Verlag: Bucharest

• 1984 Reissued as: Delirium. Novel from Bucharest in the 1940s (translated by Olga Oprescu), Verlag der Nation: Berlin

• 1983 The encounter under the oak tree . Stories (translated by Dieter Fuhrmann), Cartea Românească: Bucharest
• 1998 Fever and other stories (translated by Dieter Fuhrmann), Universal Dalsi: Bucharest

literature

• Eva Behring: On the death of the Romanian writer Marin Preda. In: new german literature . 28, issue 10/1980, pp. 153-156.
• Carl Gibson : Death is about - Marin Preda, most prominent Securitate victim? In: Symphony of Freedom. Resistance to the Ceauşescu dictatorship. Chronicle and testimony of a tragic human rights movement, in literary sketches, essays, confessions and reflections. Röll, Dettelbach 2008, ISBN 978-3-89754-297-6 , pp. 356f.

Web links

Commons : Marin Preda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Marin Preda in the catalog of the German National Library
• Marin Preda in the Internet Movie Database (English)