Petru Dumitriu
Petru Dumitriu was a Romanian-born novelist who wrote both in Romanian and in French.Biography
Dumitriu was born in Baziaş. His father was a Romanian army officer and his mother was Hungarian and spoke to her husband and son mostly in French, so that French was Petru Dumitriu's second language from childhood. After school in Romania, Dumitriu studied philosophy at Munich University with a Humboldt scholarship, but his studies were interrupted in 1944 when Romania changed sides in the Second World War.
After becoming a member of the Romanian Writers' Union committee in 1950, he became editor-in-chief at Viaţa Românească in 1953.
In 1960, Dumitriu fled from Romania to West Berlin, moved to Frankfurt am Main and later to Bad Godesberg, Germany, finally settling in Metz, France. He did not return to Romania until 1996.
He was married twice: with Henriette Yvonne Stahl, a French-born Romanian writer 24 years his senior, in 1956, and the same year with Irina Medrea.
He had two daughters: Irene and HeleneWorks
Partial list of publications:
- Bijuterii de familie, ESPLA, 1949; English translation by Edward Hyams, Family Jewels, Collins, 1961
- Drum fără pulbere, ESPLA, 1951
- Cronică de la câmpie, ESPLA, 1955
- Pasărea furtunii, ESPLA, 1957
- Cronica de familie, ESPLA, 1957
- Incognito, Seuil, 1962; English translation by Norman Denny, Collins, 1964
- L'Extreme Occident, Seuil, 1964
- Le sourire sarde, Seuil, 1967
- L'homme aux yeux gris, Seuil, 1968
- Rendez-vous au jugement dernier, Seuil, 1961; English translation by Richard Howard, Meeting at the last judgment, Pantheon, 1962
- Au dieu inconnu. Confessio, Seuil, 1979
