V. A. Urechia

Early life

Born in Piatra Neamț, Urechia was the son of Alexandru Popovici, a member of the boyar class in Moldavia and a titular culcer; his mother, Eufrosina (or Euphrosina) née Manoliu. Both had been widowed or divorced from previous marriages, and Vasile had stepsiblings from each parent. After the culcer's death, he and three other of Eufrosina's youngest children, all of them below legal age, moved in with their mother, who remarried serdar Fotino. In spring 1848, he was in Iași, where he witnessed the failed rebellion provoked by the Romantic nationalist and liberal current with which he would later affiliate. He debuted in journalism upon the end of the 1840s, when he wrote pieces condemning Transylvanian-born educators for promoting a version of Romanian which overemphasized the language's connection with Latin.

During most of the 1850s, the young Vasile Alexandrescu was in France, spending most of his time in Paris, where he received his Baccalauréat (1856), and trained for a licence ès lettres degree. Urechia frequented exiles from both Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia), growing close to the Wallachian politico C. A. Rosetti. Having written his debut literary works, some grouped in 1854 under the title Mozaic de novele, cugetări, piese și poezii ("A Mosaic of Novellas, Musings, Plays and Poetry"), he also completed a debut novel, Coliba Măriucăi ("Măriuca's Cabin", in 1855). The plot was loosely based on Uncle Tom's Cabin, by the American abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, and was adapted to the realities of Romani slavery in Moldavia. He was at the time collaborating on Steaua Dunării, a unionist magazine co-edited by the Moldavian intellectuals Mihail Kogălniceanu and Vasile Alecsandri, where he published a Romanian-language translation of Canción a las ruinas de Itálica ("Song to the Ruins of Italica"), a Spanish Renaissance poem written by Rodrigo Caro, but attributed by scholars of the day to Fernando de Rioja.

A believer in Pan-Latinism, he popularized the cause of Romanians through articles published in the Romance-speaking press of France and Spain, and founded Opiniunea, a magazine for Moldo-Wallachian exiles in Paris. During 1856, as the Crimean War brought an end to Imperial Russian administration in the two countries and its Regulamentul Organic regime, the exiles saw an opportunity for action in favor of the union. During the Peace Treaty Conference of that year, Urechia was secretary of a Romanian Bureau which popularized the unionist cause among the participants, and proposed a Romanian state under a foreign ruler, whom Urechia wanted to be of "Latin" origin.

Urechia's marriage to Luiza produced three children: sons Nestor and Alceu and daughter Corina. The Urechias' relationship, likened by Călinescu to a "Greek tragedy", was the topic of innuendo and scandal. Painter Nicolae Grigorescu was allegedly in love with Luiza Wirth, and painted several portraits of her, including one in the nude. The latter painting was described by Călinescu as "indiscreet [and] voluptuous". Their marriage was allegedly a ménage à trois, involving Luiza's sister Ana. Rumors also had it that the two other Wirth sisters, Carlotta, who was Queen Elisabeth's music tutor, and Emilia, wife of Romanian Army General Staff Chief Nicolae Dona, were also V. A. Urechia's lovers. Such claims of sororal polygyny were notably popularized by Eminescu, who once described Urechia as a "poor fellow who has two keep two sisters as his wives."

Story has it that Dona's son, officer Alexandru Guriță, was Urechia's illegitimate son. Oblivious to this, Guriță had fallen in love with Corina and was planning to marry her, before Urechia stepped in and revealed that they would be committing incest. The two lovers committed suicide. After her divorce from Urechia, Luiza lived with I. G. Cantacuzino; their son was Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, future general and provisional leader of the fascist Iron Guard. In early 1882, after she remarried a man named Hristu Cuțiana, but died in August of the same year.

Political preeminence and Literatorul years

In 1881–1882, Urechia was Romania's Education Minister under National Liberal Premiers Dimitrie Brătianu and Ion Brătianu, in the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Romania. According to Călinescu, his appointment had been prepared since 1880. Călinescu cites Urechia's intense correspondence with Alexandru Odobescu, who was then living in Paris. Odobescu had initially asked Urechia to manage his chair at the University, and, Călinescu argues, his tone became "fawning" as Urechia received confirmation for his political ambitions. As Minister, Urechia tasked Odobescu with approaching Hermiona, the widow of French historian Edgar Quinet and daughter of Romanian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi, and recovering some of Quinet's notes for publishing in Albumul macedo-român. While reviewing and reshuffling the Ministry, Urechia dismissed the socialist and atheist activist Ioan Nădejde from his position as teacher, and played a part in the decision to curb the spread of socialism among the faculty of Iași University. However, he cast aside political preferences to assign Junimist author Ion Luca Caragiale the position of inspector in the counties of Suceava and Neamț. Urechia had prepared a program for administrative reform at several levels, but the brevity of his term prevented him from putting it into practice.

By then, Urechia had also begun collaborating with the younger anti-Junimist and later Symbolist poet Alexandru Macedonski. In 1881, Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the Bene-Merenti medal 1st class, even though, Călinescu argues, the poet had been a civil servant for no more than 18 months. A year later, he appointed Macedonski to the post of Historical Monuments Inspector. Also in 1882, he accepted Macedonski's offer to become president of a society formed around the magazine Literatorul . In 1883, following Macedonski's attacks on Junimist author Mihai Eminescu, later recognized as national poet, the irreverent exposure of Eminescu's mental illness and the widespread condemnation which ensued, Literatorul went out of print. It resurfaced sporadically after that date, notably in 1885, as Revista Literară, and continued to receive contributions from Urechia, Anghel Demetriescu, Th. M. Stoenescu and Bonifaciu Florescu, but was eventually turned by Macedonski into a voice for the local Symbolist movement.

Urechia grew disillusioned with National Liberal politics, and voted against his party when he felt that their politics no longer coincided with his own views. By 1885, he also made his peace with Junimea, which was generally offering its support to the newly founded Conservative Party, and became a collaborator of its mouthpiece Convorbiri Literare, contributing essays and stories until 1892. Also in 1885, he published his novella Logof. Baptiste Veleli ("The Logofăt Baptiste Veleli"), set in the 17th century. His varied scientific interests led him to correspond with Iuliu Popper, the Romanian-born explorer of Patagonia, who notably described to Urechia the lawlessness of Punta Arenas, Chile.

Late in his life, V. A. Urechia concentrated on historical research. This led him to write and publish Istoria românilor ("The History of Romanians", 14 vols., 1891–1903) and Istoria școalelor ("The History of Schools", 4 vols., 1892–1901). After 1889, he also resumed activities in the area of bibliography, turning his own collection into a public library to benefit Galați city. He also edited and collected the work of Miron Costin, producing and editing an eponymous 1890 monograph, together with a similar work dedicated to 19th century Moldavian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi. In 1891, his scattered essays, novellas, memoirs and stories based on Romanian folklore themes were collectively published by as Legende române ("Romanian Legends"). That year, he left for London, where he attended the International Congress of Orientalists and received the honorary diploma for supporting the Congress' activities at an international level.

During the final part of the 1880s, V. A. Urechia partook in a scandal involving Lazăr Șăineanu, a foreign-educated Jewish-Romanian linguist, during which time he made a series of antisemitic statements. Șăineanu, who, like most other members of the Jewish community, was not legally emancipated, had been assigned to a Faculty of Letters position by Titu Maiorescu, at the time Education Minister in a Conservative Party cabinet. Urechia and his partisans reacted strongly against this measure, arguing that Șăineanu was made unqualified by his ethnicity, until Șăineanu presented his resignation to Maiorescu.

In 1889, when Șăineanu requested naturalization, Urechia intervened with the National Liberal politician Dimitrie Sturdza, head of a committee charged with enforcing nationality law, asking him to deny the request. A deadlock ensued and, in both 1889 and 1895, the matter came to be deliberated by the Senate. Although it won support from both Conservative Premier Petre P. Carp and the Chamber, Urechia again spoke out against enfranchise in the Senate, and, largely as a result of this appeal, a majority of his colleagues voted with him on both occasions.