page_title: Mihail Sadoveanu
section_title: 1910s and World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Mihail Sadoveanu / Biography / 1910s and World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Title page for the original edition of Neamul Şoimăreştilor novel, by Romanian author Mihail Sadoveanu (published by Editura Minerva).
context_page_description: Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting head of state for the communist republic. One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as well as for his nature writing. An author whose career spanned five decades, Sadoveanu was an early associate of the traditionalist magazine Sămănătorul, before becoming known as a Realist writer and an adherent to the Poporanist current represented by Viața Românească journal. His books, critically acclaimed for their vision of age-old solitude and natural abundance, are generally set in the historical region of Moldavia, building on themes from Romania's medieval and early modern history. Among them are Neamul Șoimăreștilor, Frații Jderi and Zodia Cancerului. With Venea o moară pe Siret..., Baltagul and some other works of fiction, Sadoveanu extends his fresco to contemporary history and adapts his style to the psychological novel, Naturalism and Social realism.
context_section_description: Sadoveanu returned to his administrative job in 1907, the year of the Peasants' Revolt. Kept in office by the National Liberal cabinet of Ion I. C. Brătianu, he served under the reform-minded Education Minister Spiru Haret. Inspired by the bloody outcome of the Revolt, as well as by Haret's moves to educate the peasantry, Sadoveanu reportedly drew suspicion from the Police when he published self-help guides aimed at industrious ploughmen, a brand of social activism which even resulted in a formal inquiry.
  Mihail Sadoveanu became a professional writer in 1908–1909, after joining the Romanian Writers' Society, created in the previous year by poets Cincinat Pavelescu and Dimitrie Anghel, and becoming its President in September of that year. The same year, he, Iosif, and Anghel, together with author Emil Gârleanu, set up Cumpăna, a monthly directed against both Ovid Densusianu's eclecticism and the Junimist school (the magazine was no longer in print by 1910). At the time, he became a noted presence among the group of intellectuals meeting in Bucharest's Kübler Coffeehouse.
  In 1910, he was also appointed head of the National Theater Iași, a position which he filled until 1919. That year, he translated from the French one of Hippolyte Taine's studies on the genesis of artworks. He resigned his office within the Writers' Society in November 1911, being replaced by Gârleanu, but continued to partake in its administration as a member of its leadership committee and a censor. He was a leading presence at Minerva newspaper, alongside Anghel and critic Dumitru Karnabatt, and also published in the Transylvanian traditionalist journal, Luceafărul.
  Sadoveanu was again called under arms during the Second Balkan War of 1913, when Romania confronted Bulgaria. Having reached the rank of Lieutenant, he was stationed in Fălticeni with the 15th Infantry Regiment, after which he spent a short period on the front. He returned to literary life. Becoming good friends with poet and humorist George Topîrceanu, he accompanied him and other writers on cultural tours during 1914 and 1915. The series of writings he published at the time includes the 1915 Neamul Șoimăreștilor.
  In 1916–1917, as Romania entered World War I and was invaded by the Central Powers, Sadoveanu stayed in Moldavia, the only part of Romania's territory still under the state's authority (see Romanian Campaign). The writer oscillated between the Germanophilia of his Viața Românească friends, the stated belief that war was misery and the welcoming of Romania's commitment to the Entente Powers. At the time, he was reelected President of the Writers' Society, a provisional mandate which ended in 1918, when Romania signed the peace with the Central Powers, and, as Army reservist, edited the Entente's regional propaganda outlet, România. He was joined by Topîrceanu, who had just been released from a POW camp in Bulgaria, and with whom he founded the magazine Însemnări Literare. Sadoveanu subsequently settled in the Iași neighborhood of Copou, purchasing and redecorating the villa known locally as Casa cu turn ("The House with a Tower"). In the 19th century, it had been the residence of politician Mihail Kogălniceanu, and, during the war, hosted composer George Enescu. During that period, he collaborated with leftist intellectual Vasile Morțun and, together with him and Arthur Gorovei, founded and edited the magazine Răvașul Poporului.
caption: Title page of Neamul Șoimăreștilor in the original 1915 edition "with illustrations by Stoica" (Editura Minerva)
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