Ștefan cel Mare
Manoliu returned to his work in fiction with "Moartea nimănui" ("Nobody's Death", 1939), a novel on moral degeneration, and "Domnița Ralú Caragea" (1939), a historical retelling of Rallou Karatza's activities. In 1940, he wrote a six-act historical play, "Io, Ștefan Voievod". Featuring Stephen III of Moldavia as its central character, the work was only published in 2006. Ultimately graduating university in 1940, he joined the Romanian Writers' Society the following year.