N. Porsenna (pen name of Nicu Porsena Ionescu, also known as Nicu Porsenna or Porsena; 13 January 1892 – 18 January 1971) was a Romanian lawyer, writer, publisher, social psychologist, and political figure, also active as a paranormal investigator. Born to a successful printer, whose business he inherited at age 20, he began his career in letters, and his lifelong participation in polemics, while attending Matei Basarab National College. Before the outbreak of World War I, he had attracted attention as a student organizer, modernist raconteur, and Flacăra journalist, also founding his own short-lived newspaper, Latinul. During Romania's neutrality years, Porsenna veered between strong support for the Entente Powers (hinted at in a verse drama he co-wrote with Scarlat Froda) and a more cautious stance, akin to that of his political mentor, Alexandru Marghiloman. Upon Romania's declaration of war, he enlisted as an artillery cadet, and fought with distinction throughout the subsequent campaigns.
Porsenna returned to civilian life following capitulation in early 1918, and founded the daily Arena—possibly acting as an employee of his controversial friend, Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo. This venue supported Marghiloman, who had emerged as Romania's "Germanophile" Prime Minister; Porsenna joined the governing Conservatives ahead of elections in May 1918, winning a term in the Assembly of Deputies—and acquiring the reputation of a dreary public speaker. His months-long mandate witnessed a radical change in international affairs, with the Central Powers unable to build on their gains. Porsenna survived Marghiloman's downfall, and, in the early 1920s, was associated with the reemerging (and pro-Entente) National Liberal Party. This ended in 1922, when he questioned Romanian administrative policies in Bessarabia, sparking a national controversy. Following this rift, Porsenna allied with the far-right of Romanian nationalism, siding with the National-Christian Defense League, then joining the Romanian Front as a county councilor in Ilfov, and finally becoming a sympathizer of the Iron Guard. His essays in national psychology still challenged some of the core nationalist theses, and his critique of the nationalist doyen Nicolae Iorga contributed to his political marginalization.
Porsenna rebuilt his career in publishing, but his own activity as a novelist was largely ignored, or generally disliked, by the interwar critics. He also spent his own money on producing a film version of his novel Se-aprind făcliile ("They're Lighting Torches"), which came out just as World War II had started. The Nazi-aligned regime of Ion Antonescu assigned him to its Labor Ministry, where he became an advocate of social welfare and a corporatist doctrinaire; in tandem, he embarked on a celebrated career as a translator of world literature, especially focused on poetry by Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe. His association with the Antonescu regime brought his downfall upon Romania's changing of sides: though he remained active within the Democratic Peasants' Party–Lupu, he lost all his political privileges. The communist takeover in 1948 pushed him into hiding and near-complete seclusion, leading the Securitate to assume that he had escaped the country.
Porsenna was ultimately denounced and arrested in 1957, then prosecuted, alongside Petre Țuțea, for allegedly conspiring to bring the Iron Guard into power. Though accumulating a 50-year sentence, he was amnestied during the liberalization of 1964. By then, he was almost fully incapacitated by Parkinson's disease, and had to dictate his translations to an assistant. The relaxation of communist censorship allowed him to publish some of his works in this field, including a definitive, and best-selling, version of The Ballad of Reading Gaol. It appeared in early 1971, just after Porsenna had died in hospital. Some of his contributions to social science and parapsychology were given the occasional positive review before the end of communism in December 1989, after which his octogenarian widow, Zoe, tried to have most of them republished and reassessed.
Biography Early life
The future writer, who listed himself as "of Romanian nationality and ethnic origin","Anunțuri comerciale", in Monitorul Oficial, 16 April 1943, pp. 2522–2523 was born as Nicu Porsena Ionescu on 13 January 1892. His exact place of birth is Strada Doamnei 14, Lipscani, Bucharest.Traian Dimitriu-Șoimu, "Domnul inițială", in Neamul Românesc, 19 October 1937, p. 1Penciu, p. 50 This was the domicile of his father, the printer Gheorghe (or George) Ionescu, and mother Maria (née Cordea). Nicu's maternal grandfather was a Transylvanian immigrant to Wallachia, who had served as a Barrier Captain in the Bucharest police. The surname "Ionescu" was originally Gheorghe's patronymic, fixated during his time in school; originally from Afumați in Wallachia, he had spent some of his youth as a homeless urchin, owing his success to being selected as an apprentice by C. Petrescu-Conduratu. He was serving as general manager of Institutul de Arte Grafice Carol Göbl, one of Romania's most prestigious presses, and later set up his own firm, Tipografia George Ionescu.Penciu, p. 52 The future writer's second birth name, and his selected pen name, was chosen by his father to honor Lars Porsena, the ancient Etruscan king. Rhea Cristina, Închisorile politice. Zoe Porsenna, avocat, intervievată la București in 2001, at Memoria Digital LibraryCălin Stănculescu, "Nicu Porsenna, o victimă a temnițelor comuniste", in România Liberă, 12 August 2005 Gheorghe, who cultivated literature and corresponded with historian Nicolae Iorga, had given unusual, bookish names, to all his children. Three of Nicu's sisters were known as Lucreția, Eugenia, and Gilberta; a brother was baptized Flavius.
Nicu was a student of Matei Basarab National College from 1902.Penciu, pp. 50–51; Teutișan, p. 401 In February 1909, he and classmate Adrian Maniu co-authored and recited a poem that parodied Symbolist cliches."A treia ședință a soc. academice 'Matei Basarab'", in Adevărul, 14 February 1909, p. 3 Both of them bonded with another schoolmate, the future journalist and theologian Nae Ionescu, with whom they discussed "important philosophical problems".Ștefan I. Niculescu, "Centenar Adrian Maniu. Coborînd spre obîrșii", in Steaua, Vol. XLII, Issues 2–3, February–March 1991, p. 10 Porsenna was attending the high school literary club, chaired by folklorist Theodor Speranția, where, in June, he restated his dislike of Symbolism in a public dispute with another colleague, C. Vlădescu."Informațiunĭ", in Adevărul, 10 June 1909, p. 2 In 1910, when his poems first appeared in print in Viața Socială journal, he had enlisted at the University of Bucharest, ultimately majoring in Philosophy and Law in 1914.Teutișan, p. 401 During his second year, in August 1912, he formed a student movement in opposition to the mainstream body, receiving pledges of support from young authors such as Maniu, Scarlat Froda, and Theodor Solacolu."O nouă mișcare sudențească. Agitația contra 'Centrului'.—Un manifest.—Convocarea unei întruniri", in Adevărul, 7 August 1912, p. 3 It was around this time that Porsenna met Ilie Cătărău, a Bessarabian refugee, university colleague, and future terrorism suspect—seen by Porsenna (his reputed confidant) as a spy for the Romanian Siguranța.N. Porsenna, "Amintiri despre Ilie Cătărău", in Curentul, 2 May 1937, p. 10
Upon graduation, Porsenna was admitted into the bar association of Ilfov County. His other career was in journalism: On 1 May 1912, his father died,Penciu, pp. 50, 51 leaving him the family printing press; that year, he also began contributing to Flacăra, with sporadic articles—a collaboration that only ended in 1923. For such pieces, he sometimes used the signatures "Cronicarul Dâmboviței", "N. A.", and "N. Albotă"; pen names he used on other projects include "Ing. N. Florian", "N. G. Ionescu-Negion" (or just "Negion"), "I. N. Miereanu", "M. Rantea", and "Styx".Straje, pp. 11, 188, 269, 357, 450, 471, 478, 568, 589, 687. See also Penciu, p. 53 With Sergiu Manolescu, Porsenna published a work of social psychology in French, as Interdépendance des facteurs sociaux ("The Interdependence of Social Factors"). Appearing in 1913 at Tipografia George Ionescu, it was designed as a partial correction of Émile Durkheim's theories, with input from the "opposing system" advanced by Gabriel Tarde, and thus rehabilitated the notion and study of human agency.D. C., "Notices Bibliographiques. Interdépendance des facteurs sociaux, par N. Porsenna et Serge Manolesco. Tome Ier", in Revue de Droit International et de Législation Comparée, Vol. XVI, 1914, pp. 92–93. See also Teutișan, p. 401 In March 1914, Noua Revistă Română hosted an article by Porsenna, wherein he outlined Félix Le Dantec's "theory of life"."Cărți și Reviste", in Fulgerul, 3 March 1914, p. 3
In late 1913, Porsenna published his debut novellas, as La judecata Zeilor ("A Tribunal of Gods"). The volume was reviewed as an oddity, by Albert Honigman, the columnist at Universul Literar: mixing "chrism, philosophy and pornography", it was designed to "rile up" the reader; the review suggests that Porsenna was partly suited for those who appreciated literary naturalism, but also that each individual piece was in a different style, and with a different artistic perspective. This, Honigman notes, made Porsenna stand out as a major literary talent (despite seeming "young, for only youth may provide one with such vigor, such colors").Albert (Honigman), "Ex-libris", in Universul Literar, Issue 52/1913, p. 7. See also Straje, pp. 10, 330 Literary scholar Călin Teutișan sees La judecata Zeiilor as a study in metafiction, similar to late-20th-century experiments in Postmodern literature. One story mocks all the world religions, depicting Jesus Christ as the prime critic of Christianity—a discourse that Teutișan sees as anticipating satirical takes by Gore Vidal and José Saramago.
World War I In 1914, Porsenna also issued a debut novel and began putting out his own newspaper, Latinul ("The Latin"), accompanied by a magazine, Ghilotina ("The Guillotine"), which appeared from November 1915 to March 1916Lucian Boia, "Germanofilii". Elita intelectuală românească în anii Primului Război Mondial, p. 129. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2010. with Froda as the editorial secretary. Here, he focused for a while on attacking liberal theorist Eugen Lovinescu, whom he likened to a "barking mutt".Nicolae Manolescu, "Cronica literară. Critici și ziariști", in România Literară, Issue 14/1990, p. 9 Porsenna's work as a raconteur was continued in 1915 by a collection of mainly satirical prose, Dincolo de iubire și de moarte ("Beyond Love and Death"), which evidence the intellectual influence of Anatole France and Oscar Wilde. His 1916 novel, Magdalena, was briefly reviewed in Panait Mușoiu's Revista Ideei as "revelations sketched out with a very lively talent [...] which gentle souls would do well to heed.""Primim la redacție", in Revista Ideei, Issues 149–150, , p. 114 As clarified in the prologue, it was designed as an experiment in anti-art and unreliable narration, drawing attention to processes of self-mystification—to the lyricism of love imagined when compared to the banality of one's amorous biography.