Păstorel Teodoreanu, or just Păstorel (born Alexandru Osvald (Al. O.) Teodoreanu; July 30, 1894 – March 17, 1964), was a Romanian humorist, poet and gastronome, the brother of novelist Ionel Teodoreanu and brother in law of writer Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu. He worked in many genres, but is best remembered for his parody texts and his epigrams, and less so for his Symbolist verse. His roots planted in the regional culture of Western Moldavia, which became his main source of literary inspiration, Păstorel was at once an opinionated columnist, famous wine-drinking bohemian, and decorated war hero. He worked with the influential literary magazines of the 1920s, moving between Gândirea and Viața Românească, and cultivated complex relationships with literary opinion-makers such as George Călinescu. After an unsuccessful but scandalous debut in drama, Teodoreanu perfected his work as a satirist, producing material which targeted the historian-politician Nicolae Iorga and the literary scholar Giorge Pascu, as well as food criticism which veered into fantasy literature. As an affiliate of Țara Noastră, he favored a brand of Romanian nationalism which ran against Iorga's own. Corrosive or contemplative, Păstorel's various sketches dealt with social and political issues of the interwar, continuing in some ways the work of Ion Luca Caragiale. In the 1930s, inspired by his readings from Anatole France and François Rabelais, he also published his celebrated "Jester Harrow" stories, mocking the conventions of historical novels and Renaissance literature. His career peaked in 1937, when he received one of Romania's most prestigious awards, the National Prize. Teodoreanu was employed as a propagandist during World War II, supporting Romania's participation on the Eastern Front. From 1947, Păstorel was marginalized and closely supervised by the communist regime, making efforts to adapt his style and politics, then being driven into an ambiguous relationship with the Securitate secret police. Beyond this facade conformity, he contributed to the emergence of an underground, largely oral, anti-communist literature. In 1959, Teodoreanu was apprehended by the communist authorities, and prosecuted in a larger show trial of Romanian intellectual resistants. He spent some two years in prison, and reemerged as a conventional writer. He died shortly after, without having been fully rehabilitated. His work was largely inaccessible to readers until the 1989 Revolution.
Biography
Early life The Teodoreanu brothers were born to Sofia Muzicescu, wife of the lawyer Osvald Al. Teodoreanu. The latter's family, originally named Turcu, hailed from Comănești; Osvald's grandfather had been a Romanian Orthodox priest. Sofia was the daughter of Gavril Muzicescu, a famous composer from Western Moldavia, and herself a teacher at the Music and Declamation Conservatory in Iași. When Păstorel was born, on July 30, 1894, she and her husband were still living at Dorohoi. Ionel (Ioan-Hipolit Teodoreanu) and Puiuțu (Laurențiu Teodoreanu) were his younger siblings, born after the family had moved to Iași. Osvald's father, Alexandru T. Teodoreanu, had previously served as City Mayor, while an engineer uncle, also named Laurențiu, was the first manager of the original Iași Power Plant. The Teodoreanus lived in a townhouse just outside Zlataust Church. They were neighbors of poet Otilia Cazimir and relatives of novelist Mărgărita Miller Verghy. From 1906, Alexandru Osvald attended the National High School Iași, in the same class as the film critic and economist D. I. Suchianu. Young Păstorel had a vivid interest in literary activities and, critics note, acquired a solid classical culture. Literary historian Zigu Ornea, who spent time with Păstorel in the 1950s, cautions that, in addition to being a "jolly carouser", he was outstandingly educated in the classics, and could converse in Old French. The final two years of his schooling were spent at Costache Negruzzi National College, where he eventually graduated. He became friends with a future literary colleague, Demostene Botez, with whom he shared lodging at the boarding school. Years later, in one of his reviews for Botez's books, Teodoreanu confessed that he once used to steal wine from Botez's own carboy. Botez himself recalled that Păstorel would leave him endearing notes confessing to his weakness, noting that such exchanges helped to strengthen their friendship. He recalled that all three Teodoreanu brothers were outstanding and well-loved as boys, but also that Păstorel had made one enemy—his mathematics professor, the subject of his pranks and innuendo.
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