Scarlat Cantacuzino

Scarlat Cantacuzino (June 6, 1874 – August 8, 1949) was a Romanian poet, essayist and diplomat.

Born in Bucharest to the magistrate Adolf Cantacuzino and his wife Ecaterina (née Iarca), he was a scion of the Cantacuzino family, which had an old tradition of political and cultural activity in Wallachia. After attending primary school in his native city, he went to high school in Paris, followed by the law faculty of the University of Paris. Successively an attaché, secretary and adviser at the Romanian embassies in Paris, Brussels and The Hague, he was Romania's chargé d'affaires in Paris in 1918, at the close of World War I.^[1] He returned to Bucharest in 1922, working as a plenipotentiary at the Foreign Ministry, while continuing to correspond with other writers. On an August morning in 1949, during the early Communist regime, he was told he had several hours to vacate his beloved, book-filled house. Toward evening, a little suitcase in hand, the hat-wearing, cane-carrying elderly gentleman made his way to the modest basement room he had rented and lay down. He was found dead the following day.^[2]

A French-language poet who wrote under the name Charles-Adolphe Cantacuzène, he published numerous volumes of poems, essays and studies of literary and art history. He was particularly interested in several important 18th century figures, such as Frederick the Great, the 7th Prince of Ligne and Antoine de Rivarol. His work appeared in Mercure de France, Journal des Débats, Le Figaro and Le Manuscrit Autographe.^[1] Attracted by the verses of Stéphane Mallarmé, who became his friend, he published his first volume, Les sourires glacés, at the age of 22 in 1896, upon the latter's recommendation. This and all his subsequent forty-three books were written in French. His poetry, Symbolist in style,^[2] was praised by Mallarmé, Paul Valéry and Remy de Gourmont. It shows erudition and delicacy at the same time, as well as a remarkable grasp of the French language's subtleties.^[1]

Cantacuzino married Julietta, the daughter of Basile M. Missir, in 1912. The following year, he dedicated the volume Amour de Juliette to her.^[3]

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