I. C. Vissarion | |
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.png) Portrait photograph, published alongside his story Islaz ieftin | |
| Born | Iancu Visarion 2 February 1879 Costeștii din Vale, Dâmbovița County, Principality of Romania |
| Died | 5 November 1951 (aged 72) Costeștii din Vale, Argeș Region, Romanian People's Republic |
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| Period | c. 1899–1951 |
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Iancu Constantin Vissarion (born Iancu Visarion, also credited as Ion Vissarion; 2 February 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Romanian prose writer, poet, and political agitator, also known as an inventor, esotericist, and promoter of pseudoscience. He lived most of his life in Costeștii din Vale village and was advertised as one of the rare and self-taught "peasant writers"; however, he held a variety of jobs, from notary to porter, and eventually to a wealthy landowner. His literary beginnings were as a student of Romanian folklore and poet-raconteur, with an inclination toward agrarian socialism. Vissarion's anti-establishment positioning saw his participation in the peasants' revolt of early 1907, which resulted in his capture by the Land Forces and his narrowly escaping the death penalty. This experience informed several of his works, some of which were taken up by the socialist newspaper România Muncitoare in the 1910s. Vissarion cultivated traditionalist themes in tune with Sămănătorul's group ideology, and for this reason, was rejected as inauthentic by left-wingers such as Ion Pas and Panait Istrati. By contrast, he was embraced by the literary mainstream and likewise became an outsider ally of the Symbolist movement, cultivating friendships with Gala Galaction and Tudor Arghezi.
Vissarion's literary career was paused by World War I and a German occupation—events which became the main focus in some of his later accounts. He was close to the "Germanophile" newspapers put out by Arghezi and Galaction but, unlike them, was not marginalized by Entente loyalists. His fame peaked in the 1920s, when he published steadily, with volumes of prose that earned critical accolades but also with poetry that critics regarded as "tasteless". During the interwar, Vissarion slowly adapted his narrative style to the objectivity of literary modernism, receiving some guidance from Eugen Lovinescu and his Sburătorul circle, but also pioneered Romanian science fiction, adapting it to the format of fairy tales. The latter passion blended with his work as an amateur scientist: having originally fabricated explosives in his home, he turned to fields such as aviation and agricultural mechanics and held several patents—including one for a quasi-helicopter; he was concerned about issues in environmental science, and proposed systems to harness wave power at a worldwide level. After parting with atheism, he became interested in mystical subjects, offering his musings on suggestion, the afterlife, and oneiromancy. In 1925, he contributed the screenplay for the silent film Legenda celor două cruci, where he also appeared as the narrator.
The communist regime lionized Vissarion for his status as a rebel, his scientism, and his cultivation of social realism, though allowing criticism of his mystical conceptions and unevenness of talent. He died in 1951, shortly after the communist takeover; his work, comprising thousands of pages of unpublished manuscripts, was still promoted by Arghezi into the 1960s. Though largely unknown to the reading public of later generations, he inspired a cult in Dâmbovița County and was a model for local novelist Marin Ioniță. He had a museum in Costeștii din Vale dedicated to him and a literary club in Găești named after him. Vissarion's ten children include Cornelia Vissarion-Mănuceanu, a poet, memoirist, and Radio Free Europe personality.