Alecsandri, Vasile

Vasile Alecsandri, (born June 14, 1821, Bacău, Moldavia [now in Romania]—died Aug. 22, 1890, Mirceşti, Rom.), lyric poet and dramatist, the first collector of Romanian popular songs to emphasize their aesthetic values and a leader of the movement for the union of the Romanian principalities.

Alecsandri was educated at Iaşi and subsequently in Paris (1834–39). In the 1840s he was engaged in the Romanian revolutionary cause, and, as a participant in the movement to modernize Romanian culture, he was active in the National Theatre in Iaşi and was the editor of literary and cultural journals. He published his first collection of folk songs in 1844.

His collection of lyrical poems, Doine şi lăcrimioare, appeared in Paris in 1853, and in 1868–75 he published his descriptive poems of landscapes, entitled Pasteluri. As a playwright he created Romanian social comedy, but his most important contributions to the theatre were his poetic dramas: Despot Vodă (1879), Fântâna Blanduziei (1883; “Blanduzia’s Fountain”), and Ovidiu (1885; “Ovid”).

In later life Alecsandri played an important part in his country’s affairs. As minister for foreign affairs (1859–60), he went to London and Paris as Prince Alexandru Cuza’s special envoy to seek recognition of the United Romanian Principalities. In 1885 he was appointed Romanian minister in Paris.