Document Type
Article
Date
Winter 1973
Keywords
Syracuse University Library, Peter Neagoë, Romanian literature, fiction
Language
English
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Description/Abstract
A Transylvanian immigrant at the beginning of the century, a painter turned writer in Paris in the late twenties, and an active force in the American expatriate movement there, Peter Neagoe (1881-1960) holds a special position in the history of letters. He was best known in the United States between 1930 and 1950 as a painter and writer, and also as the editor of an anthology of the writings of expatriates. However, because of the major theme of his novels and short stories, Neagoe belongs rather to Romanian literature. His main source of inspiration was the Transylvanian village at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Had he not written his work in English, he would have stayed in the line of Slavici, Agarbiceanu, Pavel Dan or Rebreanu, remarkable modern Romanian writers.
Syracuse University Library has a complete Peter Neagoe collection of manuscripts, letters, working sheets, published works and paintings, all presented to the University by Mrs. Anna Neagoe in 1962 and housed in the Mayfield Library. The papers ate of value to literary researchers for two special reasons: 1) Neagoe's fiction concerning Romanian peasant life was much praised by critics in the thirties and forties, and represented the most notable achievement of a Romanian immigrant to this country, and 2) his activity in Paris, largely reflected by his correspondence and notes as well as the anthology, "Americans Abroad," shed fresh light on the whole expatriate movement.
Recommended Citation
Popa, Ioan A. "The Romanian Village in Peter Neagoë's Short Stories." The Courier 10.2 (1973): 15-23.
Source
local input
