Alexandru Piru

[2] Excluded from teaching and from public life by the new communist regime in 1948 for political reasons, he worked as a surveyor, lathe operator, and methane gas fitter until 1955.

Barred from publishing during his years as a laborer, he collected his postwar criticism as Panorama deceniului literar românesc 1940-1950 (1968).

The same approach of synthesis, combined with a feeling for the ineffable rare among historians, is visible in his studies of a monographic nature: Liviu Rebreanu, 1965 (translated into French, English and German), C. Negruzzi, 1966; Poeții Văcărești, 1967; I. Eliade Rădulescu, 1971; Introducere în opera lui Vasile Alecsandri, 1978; and G. Călinescu.

His historical synthesis was brought up to date in Istoria literaturii române de la început până azi (1981).

He supervised and prefaced numerous editions of classic and modern writers, from Mihai Eminescu and Ion Creangă to Tudor Arghezi, George Bacovia, Emil Botta and Călinescu, whose Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent he revised and enlarged into a second edition in 1982.

According to critic Cornel Moraru, Piru's novel Cearta (1969) and his verses in Jurnalul literar confirm his literary talent.

Ștefănescu [ro] finds that the novel, which deals with the mores of the intellectual class, with an emphasis on erotic relations, was an unsuitable medium for Piru, who remained precise and prosaic even when attempting jocularity.