He was a member of the Sburătorul and a mentor to the writer Anișoara Odeanu.

[2] He lost both his parents early in life and was raised by a relative, or a nanny from the Moșilor suburb (the sources remain quite unclear on this).

[3] In 1916, Petrescu was drafted and sent to the battlefields of then raging World War I, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Austro-Hungarians in 1917.

[4] Freed in 1918, he depicted his war experiences in his 1930 novel Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război [ro] ("Last Night of Love, First Night of War").

He was a teacher in Timișoara, and director of the National Theater Bucharest.