Constantin Dumitru Beldie (September 8, 1887 – June 11, 1954)[1] was a Romanian journalist, publicist, and civil servant, famous for his libertine lifestyle and his unapologetic, sarcastic, memoirs of life in the early 20th century.

After modest but happy beginnings in life, Beldie played a small but essential part in the promotion of literary modernism, building bridges between the mainstream and the avant-garde.

He became a pioneer of cultural journalism at Noua Revistă Română, before moving on to Ideea Europeană and ultimately Cuvântul, befriending (and secretly resenting) philosopher-journalist Nae Ionescu.

His great-grandfather Nicolae, Beldie recalled, participated in the 1821 uprising, only to betray the revolutionary cause, and then settled with other renegade pandurs on the Vâlsan River floodplain.

[2] Beldie took a break from schooling, and worked various odd jobs, notably as a clerk in a medical laboratory, a choir singer for the Metropolitan Church, and a village teacher.

[3] Soon, Beldie became a close observer of the day's literary and scientific milieu, reviewing the correspondence exchanged between Noua Revistă Română and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

[7] As a literary chronicler and LTTE recipient, he helped discover writers such as Tudor Arghezi, George Bacovia,[3] and Felix Aderca.

[9] Beldie also worked on and off as a translator of French literature for Alcaly Publishers,[9] whose Jewish Romanian owner, he recalled, was utterly illiterate.

He met and befriended, or quarreled with, a host of Symbolists and post-Symbolists, leaving characterological notes on Adrian Maniu, N. Davidescu, Emil Isac, and Mihail Sorbul.

[7] He not only disliked Futurism, but contended that its promoters at Noua Revistă Română, including Ramiro Ortiz, were Italian proto-fascist nationalists and agents of influence.

"[7] He also admitted having been a confidant of women, "their comrade and blood-brother", and of thus receiving their sexual favors, but also claimed to have participated in at least one public sex orgy.

[7] He was a long-haired dandy with "languid eyes", taking special care in his appearance, which included such fashionable items as a Panama or a bowler hat, celluloid collar, a frock coat, nacre buttons, and a walking cane.

Enrolling at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, he met Cora Irineu, who became passionately in love with him, and whom Beldie helped introduce to literary life.

[3][7] As Beldie later put it, the Romanian intellectual class had the artistic tastes of "prostitutes", being virtually incapable of producing "an original idea of its own".

[7] The ideological stance fueled Beldie's 1918 essay Glossa spiritului cărturăresc ("Gloss on the Bookish Spirit") as well as, attributively,[3][17] the aphorisms published as Ce vrem?

[18] According to critic Gheorghe Grigurcu, Beldie should be regarded as an immediate but "modest" precursor for Nae Ionescu's own brand of philosophic vitalism, or Trăirism.

[21] This allowed him to organize a series of conferences held in various cities by, among others, Nae Ionescu, Ortiz, Irineu, Octav Onicescu, Mircea Florian, Virgil Bărbat, and Emanoil Bucuța.

[3] Beldie was not especially visible in this company of intellectuals, but contributed a rather popular satirical column, Aplauze și fluierături ("Applause and Heckling"), and put to bed each printed issue.

To the irritation of his Ideea Europeană friends, these trips turned into sexual escapades, with both Beldie and Irineu neglecting their real tasks.

[7] That year, Beldie became director of Cuvântul daily, headed by Ionescu—who, in 1930, joined the camarilla surrounding the authoritarian King, Carol II.

As documented by Beldie, his wealth grew over the coming years, as he became the representative of Nazi-linked IG Farben in Romania, and included villas in Băneasa and Balcic and a Mercedes-Benz car with a chauffeur paid by the firm.

From his retirement at age sixty until his death, he had financial difficulties and had to work as a proofreader for various publishers, eventually being forced to sell his personal book collection.

[17] To minimize the risk of communist arrest and imprisonment, Beldie only dealt with the more distant past,[17] with the notable exception of his chapter on Arghezi.

Working clandestinely and under Securitate surveillance, Cioculescu collected memoirs of the previous regime; he organized reunions at which Beldie met other such late debutants, including politician Petre Ghiață and former counterespionage operative George "Geacă" Borneanu.

[17] He was worried that they would never be published in full, so he asked his literary friends, including Arghezi, Vianu, Cioculescu, and Perpessicius, to make sure no part of them went missing.

[3][17] According to Ornea, this may be because Ionescu disciple Dan Zamfirescu, who reviewed the manuscripts for publishing at his own Editura Roza Vânturilor, wanted them lost.