A friend and associate of the influential poet Alexandru Macedonski, he played a minor part in a lengthy polemic with the conservative literary society Junimea, and authored a series of essays and memoirs documenting the Romanian intellectual environment.

[1] One of them, Radu Demetrescu, graduated from the Theatrical Conservatory in Bucharest, where he befriended actor and future avant-garde dramatist George Ciprian, together with whom he was later employed by the National Theater Craiova.

[5] However, they came to disagree and eventually grew estranged—answering to claims that Macedonski was a vain and vindicative man, Tudor Vianu, his friend and biographer, indicated that this and other splits occurred "without coldness and the heart's versatility".

[7] The publication met with financial difficulties and ceased to be issued after March 1890, but was revived by its original founder and the poet Carol Scrob in November 1891 (when it became a supplement for the local newspaper Economistul).

[11] Traian Demetrescu defended Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea in his polemic with Junimist leader Titu Maiorescu, and, after 1893, was among a group of younger socialists to mount a press campaign against Junimea (other people in the group included Dimitrie Anghel, Anton Bacalbaşa, Emil Fagure, Garabet Ibrăileanu, Raicu Ionescu-Rion, Sofia Nădejde, Henri Sanielevici, Constantin Stere, and Avram Steuerman-Rodion).

[1] The following year, he was present in the Bukovinian town of Solca, where he attempted to cure his illness by living in the close proximity of firs and breathing in the scented air.

[15] George Călinescu indicated that Demetrescu was a read man, who was well-acquainted with works by some major figures of Medieval literature (François Villon), Renaissance literature and Humanism (Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Torquato Tasso), the Age of Enlightenment (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Antoine François Prévost), and Romanticism (Giacomo Leopardi, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred de Vigny, William Wordsworth).

[1] Tradem was especially interested in the literature of his day, and read realist authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dumas fils, Henrik Ibsen, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and Jules Vallès.

Among the figures analyzed by him were Coppée, Louise-Victorine Ackermann, Paul Bourget, Alfred de Musset, as well as the Romanian Romantics Vasile Alecsandri, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Mihai Eminescu, Veronica Micle, Nicolae Nicoleanu, and Mihail Zamphirescu.

[1] Instead, he looked up to Realism and Naturalism, and called on young writers to study the works of Dostoevsky, Maupassant, Georg Brandes, Alphonse Daudet, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola.

[18] Discussing this latter aspect, literary critic Paul Cernat notes that Demetrescu stood alongside Mihail Cruceanu, Alexandru Toma and Andrei Naum, all of whom merged a socialist discourse into their poetic vision, thus contrasting with Macedonski's post-Parnassian school, as well as with the balladesque literature produced by Ștefan Octavian Iosif.

As Călinescu noted, he was mostly preoccupied with the plight of certain discriminated social groups, such as prostitutes, Jews, alcoholics, aging artists, orphans, the insane, as well as strolling performers such as the Romani tribe of the Ursari; his compassion extended to old dogs that had been chased away by their masters.

[7] In one of the essays published there, Tradem discussed the implications of the 1888 peasants' uprising in the Romanian Old Kingdom: he rejected the view that rebels had been manipulated by the political class, and argued that the real causes were fatigue and the threat of starvation.

Not all poets are born rich like Alecsandri; and since in our country literature has not yet come to live off public support, it is only natural that one often sees talented poets abducted by political journalism or the glitter of other jobs which provide them with the means of existence..."[17] His relative independence was visible in his work of essays, Profile literare ("Literary Profiles"), where he attacked writers on both sides with what Călinescu argued were "unforgiving judgments".

[15] In reference to Mille's works, he stated: "Without profound meditation, without sensitivity, without imagination, an artist cannot become anything other than, at most, a fecund and passable worker, and not an illustrious figure that would endure.

[5] Demetrescu noted that Macedonski's theories claimed to explain the workings of the Universe in "a different way" and based "on his imagination", but argued that "for a moment [in conversation], it seemed like he could convince anyone".

[25] His memoirs also provided detail on Macedonski's interest in visual arts, indicating that the older poet had always wished to become a painter, and that his determination had instead shaped the artistic career of his son Alexis.

Călinescu noted that Tradem initially described Florile Bosforului ("The Flowers of the Bosphorus"), a book of poems by the Bolintineanu, with enthusiasm, but later considered them "banalities [and] light-hearted fantasies".

[15] Similarly, he was initially supportive of Vasile Alecsandri when Macedonski derided his works, but later came to consider many of his poems "a husk of banal words, not animated by any powerful thought, and a very often riddled with intolerable grammatical mistakes.

"[7] In this context, Demetrescu opposed the aging Romantic poet to a new generation of intellectuals and artists, one he believed was expressing and favoring "the fracticious, daring, deep thoughts".

It was a song from far away, A hymn of oceans and of seas, One he kept hearing As sad ravings [...] Traian Demetrescu's poetry often included lyrical depictions of depressive moods.

In analyzing Tradem's contributions, George Călinescu also indicated that, especially in interior scenes, the poet focused on images of "boredom", which "immerses [his] soul in the color black".

[28] In addition, he praised Demetrescu the poet for his musical feel, and especially for his rendition of "the acoustic of fluids" (extending to images of the Olt River, fields of grain swept by the wind, and currents of air passing through trees on the Danube shore).

Erau în miez de noapte, târzii şi tainici ore... Parcă simţeam pe Weber lângă clavir murind!...

[15] One of them was titled Iubita ("The Lady-Love"), and showed the protagonist, a teacher named Emil Corburescu, falling in love with his pupil's sister—although she does not reject his advances, she eventually marries a more adjusted person.

"[1] The monk from the old hermitage Has hosted me for one full day, And we discussed matters of the world... And when I was to leave I asked: "What cruel fate has directed you To seek a place among the recondites?"

According to Călinescu, Tradem's Refractarii, with its depictions of misfits, announces the short stories of Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voineşti, while his intense love for rose gardens recalls the poems of Symbolist Dimitrie Anghel.

[34] Călinescu noted that Tradem and Bacovia shared important traits: "proletarian sentimentalism, a fracticious attitude, morbid nostalgia, sad «philosophies» and most of all the tone of a heartbreaking romanza".

[36] Tradem's legacy notably comprises his presence in the memoirs of Nicolae Condiescu, a fellow Craiova citizen,[35] and a eulogistic mention in one of Bacovia's poems (titled Amurgul, "The Crepuscule").

[34] Shortly after Demetrescu died, Gala Galaction wrote an article which proclaimed him as the model intellectual for "the happy days toward which humanity was taking its [...] steps..."[13] In 1950s Communist Romania, his socialist leanings brought him official endorsement, at a time when many other writers were dismissed as "bourgeois" (other literary figures to be awarded such recognition due to their political opinions included Ion Păun-Pincio and Dumitru Theodor Neculuţă).