[1] Born in Bucharest to the widow Alexandrina Ciucă (the daughter of a shoemaker in Slatina, she was 20 at the time),[2] he was the posthumous child of Tudor Minulescu (a leather salesman who had died on New Year's Eve, probably as a result of a stroke).

[10] He also became close to Romanian artists present in Paris — Gheorghe Petrașcu, Jean Alexandru Steriadi, Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, and Camil Ressu, as well as to the actors Maria Ventura and Tony Bulandra.

[13] At the time, he drew attention to himself by wearing colorful Bohemian outfits,[14] which included immense four-in-hand neckties and scarves he wrapped around his neck with a studied negligence (initially, he also grew a long red beard and wore large-brimmed hats).

[15] Minulescu began publishing verses and prose in Ovid Densusianu's Vieața Nouă (a self-styled Symbolist magazine),[16] and attended the Kübler Coffeehouse and Casa Capșa,[17][18] the scene of an eclectic gathering of young poets — Alexandru Cazaban, Dimitrie Anghel, Panait Cerna, Andrei Naum, N. N. Beldiceanu, Ștefan Octavian Iosif, and Ilarie Chendi among them.

[22] Tudor Vianu argued that Minulescu, together with Al. T. Stamatiad and N. Davidescu, represented a "Wallachian" Symbolism ("more rhetorical temperaments, displaying exoticism and a book-driven neuroticism"),[23] as opposed to "Moldavians" such as George Bacovia and Demostene Botez ("[of] more intimate natures, cultivating the minor scales of the sentiment").

[23] Minulescu and Anghel became close friends, and together translated pieces by various French Symbolists (among others — Albert Samain, Charles Guérin, and Henri de Régnier), which were published in Sămănătorul (they were collected in a single volume in 1935).

[25] These came to the attention of Ion Luca Caragiale, who wrote back from his home in Berlin a praise of Minulescu's În oraşul cu trei sute de biserici ("In the City with Three Hundred Churches"), which he called "a priceless thing".

[38] This last characteristic of his work was the target of criticism from Lovinescu, who argued that popularity and apparent superficiality had taken a toll on the overall artistic value,[39] and of having discarded traditional Symbolist elitism while continuing to side with the movement.

His pre-World War I poetry became, as he himself admitted, a real commercial success only during the 1920s, when "[Romanțe pentru mai târziu] ran through four consecutive editions";[48] his reputation as a dramatist was established in 1921, when two of his plays were included in the National Theatre Bucharest's season.

[49] With Krikor Zambaccian, Ștefan Dimitrescu, Nicolae Tonitza, Oscar Han and Jean Alexandru Steriadi, he was present at the major 1925 exhibit showcasing the work of painter Theodor Pallady.

[50] In 1924, he issued his Roșu, galben și albastru ("Red, Yellow and Blue") — a novel and political satire named after the colours of the Romanian flag), it provided a personal chronicle of the war.

[29] He also published an autobiographical novel, Corigent la limba română (Flunking in Romanian; the title was an ironic reference to the fact that, during his years in high school, his Romanian-language skills had been considered to be below standard).