Born in Cuciurul Mare, in the Bukovina region, his parents were the Romanian Orthodox priest Gavril Streinul and his wife Olimpia (née Șandru).
While a student, he contributed to the local publications Tribuna, Spectatorul, Munca intelectuală, Evenimentul, Glasul Bucovinei and Junimea literară.
Shifting toward prose, he published the novella Aventura domnișoarei Zenobia Magheru (1938), followed by the novels Ion Aluion (1938, reissued in 1941 as Somnul negru), Lupul din țara Huțulilor (1939), Guzli sau Tsu-Tsui (1939), Viața în pădure (1939), Drama casei Timoteu (1941), Prăvălia diavolului (1942), Soarele răsare noaptea (1943) and Băieți de fată (1944).
His early prose features sharply drawn evocations of rural life in Bukovina, evolving toward tragic depictions of fates determined by World War I and a Fyodor Dostoyevsky-like psychological analysis.
[1] He was a contributor to Capricorn, Azi, Frize, Meșterul Manole, Gândirea, Universul literar, Revista Fundațiilor Regale and Vremea.