Smaranda Gheorghiu

Gârbea encouraged her literary interests and introduced her to some of the cultural paragons of the age, such as Ion Luca Caragiale, George Coşbuc and Alexandru Vlahuţă.

In 1883 she met Petre Gheorghiu, an army captain and moved with him to Ploiești, where she taught and startex contributing to the Şcoala Română magazine.

Around this time she met Mihai Eminescu and Veronica Micle, who soon became her friends and gave her the nickname Maica Smara, a reference to both motherhood and monasticism.

She also started to publish more serious poetry and essays in literary magazines and periodicals such as Convorbiri literare, Fântâna Blanduziei, Adevărul, Revista literară, Generația viitoare, Românul, Tribuna and Universul.

[4] In 1893 Smaranda Gheorghiu issued her own literary journal, Altițe și Bibiliuri (Lace and Frills), in which she called for a reform of the education system, which she saw as outdated.

In 1896 she gave two lectures on feminism, among the first of their kind in Romania, Feciorii și fiicele noastre (Our Sons and Daughters) and Inteligența femeii (Women's Intelligence), both later published as books.

Between 1904 and 1906 she published several plays covering subjects including incest, legal male responsibility for fathered children, the Union of the Romanian principalities, or working class life.

[8] Particularly after the death of her second husband, Smaranda traveled extensively in Romania, Italy, Belgium, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece etc., often lecturing on education and women's emancipation.

[3][8] This false claim most likely appeared as a misunderstanding of the title of her 1932 volume O româncă spre Polul Nord (A Romanian Woman towards the North Pole), which details her 1902 travels through Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.