His father Eni Șerban (later Șerbănescu) was a paharnic (cup-bearer) and a member of the minor boyar nobility; his mother was named Smaranda, and the couple had eighteen children.
He then worked at the War Ministry, rising to colonel and holding command posts in several garrisons (Bacău, Buzău, Brăila).
Other publications that ran his work include Albina Pindului, Convorbiri Literare (which championed him), Literatură și artă română, Oltul, Perseverența and Revista contimporană.
Much of Șerbănescu's relatively ample poetic output remains in the magazines' pages or in manuscript form as letters and albums.
In 1894, he and Dimitrie C. Ollănescu-Ascanio translated Frédéric Damé's Le Rêve de Dochia, poème dramatique.