Vintilă Russu-Șirianu

He took part in World War I as an officer in the Romanian Army; in the temporary capital of Iași, while visiting the homes of Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Nicolae Iorga, Take Ionescu, and Osvald Teodoreanu, he became acquainted with Robert de Flers, whom he later assisted in Paris.

After the end of the war and his native province's union with Romania, he returned to Bucharest, completing the literature and philosophy faculty.

[2] He made his literary debut in 1919, and then sporadically contributed poems and articles to Flacăra, Gândirea, Cugetul românesc, Adevărul literar, Cuvântul liber and Rampa.

While there, he not only became acquainted with nearly the entire French literary establishment, but also with local Romanian émigrés (including George Enescu, Constantin Brâncuși, Panait Istrati, Elena Văcărescu, Marthe Bibesco, Ilarie Voronca, Nicolae Titulescu, and Marioara Ventura).

After the Coup of 1944 against the country's pro-Axis dictator, he and Cezar Petrescu dramatized the latter's novel Ochii strigoiului and wrote Mânzul nebun.