Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Iași, Iași County, Romania
About Anton Naum
- Anton Naum (January 17, 1829–August 27, 1917) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet and translator. Born in Ia?i, his parents were Theodor Naum, a small-time merchant and landlord, and his wife Zamfira (née Nactu); both were of Aromanian origin.
- He studied at Academia Mihaileana in his native city.
- This was followed, from 1858 to 1865, by courses at the literature faculty of the University of Paris and the Collège de France.
- Upon his return home in 1865 and until 1892, he began working as a high school teacher, offering classes in history and French at Ia?i's Institutele Unite, Central High School, military school and Vasile Lupu Normal School.
- From 1868 to 1871, he was primary school inspector for the counties of Roman, Boto?ani, Suceava, Neam? and Ia?i.
- In October 1897, he was called as a substitute professor at Ia?i University in place of the deceased ?tefan Vârgolici and began teaching in the department of modern Romance literature.
- He was soon made a full professor of French, retiring in 1907 but continuing to teach until 1909.A member of Junimea since 1872, from that year he was a consistent contributor to the pages of its organ, Convorbiri Literare, writing original and translated poetry.
- He was the oldest member of the society, nicknamed "chaste Naum" for his modesty and reserve.
- His first book was Aegri somnia (1876), followed by Versuri (1890) and Povestea vulpei (1902).
- He became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1887, and was elevated to titular status in 1893.
- He translated Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (the entirety of L'Art poétique), Frédéric Mistral (in 1882, he received a prize at the Floral Games in Forcalquier for his rendition of Mirèio's first canto), André Chénier, Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, François Ponsard and Alfred de Musset.
- His poems tended toward the classical but were receptive to pre-romantic and romantic rhetorical influences, in the same vein as Barbu Paris Mumuleanu, Vasile Cârlova and Grigore Alexandrescu.By his early 50s, Naum had become a depressed, aging bachelor with suicidal tendencies who suffered from extreme shyness toward women.
- However, at age 53, he married Ecaterina Pandeli, almost thirty years his junior.
- Naum then found renewed motivation in life, his looks improved, he abandoned his isolated existence, and his appetite for writing increased.
- The couple had two sons: Alexandru, who went on to teach art history at Ia?i; and philologist Teodor Naum.
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