Vintilă Horia facts for kids

Vintilă Horia (born December 18, 1915 – died April 4, 1992) was a writer from Romania. He won the famous Prix Goncourt for his novel God Was Born in Exile in 1960.

Life and Career of Vintilă Horia

Vintilă Horia was born in Segarcea, a small town in Dolj County, Romania. After finishing Saint Sava High School in Bucharest, he studied Law and Literature at the University of Bucharest. He also studied at universities in Italy and Austria.

Horia worked with a thinker named Nichifor Crainic and was part of the team that edited his journal, Sfarmă Piatră. He also wrote articles for other journals like Gândirea and Porunca Vremii. In some of these articles, he wrote positively about the political ideas of Benito Mussolini in Italy. He also wrote articles that criticized other writers.

When Crainic became the Minister of Propaganda for King Carol II, Horia was appointed to work as a diplomat in Rome. Horia later stated that he did not support a group called the Iron Guard. After King Carol was removed from power by this group, Horia was called back from his diplomatic role. He then moved to Vienna.

In August 1944, Romania changed sides in World War II and joined the Allies. Because of this, the Nazi authorities took Horia as a prisoner. He was held in camps at Karpacz and Maria Pfarr. A year later, the British Army freed him.

After the war, Vintilă Horia decided not to go back to Romania because the Soviet Union was becoming very powerful there. He lived in Italy for a while and became good friends with the writer Giovanni Papini.

In 1946, a court in Romania held a trial for Horia while he was not there. He was accused of helping to spread certain political ideas in Romania. He was sentenced to life in prison, and this sentence was never removed. In 1948, Horia moved to Argentina. There, he taught at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. After March 1953, he lived in Spain and worked as a researcher.

Winning the Prix Goncourt

Vintilă Horia won the famous Prix Goncourt for his novel Dieu est né en exil in 1960. This is a very important literary prize in France. However, after he won, some people claimed he had been a member of the Iron Guard. Because of these claims, Horia chose not to accept the prize. Even so, the Prix Goncourt is still officially given to him. Some people believe these claims were false and were spread by the communist government to try and pressure him. The famous writer Jean-Paul Sartre also criticized his book.

Horia received other awards too, including:

• Medalla de Oro de Il Conciliatore from Milan (1961)
• Bravo para los hombres que unem en la verdad from Madrid (1972)
• The Dante Alighieri Prize from Florence (1981)

Vintilă Horia passed away in Collado Villalba, a town near Madrid, and was buried in the Madrid Civil Cemetery. In 2015, the 100th anniversary of his birth was celebrated at the University of Alcalá in Spain and in several towns in Romania.

Literary Works

Vintilă Horia wrote many books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, essays, and poetry.

Novels

• Acolo și stelele ard, Ed. Gorjan, București, 1942.
• Dieu est né en exil, Fayard, Paris, 1960.
• Le Chevalier de la Résignation, Fayard, Paris, 1961.
• Les Impossibles, Fayard, Paris, 1962.
• La septième lettre. Le roman de Platon, Plon, Paris, 1964.
• Une femme pour l’Apocalypse, Éditions Julliard, Paris, 1968.
• El hombre de las nieblas, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona, 1970.
• El viaje a San Marcos, Magisterio Español, Madrid, 1972.

Short stories

• El despertar de la sombra, Editora Nacional, Madrid, 1967.
• Informe último sobre el Reino H, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona, 1981.
• Moartea morții mele, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1999.
• El fin del exilio. Cuentos de juventud, Criterio Libros, Madrid, 2002.

Memoirs

• Journal d’un paysan du Danube, Table Ronde, Paris, 1966.
• Memoriile unui fost săgetător, Ed. Vremea, București, 2015.

Essays

• Presencia del mito, Escelicer, Madrid, 1956.
• Poesía y libertad, Madrid, Ateneo, 1959.
• La rebeldia de los escritores soviéticos, Rialp, Madrid, 1960.
• Quaderno italiano, Pisa, 1962.
• Giovanni Papini, Wesmael-Charlier, Paris, 1963.
• Juan Dacio, Diccionario de los Papas. Prefacio de Vintila Horia. Editorial Destino, Barcelona 1963. (Juan Dacio was a pen name used by Vintilă Horia.)
• Platon, personaje de novela, Ateneo, Madrid, 1964.
• España y otros mundos, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona, 1970.
• Viaje a los Centros de la Tierra, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona, 1971.
• Pepi Sánchez, Prensa Española, Madrid, 1972.
• Mester de novelista, Prensa Española, Madrid, 1972.
• Encuesta detrás de lo visible, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona,1975.
• Introducción a la literatura del siglo XX. (Ensayo de epistemología literaria), Gredos, Madrid, 1976.
• Consideraciones sobre un mundo peor, Plaza y Janés, Madrid, 1978.
• Literatura y disidencia, Ed. Rioduero, Madrid, 1980.
• Los derechos humanos y la novela del siglo XX, Magisterio Español, Madrid, 1981.
• Mai bine mort decât comunist, Phoenix, București, 1990.
• Dicționarul Papilor, Editura Saeculum I.O., 1999.

Poetry

• Procesiuni, Ed. Pavel Suru, București, 1936.
• Cetatea cu duhuri, Ed. Pavel Suru, București, 1939.
• Cartea omului singur, Ed. Pavel Suru, București, 1941.
• A murit un Sfânt, Valle Hermoso (Argentina), 1952.
• Poesia romaneasca noua. Antologie, Colecția “Meșterul Manole”, Salamanca, 1956.
• Jurnal de copilărie, Fundația Regală Universitară Carol I, Paris, 1958.
• Viitor petrecut, Salamanca, 1976.

See also

In Spanish: Vintilă Horia para niños