Lucian Blaga

Blaga's first poems were published in 1910, followed four years later by his first philosophical article, "Notes on intuition in Bergson." Around this time he traveled to Italy, where he scoured libraries for books on philosophy.

At the outset of the first World War, Blaga began theological studies at Sibiu, graduating in 1917. In 1919 his first volume of poetry, Poemele Luminii (Poems of Light) was published. The following year, to avoid serving in the Austro-Hungarian army, he began taking theology courses at the Siblu Orthodox Seminary, the moving to Vienna to study philosophy at the University of Vienna where his thesis titled, "Culture and Cognition" earned him his PhD in 1920. At this time Blaga married and became press attaché to the Romanian legation in Warsaw and later transfered to Vienna. In 1938 he transfers to Bucharest and then Lisbon. That same year he returned to Romania, is made Professor of Philosophy of Culture at the University of Cluj. Beginning in 1943 Blaga became editor of the annual, Saeculum.

Dismissed by the Communist regime from his university professor chair in 1948, Blaga worked as librarian for a branch of the History Institute of the Romanian Academy, where until 1960 he was only allowed to publish translations. In 1956 Blaga was nominated for the Nobel Prize. He was considered the favorite to win the award until the communist government in Bucharest sent emissaries to Sweden to protest Blaga's nomination.

In 1961 Lucian Blaga died of cancer and was buried at Lâncrâm, Romania. The following years saw his works begin to be published again, some edited by his daughter.