- Alexandru Davila
Alexandru Davila (
February 12 ,1862 —October 19 ,1929 ) was aRomania n dramatist, diplomat, public administrator, and memoirist.Biography
The son of
Carol Davila , a distinguished military physician of French origin, and Ana Racoviţă (a descendant of the Racoviţă and Golescuboyar s), he studied in his native Goleşti and atV. A. Urechia 's college inBucharest , earning hisbachelor's degree inParis .In the early 1880s, Davila was an
attaché for the Romanianlegation s inItaly and, in 1884,Belgium . Later in the same year, upon his father's death, he returned to his country to serve aspolice inspector and then as head of the administration in a province ofNorthern Dobruja .He took up writing and theater management in the closing years of the 19th century. In 1902, he completed his major work, a drama entitled "Vlaicu Vodă" (based on the life of a 14th century
Wallachia n Prince), one of the first important pieces of its kind in Romanian literature. Between 1905 and 1908, he was the head of theNational Theatre Bucharest .In 1915, a mysterious attempt to have him killed resulted in
paralysis — Davila was bedridden for the rest of his life, as asanatorium patient. An intimate friend of the royal family under Carol I, he left behind his "Din torsul zilelor", a memoir of life at the turn of the century (alongside his portrait of Carol, the book is remembered for those of figures such asTake Ionescu ,Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol , andVasile Morţun ).References
*Ioan Lăcustă's foreword to Alexandru Davila, "Din torsul zilelor", fragment published in "Magazin Istoric", July 1996
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.