Nina Cassian

Born into a Jewish family in Galaţi (her father being Iosif Cassian-Mătăsaru, a translator), they lived in Brașov between 1926 and 1935.[1] In 1935, the family moved to Bucharest, where she went to high school. She took drawing lessons with George Loewendal and M. H. Maxy, acting lessons with Beate Fredanov and Alexandru Finți, piano and musical composition lessons with Theodor Fuchs, Paul Jelescu, Mihail Jora and Constantin Silvestri.[1]

In 1944 she entered the Literature Department of Bucharest University, but abandoned her studies after one year.[1]

She published her first poem, Am fost un poet decadent ("I Used to Be a Decadent Poet") in the daily România liberă in 1945,[3] and her first poetry collection, La scara 1/1 (""Scale 1:1") in 1947. It was labeled "decadent poetry" in a Scînteia article in 1948.[1][4] Scared by that fierce criticism, she then turned to writing in the proletkult and socialist-realistic fashion.[1][5] This phase lasted for about eight years.[4]

At the beginning of her career, Cassian and her first husband, Vladimir Colin, were contributors to the magazine Orizont.

She had a very close relation with Ion Barbu.[4]

Cassian travelled to the United States as a visiting professor in 1985. During her stay in America, a friend of hers, Gheorghe Ursu, was arrested and subsequently beaten to death by the Securitate for possessing a diary. The diary contained several of Cassian's poems which satirized the Communist regime and the authorities thought to be inflammatory. Hence, she decided to remain in the US.

She was granted asylum in the United States, and continued to live in New York City.[6] Eventually, she became an American citizen.[7]

In the US, she published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines.[8]

Cassian married Vladimir Colin in 1943 (divorced in 1948), and later Al. I. Ştefănescu.[1] In the US, she was married to Maurice Edwards.[9] Although born into a Jewish family, her second husband was Romanian Orthodox, and during their marriage, she stated that she was much closer to his religion than to Judaism, and that she had never read a page of the Talmud.[10]

She died of a cardiac arrest or heart attack in New York on 14 April 2014.[11][12]

• La scara 1/1, Bucharest, 1947
• Sufletul nostru, Bucharest, 1949
• An viu nouă sute şaptesprezece, Bucharest, 1949
• Nică fără frică, Bucharest, 1950
• Ce-a văzut Oana, Bucharest, 1952
• Horea nu mai este singur, Bucharest, 1952
• Tinereţe, Bucharest, 1953
• Florile patriei, Bucharest, 1954
• Versuri alese, Bucharest, 1955
• Vârstele anului, Bucharest, 1957
• Dialogul vântului cu marea, Bucharest, 1957
• Botgros, căţel fricos, Bucharest, 1957
• Prinţul Miorlau, Bucharest, 1957
• Chipuri hazlii pentru copii, Bucharest, 1958
• Aventurile lui Trompişor, Bucharest, 1959
• Încurcă-lume, Bucharest, 1961
• Sărbătorile zilnice, Bucharest, 1961
• Spectacol în aer liber. O monografie a dragostei, Bucharest, 1961
• Curcubeu, Bucharest, 1962
• Poezii, foreword by Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu, Bucharest, 1962
• Să ne facem daruri, Bucharest, 1963
• Disciplina harfei, Bucharest, 1965
• Îl cunoaşteţi pe Tică?, Bucharest, 1966
• Sângele, Bucharest, 1966
• Destinele paralele. La scara 1/1,1967
• Uite-l este... Uite-l nu e, Bucharest, 1967
• Ambitus, Bucharest, 1969
• Întâmplări cu haz, Bucharest, 1969
• Povestea a doi pui de tigru numiţi Ninigra şi Aligru, Bucharest, 1969
• Cronofagie. 1944-1969, Bucharest, 1970
• Recviem, Bucharest, 1971
• Marea conjugare, Bucharest, 1971
• Atât de grozavă şi adio. Confidenţe fictive, Bucharest, 1971; Second edition (Confidenţe fictive. Atât de grozavă şi adio şi alte proze), Bucharest, 1976
• Loto-Poeme, Bucharest, 1971
• Spectacol în aer liber. O (altă) monografie a dragostei, foreword by Liviu Călin, Bucharest, 1974
• Între noi, copii, Bucharest, 1974
• O sută de poeme, Bucharest, 1975
• Viraje-Virages, bilingual edition, translated by the author, Eugene Guillevic and Lily Denis, Bucharest, 1978
• De îndurare, Bucharest, 1981
• Blue Apple, translation by Eva Feiler, New York, 1981
• Numărătoarea inversă, Bucharest, 1983
• Jocuri de vacanţă, Bucharest, 1983
• Roşcată ca arama şi cei şapte şoricei, Bucharest, 1985
• Lady of Miracles, translation by Laura Schiff, Berkeley, 1988
• Call Yourself Alive, translation by Brenda Walker and Andreea Deletant, London, 1988
• Life Sentence, New York-London, 1990
• Cheerleader for a Funeral, translation by the author and Brenda Walker, London-Boston, 1992
• Desfacerea lumii, Bucharest, 1997
• Take My Word for It, New York, 1997
• Something Old, Something New: Poems and Drawings , Tuscaloosa, 2002
• Memoria ca zestre. Cartea I (1948-1953, 1975-1979, 1987-2003), Bucharest, 2003

• Born in Utopia - An anthology of Modern and Contemporary Romanian Poetry - Carmen Firan and Paul Doru Mugur (editors) with Edward Foster - Talisman House Publishers - 2006 - ISBN 1-58498-050-8
• Testament – Anthology of Modern Romanian Verse / Testament - Antologie de Poezie Română Modernă – Bilingual edition English & Romanian – Daniel Ioniță (editor and translator) with Eva Foster, Daniel Reynaud and Rochelle Bews – Minerva Publishing - 2015 (second edition) - ISBN 978-973-21-1006-5
• Testament - Anthology of Romanian Verse - American Edition - monolingual English language edition - Daniel Ioniță (editor and principal translator) with Eva Foster, Daniel Reynaud and Rochelle Bews - Australian-Romanian Academy for Culture - 2017 - ISBN 978-0-9953502-0-5

• Audio: Nina Cassian reads 'Epilogue' - poemsoutloud.net
• Desert Island Discs appearance (14 February 1999)