Emil Isac

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Emil Isac

Născut 17 mai 1886, Cluj-Napoca

Decedat 25 martie 1954, Cluj-Napoca
Ocupaţie poet

Membru corespondent
al Academiei Române
Ales 2 noiembrie 1948

Emil Isac (n. 17 mai 1886, Cluj - d. 25 martie 1954, Cluj), poet, membru corespondent al
Academiei Române din 2 noiembrie 1948.

Biografie
A urmat studiile liceale la Cluj şi Năsăud, iar pe cele universitare la Facultatea de Drept
şi Facultatea de Ştiinţe Sociale de la Cluj. A fost şef al biroului de presă din cadrul
Consiliului Naţional din Transilvania, inspector al artelor pentru Transilvania şi profesor
de estetică la Şcoala de Belle Arte din Cluj. A făcut parte din mişcarea simbolistă
românească din Transilvania.

A debutat în publicaţia maghiară din Cluj Elenyek cu un articol despre Vasile Alecsandri,
apoi au urmat câteva poezii apărute în Kolozsvári Fris Ujság şi Familia. A colaborat la
„Viaţa nouă”, „Noua revistă română”, „România muncitoare”, „Cuvântul liber”, „Viaţa
românească”, „Sămănătorul” etc.

Opera
Volume de versuri

• Poezii, impresii şi suveniruri moderne (1908)

• Poeme (1936)
• Poezii alese (1955)

Proză şi articole

• Ardealule, Ardealule bătrân (1916)

• Poeme în proză (1923)
• Cartea unui om (1925)
• Notiţele mele (1925)
• Opere (1946)

Piese de teatru

• Masca cea tânără

• Domnul Millon

Bibliografie
• Academia Republicii Populare Române, Dicţionar Enciclopedic Român, Editura
Politică, Bucureşti, 1962-1964
• Dorina N. Rusu, Membrii Academiei Române, 1866-1999, Editura Academiei
Române, Bucureşti, 1999 ISBN 973-27-06967
• Biblioteca Judeţeană „Octavian Goga” Cluj, [Emil Isac - Biobliografie
http://www.bjc.ro/new/files/bibliografii/emilisac.pdf]
EMIL
ISAC
EMIL ISAC: Nãscut ia 17 mai 1886 în Cluj - mort în 25 martie
1954 la Cluj şi aici înmormântat.
Descendent al avocatului memorandist Aurel Isac si al
Elizei n. Rosescu, urmeazã şcoala elementarã evanghelicã
germanã din Cluj. Tot aici face o parte din studiile secundare la
Gimnaziul piariştilor, clasele I-V. în continuare este elev privatist,
pentru a învãţa limba românã la sugestia lui Coşbuc, la Gimnaziul
superior fundaţional din Nãsãud.
La începutul anului şcolar 1902/3 depune examenele
pentru clasa a Vl-a, iar la sfârşitul anului şcolar pentru clasa a
VII-a43. în anul şcolar 1903/4 este privatist în clasa a VIII-a şi
devine habiturient în august 190444. Merge pentru examenul de maturitate la Liceul regal
ungar din Sibiu. Se înscrie la Facultatea de Drept si ştiinţe de Stat a Universitãţii maghiare
din Cluj. încã de elev se afirmã publicistic si literar; debuteazã cu poezii în revista
"Familia", în 1902, şi îndatã îi apare primul volumPoezii. Impresii si senzaţii moderne,
Cluj, 1902. Desfãşoarã o vastã activitate de presã, inclusiv politicã, fãcând parte din
mişcarea social-democratã.
Colaboreazã intens la revistele şi ziarele româneşti şi maghiare din Imperiul
austro-ungar. Dar şi la cele din România sau aiurea. Este angajat în înfãptuirea Marii
Uniri şi face parte din biroul de presã la lucrãrile Adunãrii Naţionale de la Alba-Iulia; în
continuare la ale Consiliului Dirigent. Pleacã la Berna în misiuni oficiale. La revenirea în
Cluj (1920) se cãsãtoreşte cu Gabriela n. Negro. între 1920 şi 1940 este inspector pentru
teatrele din Transilvania şi Banat; un timp e profesor de esteticã la şcoala de Belle-Arte
(1926-1931). Tipãreşte alte lucrãri: Cartea unui om, 1925; Poeme, 1936, Poezii, 1936 etc.
Refugiul îl trãieşte la Turda şi Sibiu. Perioada postbelicã de clujean îl antreneazã la
revigorarea culturalã şi publicisticã-a cetãţii, în calitate de membru al organismelor
literare, contribuie l a înfiinţarea şi organizarea Filialei din Cluj a Uniunii Scriitorilor din
România. Semeazã câteva volume de poezii, scrie şi teatru. Este distins cu "Ordinul
Muncii clasa I" si importante premii literare. Academia R.P.R. deschide procedura
alegerii lui.
La şedinţa din 2 noiembrie 1948: "Academicianul Emil Petrovici dã citire
raportului despre activitatea culturalã a scriitorului Emil Isac. Procedându-se la vot,
scriitorul Emil Isac este ales MEMBRU CORESPODENT la Secţiunea de ştiinţa Limbii,
Literaturã şi Arte, cu unanimitate de 26 de voturi.
Emil Isac
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Emil Isac, în anii 1930

Emil Isac (n. 17 mai 1886, Cluj - d. 25 martie 1954, Cluj) a fost un poet român.

Cuprins
[ascunde]

• 1 Biografie
• 2 Opere
• 3 Bibliografie

• 4 Legături externe

[modificare] Biografie
Emil Isac a fost fiul avocatului Aurel Isac (1845–1932) şi al soţiei sale, profesoara de
desen, Eliza născută Roşescu (1854–1922).
A studiat la Liceul Piariştilor din Cluj şi Liceul Grăniceresc din Năsăud. A urmat
cursurile de la Facultatea de Drept şi Facultatea de Ştiinţe Sociale de la Cluj. A locuit în
mare parte din viaţa sa, în oraşul Cluj (mai exact începând cu 1895). A debutat în 1903 cu
poezia La umbra plopilor în data de 25 noiembrie, în revista „Familia” apoi a colaborat la
„Viaţa nouă”, „Noua revistă română”, „România muncitoare”, „Cuvântul liber”, „Viaţa
românească”, etc. Printre poeziile sale cele mai cunoscute se numără Mama, Ochii tăi
albaştri şi Pe lângă apa care trece.

Deja de pe vremea studiului la Facultatea de Ştiinţe Juridice din Cluj, Emil Isac a făcut
cunoştinţă cu ideile progresiste şi umanitariste şi s-a ataşat cauzei clasei muncitoare.

După moartea sa, în 1954 a fost construit un muzeu în casa sa din oraş, Muzeul „Emil
Isac”, format din trei mari camere, dedicate vieţii poetului, tatălui său şi lucrărilor sale.

[modificare] Opere

Semnătura lui Emil Isac

• Poezii, impresii şi senzaţii moderne, 1908

• Ardealule, Ardealule bătrân, 1916
• Poeme în proză, 1923
• Cartea unui om, 1925
• Poezii, 1936
• Opere, 1946
• Poezii alese, Biblioteca pentru toti, E.S.P.L.A., 1954
• Poezii alese, 1956
• Scrieri alese, 1960
• Versuri, Editura Tineretului, 1964
• Poezii, Editura Minerva, 1975
• Emil Isac, 110 poezii, Editura Dacia, 1981

[modificare] Bibliografie
• Dicţionar enciclopedic român, Editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1962-1964
• Dorina N. Rusu, Membrii Academiei Române, 1866-1999, Editura Academiei
Române, Bucureşti, 1999 ISBN 973-27-06967
• Ion Brad, Emil Isac, un tribun al ideilor noi, Cluj, Dacia, 1972
• Ion Brad, Emil Isac, Uj eszmek szoszoloja, Dacia konyvkiado, Kolozsvar, 1975
[modificare] Legături externe
• Biobibliografie selectivă expusă la Biblioteca Judeţeană „Octavian Goga” din
Cluj-Napoca

Emil ISAC - biografie - (opera si scrierile)

n. 27 mai 1886, Cluj - m. 25 mart. 1954, Cluj.

Poet, prozator si dramaturg.

Fiul lui Aurel Isac, avocat si om politic, si al Elisabetei-Eliza (n. Rosescu), invatatoare.

Pe linie paterna si materna se trage din familii de intelectuali ardeleni, devotati idealului
national al romanilor; tatal sau a fost unul dintre principalii aparatori in procesul
Memorandului, dupa 1918 senator si presedinte de onoare al Uniunii Avocatilor din
Romania; mama, pictorita, a transmis, probabil, copiilor inclinatiile artistice (sora mai
mare a poetului, Valeria, a fost pianista si compozitoare). Studii primare la scoala
evanghelica (germana) din Cluj, secundare la Liceul Piaristilor (maghiar) din Cluj si la
Liceul graniceresc (roman) din Nasaud (bacalaureat la Liceul Regal maghiar din Sibiu,
1904); absolvent al Facultatii de Drept si Stiinte de stat din Cluj (1910). Colaboreaza la
presa romana si maghiara din Transilvania si militeaza pentru drepturile sociale si
nationale ale romanilor ardeleni; membru al Marelui Sfat National de la Alba Iulia
(1918), in 1919 e atasat la biroul de presa din Berna, intre cele doua razboaie mondiale,
inspector al teatrelor din Transilvania si Banat (1920-1940) si prof. de estetica la Scoala
de Belle Arte din Cluj (1925-1931). A colaborat la Adevarul (Budapesta), Cele trei
Crisuri, Drapelul, Facla, Familia, Gazeta de dumineca, Gazeta Transilvaniei, Noua revista
romana, Rampa, Romania muncitoare. Steaua, Vieata noua s. a. A debutat in 1902, in rev.
maghiara Ellenzek (Cluj) cu un art. despre V. Alecsandri, iar in 1903 in Kolozsvari Friss
Ujsag, cu doua Cantece traduse din romaneste si semnate Emisac. In 1903 are loc si
debutul romanesc in Familia, cu poezia La umbra plopilor. Prin poeziile sale (voi. mai
importante: Poezii. 1908; Poeme, 1936; Poezii 1936; Opere, ed. definitiva, 1946) si prin
poemele in proza (Ardealule, Ardealule batran, 1916; Poeme in proza, 1923; Cartea unui
om, 1925; Notitele mele, 1925) reprezinta orientarea modernista a literaturii ardelene din
prima jumatate a veacului si se bucura de succes la public, fara sa atinga insa vreodata
valoarea lui Goga sau Blaga. A avut si numeroase proiecte dramatice din care n-a
finalizat decat doua (Maica cea tanara, 1931, si Domnul Milion, ramasa in ms si publicata
postum), ambele influentate de modalitatile teatrului expresionist. Publicistica, bogata si
ea, e de orientare umanitarista si socializanta.

Descendent al unei familii de intelectuali ardeleni profund antrenati in luptele concrete

pentru drepturile politice si nationale ale romanilor, participant el insusi la realizarea
actului fundamental al Unirii din 1918, ca poet, ISAC se realizeaza in forme destul de
diferite de cele ale scriitorilor din provincia sa natala. De formatie precumpanitor
franceza, desi cunoaste bine germana si maghiara, el combate orientarea samanatorista si
se simte atras de simbolism si de orientarile moderniste. Exista la ISAC inca de la inceput
o anume neliniste, un pesimism funciar, o cautare nefinalizata a formei si fondului, care
tradeaza un decalaj permanent intre aspiratie si capacitatea de realizare, ce va marca
intreaga sa creatie poetica. ISAC adopta postura romantica a poetului damnat („Toti se
saruta, toti se rasfata. / Eu sunt judecat la neviata. / Sa vad fericirea altuia, / Si sa vad
jalea mea", Spleen), cautand insa sa-i dea expresie cu mijloacele poetului modern;
intunericul (Cantate), asteptarea fara nadejde (Astept), deziluzia (Nava vietii),
singuratatea (Clopotele linistei) sunt teme recurente in poeziile din toate volumele, fara sa
excluda insa nici imaginea poetului-indnimator („V-am spus o doina noua, jurati de vreti
pe ea, / V-am aratat ca lumea n-ar fi sa fie rea", Ego liomo). Primul volum de poezii
(Poezii. Impresii si senzatii moderne, 1908) cuprinde o suita de sapte Cantece, care dau
intr-un fel diapazonul intregii creatii a lui I.: exista in unele din ele o leganare melodica
ce purcede din traditia minora a romantei si cantecului de lume, dar si o neagra
incrancenare impotriva vietii, pe care o vom regasi, in forme diferite, in majoritatea
poeziilor sale ulterioare (multe dintre acestea vor continua, de altfel, sa poarte titlul de
Cantec). Poetul accentueaza cu prea multa consecventa aspectele deprimante ale
existentei, vazand peste tot uratenia si tristetea („Afara vantul, / Si stelele nu stiu sa
rada. / Si luna-nadusita-n ceata hada, / Nu lumineaza cu argint pamantul", Curata noapte)
pentru a nu trezi in cele din urma banuiala ca avem de-a face cu o poza juvenila si cu
adoptarea constienta si intentionata a unor clisee literare. Fizionomia poetica schitata in
volumul din 1908 (cu gustul pentru variatia formelor, dar si cu eterogenitatea valorica) va
fi confirmata de textele ulterioare ale lui ISAC Acesta valorifica sugestii ale
simbolismului, cum ar fi motivul orasului care distruge (Oras bolnavit, Viata de mahala),
al naturii agonizante (Cantec de toamna, Ploua, Toamna), al paradisurilor artificiale
(Beai), le adauga tematica social-umanitara (Asteptare, Plugarul, Copii de moti pe strazile
din Cluj, Cersetori, Sirena fabricii) si cea erotica (referindu-se insa, de cele mai multe ori,
la iubirea mercenara sau, oricum, violenta si departe de a aduce fericirea: Maria mea,
Prima, Femeia pretioasa, Cantec), fara a izbuti, totusi, sa dea impresia de autenticitate a
marii poezii. Majoritatea poeziilor lui ISAC ne trimit in mod irezistibil cu gandul spre alti
autori (Eminescu, Macedonski, Bacovia) care au dat cu adevarat substanta si realitate
artistica acestor teme si motive. Sentimentul lipsei unei adancimi autentice, al decalajului
iremediabil intre intentie si realizare, dispare in cateva texte in care inclinatia poetului
spre antiteze si spre imaginile puternic conturate si colorate - in maniera
cvasiexpresionista -duce la rezultate convingatoare. Din versurile triste: Annie exprima
sfasierea poetului intre solicitarile divergente ale satisfactiei senzuale si constiintei de
poet care se trage dintr-un neam greu incercat. Noaptea fantastica opune marturiile
trecutului dramatic, sperantei de viitor pe care o reprezinta copilaria, Balada ardeleana da
glas confruntarii omului cu natura, timpul, razboiul, suferinta, iar Vanturile noptii sau
Cad exprima teama rascolitoare de moarte intr-o maniera care ne face sa ne gandim la
Duhovniceasca lui Arghezi. Sunt poezii in care procedeele formale obisnuite ale lui ISAC
(masura variabila a versurilor, repetitia, enumerarea, folosirea insistenta a coordonam si
parataxei) servesc un continut sufletesc veritabil, deci realizeaza comunicarea cu cititorul.
Acelasi lucru s-ar putea spune si despre cele mai multe dintre poeziile care dau glas
sensibilitatii bucuriilor si angoaselor paterne (Versuri pentru copilul meu, Bubi e bolnav.
Faceai semne, Cantec de leagan). Impresia de ansamblu pe care o lasa poezia lui ISAC
este bine surprinsa de D. Micu, atunci cand o caracterizeaza ca un „amestec de suavitate
si asprime, poezie subtila si prozaism strident, [] lipsa de gust deconcertanta alaturi de
constructii imagistice fine, expresii zgrunturoase, rudimentare, stangace, alaturi de mici
giuvaere stilistice". Poetul care, intr-un interviu din Rampa, 1919, declara: „Stau pe o
baza marxista", a incercat, dupa 1944, sa raspunda si „comenzii sociale", sacrificand
poncifelor vremii si compunand cateva piese fara nici o relevanta artistica (Copiilor din
Coreea, La conacul de odinioara, Trei pionieri). In tot cursul activitatii sale scriitoricesti,
ISAC a practicat in mod sistematic si poemul in proza, spre care a fost indreptat si de
mediile simboliste frecventate in tinerete (traducerea Micilor poeme in proza ale lui
Baudelaire se publica in Noua revista romana in perioada in care la ea colaboreaza si
poetul ardelean), dar si de propriile inclinatii literare. Sentimental si subiectiv, usor
impresionabil si atras de expresia metaforizanta, putin dispus, pe de alta parte, sa se
supuna rigorilor prozodice, ISAC gaseste in poemul in proza posibilitatea de a-si revarsa
revoltele si amaraciunile, autentice sau factice, si de a-si satisface gustul pentru expresia
ornamentala, repetitiva pana la redundanta, cu aparenta de profunzime, dar in fond mai
mult alegorica decat simbolica. Poemele sale in proza (adunate in volume ca Poeme in
proza, 1923, Cartea unui om, 1925, Notitele mele, 1925) imbraca forma unor mici
parabole poetizante, a unor portrete, relatari de scene onirice sau discursuri organizate in
jurul unor laitmotive, toate parand a avea drept referent o lume prost oranduita,
nedreapta, plina de suferinta pentru cei de jos si de imbuibare pentru cei sus-pusi, o lume
pe care scriitorul o respinge si pentru care cauta o compensatie in reverie. Textele recurg
la o retorica nu foarte subtila, intemeiata pe expresia bogat ornata, exclamativa, construita
din fraze compuse adesea prin coordonare si parataxa, in care alterneaza prezentul si
imperfectul verbelor. Nici chiar atunci cand miza volumului este exprimarea
sentimentelor scriitorului transilvanean, profund atasat suferintelor, dar si sperantelor
conationalilor sai (ca in Ardealule, Ardealule batran, 1916), tonul lui nu capata vigoare;
compatimind intregul univers, autorul nu face de fapt decat sa se autocompatimeasca, iar
cititorul care parcurge unul dupa altul toate sau majoritatea poemelor in proza devine
repede constient de saracia temelor si putina variatie a mijloacelor de expresie. Mai mult
succes n-a avut ISAC nici cu incercarile sale dramatice. Maica cea tanara (1912), desi
jucata la Teatrul National din Bucuresti la insistentele binevoitoare ale lui Caragiale, e
mai curand un text pentru lectura si n-a putut depasi pragul a doua reprezentatii; alte
proiecte, desi ISAC revine insistent asupra lor atunci cand vorbeste despre intentiile sale
creatoare, ori n-au lasat nici o urma (Avram Iancu), ori au ramas in stadiul de fragment
(Anafrim, Poetul, intitulata si Femeia); doar Domnul Milion a fost dusa pana la capat in
timpul celui de al doilea razboi mondial, dar a ramas in manuscris si a fost publicata
postum (in Steaua, 1957), fara sa vada vreodata luminile rampei, desi are cateva calitati
scenice, in genul special al teatrului expresionist (ca tema reia insa obsesiile
„mizerabiliste" din poezia si proza poetica a autorului). Scriitor paradoxal - talentat, dar
inzestrat cu un talent minor, novator, dar neducand niciodata inovatia la excelenta,
revoltat, dar fara forta reala, avantat, dar incapabil de rigoare sintactica si semantica -
ISAC a fost tratat mai degraba cu asprime (II. Chendi, E. Lovinescu, ISAC Trivale) sau
cu indiferenta de critica literara contemporana, desi la un moment dat se pare ca se
bucura de favoarea publicului (o ancheta din Ideea europeana, 1923, il situeaza imediat
dupa ISAC Minulescu, L. Blaga si T. Arghezi). Comentarii mai substantiale, destul de
judicioase si ponderate in acelasi timp, apar mai ales dupa 1944 (C. Ciopraga, D. Micu,
M. R. Paraschivescu, Mircea Popa, M. Tomus, M. Zaciu), desi anexarea ideologica de
catre „realismul socialist" 1-a dus foarte aproape si de elogiul ditirambic.

OPERA

Poezii. Impresii si senzatii moderne, Cluj, 1908; Ardealule, Ardealule batran, Arad, 1916;
Poeme in proza. Oradea, 1923; Cartea unui om. Arad, 1925; Notitele mele. Arad, 1925;
Maica cea tanara, ed. III (sic!), Cluj, 1931; Poeme, Bucuresti, 1936; Poezii, Bucuresti,
1936; Opere, ed. definitiva ingrijita de M. R. Paraschivescu, Bucuresti, 1946; Poezii
alese, ed. ingrijita si cuvant inainte de Veronica Porumbacu, Bucuresti, 1954; Poezii
alese, ed. ingrijita si prefatata de ISAC Brad, Bucuresti, 1956; Scrieri alese, ed. ingrijita
de ISAC Brad, pref. de M. Zaciu, Bucuresti, 1960; Versuri, ed. ingrijita si pref. de ISAC
Brad, Bucuresti, 1964; Poezii, antologie si preafata de M. Tomus, text stabilit si note de
M. Tomus si ISAC Precup, Bucuresti, 1976; Proza. Teatru, antologie de M. Tomus si M.
Popa, pref., tabel cronologic, text stabilit, note de M. Popa, Bucuresti, 1986; Poezii,
antologie si pref. de ISAC Oarcasu, Cluj-Napoca, 1986.

REFERINTE CRITICE

N. Davidescu, Aspecte si directii literare, II, 1924; II. Chendi, Schite de critica literara,
1924; E. Lovinescu, Istoria literaturii romane contemporane, III, 1927; Perpessicius,
Mentiuni critice, I, 1928; G. Calinescu, Istoria ; E. Sperantia, Amintiri din lumea literara,
1967; M. Zaciu, Masca geniului, 1967; L. Baconski, Marginalii critice si istorico-literare,
1968; C. Ciopraga, Literatura; D. Micu, inceput; M. Zaciu, Glose, 1970; ISAC Brad,
Emil Isac un tribun al ideilor noi, 1972; A. Sasu - Mariana Vartic, Dramaturgia
romaneasca, III.

Emil Isac
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Emil Isac
 Isac in 1912
May 27, 1886
Born
Cluj
March 25, 1954 (aged 67)
Died
Cluj
Pen name Emisac
poet, critic, dramatist, journalist,
Occupation translator, academic, politician,
diplomat, civil servant
Nationality Austro-Hungarian, Romanian
Period 1902-1954
free verse, lyric poetry, memoir,
Genres parody, prose poem, satire, sketch
story, verse drama
Symbolism, modernism, Neo-
Literary
romanticism, Social Realism,
movement
Gândirea, Socialist Realism
Influences[show]
Influenced[show]

Signature

Emil Isac (Romanian pronunciation: [eˈmil iˈsak]; May 27, 1886 – March 25, 1954) was an
Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian poet, dramatist, short story writer and critic. Noted as
one of the pioneers of Symbolism and modernist literature in his native region of
Transylvania, he was in tandem one of the leading young voices of the Symbolist
movement in the neighboring Kingdom of Romania. Moving from prose poems with
cosmopolitan traits, fusing Neo-romantic subjects with modernist free verse, he later
created a lyrical discourse in the line of Social Realism. Isac was likewise known for
criticizing traditionalist and nationalist trends in local literature, but, by the end of World
War I, opened his own poetry to various traditionalist influences.

Isac was a participant in civic or political causes, defending the rights of ethnic
Romanians in Austria–Hungary from a socialist position, and, during the 1918 union with
Romania, served as a community representative. He was however interested in preserving
good relations between his ethnic group and the Hungarians. An occasional contributor to
Hungarian-language reviews, he reached out over political divides, maintaining close
contacts with Hungarian intellectuals such as Endre Ady, Oszkár Jászi, János Thorma and
Aladár Kuncz.

During the final part of his career, which was spent in Communist Romania, Emil Isac
was affiliated with Steaua magazine and enjoyed political endorsement. In this context,
he took the controversial decision of adapting his style to Socialist Realism, producing a
number of political poems which doubled as agitprop.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Political beginnings and Symbolist militancy
o 1.3 World War I and unionist activity
o 1.4 Interwar cultural contributions
o 1.5 World War II and late 1940s
o 1.6 Steaua affiliation and final years
• 2 Work
o 2.1 Early positioning and Symbolist prose
o 2.2 Isac and Symbolist poetry
o 2.3 From protest poems to Socialist Realism
• 3 Legacy
• 4 Notes

• 5 References

[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life

A native of Cluj (Kolozsvár) city in Transylvania, the future writer was born to ethnic
Romanian parents: his father, Aurel Isac, was a lawyer, later noted for representing the
Romanian civil disobedience Memorandum movement, after it was prosecuted by the
Hungarian authorities; his mother, Elisabeta-Eliza née Roşescu, was a schoolteacher.[1]
As the poet later recalled in a tongue-in-cheek memoir of his childhood: "I was born in
Cluj, when the Someş was boiling with blood and my father reaped the flowers of pain
[...]. I came around when called upon by my mother—and the priest baptized me in Eau
de Cologne, or blood, or tears, or holy water—and my godfather wanted to give me the
name Alfred, for he loved Musset, but my father gave me the name Emil, since he loved
Rousseau."[2]

The young Isac began his education in German, attending a Transylvanian Evangelical
Church school in his native city, and later (1895-1901) a Hungarian-language Catholic
school run by the Piarists.[1] He was eventually moved to Năsăud (Naszód), at a military
academy for the Romanian border regiment in Austro-Hungarian service (1902-1904),
but, in 1907, took his Matura at the Hungarian Lycée in Sibiu (Nagyszeben).[1] In the
meantime, he made his debut in literature. His first published piece was a 1902 essay on
the life and work of Romantic poet Vasile Alecsandri, published in Hungarian by
Ellenzék magazine.[1][3] It was followed a year later by his Hungarian-language translation
of two poems, collected from Romanian folklore and printed by the local periodical
Koloszvári Friss Ujság under the pen name Emisac.[1] Also in 1903, Isac made his second
debut, in Romanian, with La umbra plopilor ("In the Shadow of Poplar Trees"), a poem
published by the Transylvanian literary venue Familia.[1][3] Over time, his other
contributions were featured in such Transylvanian Romanian periodicals as Cele Trei
Crişuri, Gazeta de Transilvania and Tribuna.[1]

Emil Isac's editorial debut came in 1908, with the lyric poetry collection Poezii. Impresii
şi senzaţii moderne ("Poems. Modern Impressions and Sensations").[1][3] The work
attracted attention from critics, in both the Romanian-speaking areas of the Austro-
Hungarian realm and the bordering Kingdom of Romania: Sever Dan in Transylvania and
Mihail Dragomirescu in Bucharest both reviewed it for the cultural press.[4] Its rejection
of convention was hotly contested by the tribune of Transylvanian traditionalism, Ţara
Noastră: it called Isac a "bane" for his generation and a "political traitor", referring to his
lyrics as "babblings".[5]

In 1910, Isac took a degree in law from the Franz Joseph (Babeş-Bolyai) University.[1]
His affiliation with Symbolism was made possible by a voyage to France, where he
observed first-hand the impact of artistic innovation.[3] Reportedly, in 1912, Isac also
traveled to study in the German Empire, intending to get a masters' degree in Berlin.[6]

[edit] Political beginnings and Symbolist militancy

Postcard sent to Isac by Ion Luca Caragiale, in which the latter explains the reasons for
not wishing to preface Isac's one of Isac's works. Issued from Caragiale's home in Berlin,
April 1911

Like his father before him, Emil Isac became interested in advancing the cause of
Romanians throughout Transleithania (the regions administered directly from Budapest).
This nationalist militancy merged with his advocacy of left-wing causes, leading him to
become a member of the Transylvanian Social Democratic Party.[1][3] After 1911, he was
in correspondence with the Romanian National Party activist Vasile Goldiş.[4] The young
poet was a frequent traveler into the Romanian Kingdom, and he contributed to
periodicals of various cultural and political interests which were published there. His
work was thus featured in leftist newspapers and reviews, among them Adevărul Literar
şi Artistic, Dimineaţa, Facla, România Muncitoare, but was also hosted by mainstream or
even traditionalist media (Sămănătorul, Universul).[1] Making his acquaintance with
Romania's Symbolist trend, Isac also contributed to periodicals which either tolerated or
promoted artistic innovation, among them Noua Revistă Română, Rampa, Seara, Versuri
şi Proză and Vieaţa Nouă.[1]

Isac became a personal friend of Vieaţa Nouă editor, the Symbolist promoter and
philologist Ovid Densusianu. The latter referred to his pupil as "Transylvania's talented
poet", which perplexed the anti-Symbolist critic Ilarie Chendi; Chendi contrarly claimed
that Isac was "made famous by frivolous people".[7] Emil Isac's later memoirs describe in
some detail Densusianu's dandy habits and generosity, which the academic kept as a
standard even as he was facing material ruin, and note that such efforts accounted for
Denusianu being ostensibly "weighed down", "impoverished", "submerged in thoughts".
[8]

Although involved in such projects, Emil Isac spend the pre-World War I years building
bridges with members of the ethnic Hungarian elite in Transylvania and beyond. He
maintained personal contacts with opinion leaders, among them poets Endre Ady, Mihály
Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, and painter János Thorma.[4] Following his interest in
Hungarian culture, Isac was one of the Romanians who maintained connections with the
influential Hungarian-language review Nyugat, which was at the time equally interested
in chronicling Romanian literature. Writing in 1913, Ignotus, Nyugat editor and leading
cultural critic, defended the political participation of non-Hungarian communities,
commending both Isac and the traditionalist Romanian poet Octavian Goga for their
resistance to Magyarization.[9] The following year, the same journal published Isac's one-
page-long sketch story, A szerecsen ("The Moor").[9]

While Goga, defended by Endre Ady during his political imprisonment of 1912, soon
disappointed the group with his antisemitic rhetoric and his uncompromising stance,[10]
Isac remained close to the liberal or left-wing Hungarian circles. After witnessing the end
of Goga's friendship with Ady, he was himself involved in a conflict with the former's
radical approach, arguing that people "on both sides" needed "to evaluate, without
prejudice, their own blemishes and virtues".[11] Around 1912, Isac was working with
Hungarian author Aladár Kuncz on a trans-communal theatrical project: the staging of
Ady's A műhelyben ("In the Workshop") by a theater in Bucharest, to coincide with the
Budapest performance of plays by Isac and the prestigious comedy author Ion Luca
Caragiale.[12] The project was abandoned, probably because of Caragiale's sudden death in
Berlin.[12]

In April of that year, Emil Isac also joined the circle formed around Ion Minulescu and
his rebelliously Symbolist magazine, the Bucharest-based Insula.[13] By the same time,
the young poet was entering another polemic with the more traditionalist wing of
Romania's intellectual movement, represented at the time by historian and literary theorist
Nicolae Iorga, former editor of the nationalist tribune Sămănătorul. In 1912, he became a
contributor to the short-lived Symbolist review Simbolul, issued in Bucharest by the high
school students Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Ion Vinea (all of whom were later avant-
garde figures). It was there that Isac published satire specifically aimed at Iorga's group.
[14][15]
Those articles where he specifically targeted Iorga's principles enlisted a negative
response from Consânzeana, the Orăştie-based review of Romanian Orthodox priest Ioan
Moţa (it called Isac Don Quijote de la Cluj, "the Don Quixote of Cluj").[16]

[edit] World War I and unionist activity

Over the early years of World War I, Isac was carrying on with his literary work in the
Romanian Kingdom, which pursued a neutrality policy before joining the Entente Powers
in summer 1916 (see Romania during World War I). During that interval, he again
outraged the traditionalist public, when his dramolet Maica cea tânără ("The Young
Nun"), questioning the Romanian Orthodox view of monastery life, was staged by the
National Theater Bucharest (1914).[14] His second volume, comprising prose poems, was
issued in and dedicated to his native region: Ardealule, Ardealule bătrân ("Transylvania,
Old Transylvania"), published in 1916 by the Orthodox Diocese of Arad.[17] Isac also
contributed his texts to Cronica, a literary and political magazine published in Bucharest
by Symbolist poet Tudor Arghezi; this review was later criticized by the mainstream
politicians as a venue for collaborationists and Germanophiles.[18] Among the other
magazines who received his contributions was the Symbolist tribune Absolutio, published
in Iaşi by the Arghezian disciple Isac Ludo.[19]
By 1918, Isac was seeking to obtain an amicable solution to the ethnic conflicts rekindled
by the war, in the context of Austria–Hungary's dissolution, the Aster Revolution, and the
advent of a Hungarian Democratic Republic. As early as 1917, Isac signed an open letter,
published by Világ magazine, in which he rallied with pacifist thinker Oszkár Jászi (who
became Minister of Nationalities in the Aster Revolution), arguing: "For us of the [other]
nationalities your name in recent months has sounded like a reassuring chime of bells,
your name has signified to us vigorous defense, and through your writings democratic
Hungary has made its voice heard."[20] Historian György Litván notes that this was the
type of messages motivating Jászi to "stubbornly" believe that his Danubian
Confederation projects could win support from all sides, even though other reactions
were already showing their practical limitations and their unpopularity.[20]

In the end, Isac opted to throw his support behind the unionist movement. He attended
the 9th Social Democratic Congress, and was elected a representative to the Alba Iulia
assembly, where, on December 1, the Romanian socialist clubs, together with the
Romanian National Party and the various other civic forces, demanded conditional union
with Romania (see Great Union Day).[1] In 1919, as the act of union was being assessed
by foreign powers, Isac represented the Romanian lobby as a press attaché in Geneva,
Switzerland.[1] Back in Cluj, Isac entered Romanian government service as superintendent
of Transylvanian and Banat theaters (an office he kept from 1920 to 1940).[1] He helped
set up the Cluj branch of the Romanian Writers' Society (of which he was already a
member by that time).[1] His cultural activity in Greater Romania was rewarded with two
civil decorations: he was made a Knight of the Romanian Order of the Crown and
received the Ordinul Cultural medal, First Class.[1]

Another focus of Isac's political activity was mediating a Hungarian–Romanian

reconciliation, both before and after the 1919 military conflict, while reaching out to both
Hungarians in Hungary and the Hungarian community in Romania. As noted by literary
historians John Neubauer and Marcel Cornis-Pope, Isac was one of the Romanian authors
who could combine a nationalist outlook with respect for minority cultures: in his articles
for the Bucharest-based Ideea Europeană magazine and the Hungarian Napkelet of Cluj,
he demanded equal cultural rights for all of Greater Romania's communities.[21]

In his other political articles, Isac notably expressed his alarm at seeing the Regency
regime take shape in post-Trianon Hungary, writing that the exiled Oszkár Jászi was
preferable as national leader to the authoritarian Miklós Horthy.[22] He gave a positive
review to Jászi's renewed campaigning in favor of a Danubian Confederation to replace
competing nation states, but argued that there was little prospect of "today's generation",
in both Romania and Hungary, to endorse the project.[22] Answering to this objection,
Jászi himself suggested that Isac take into consideration the creation of a Danubian
cultural Alliance, with "civilized" representatives from Hungary, Romania, the
Czechoslovak Republic and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[22] Isac, György Litván notes,
remained evasive, and, even as Jászi was facing much criticism from partisans of
Hungarian ethnic nationalism, as well as from Romanian advocates of centralism, refused
to help Jászi and his associate Pál Szende tour the Transylvanian conference circuit.[22]
[edit] Interwar cultural contributions

Isac's return to the forefront of literary debates was consecrated in 1919, when, in an
interview for Rampa, he discussed "Transylvania's role" in Romanian culture.[4] In
August of that year, modernist literary theorist and reviewer Eugen Lovinescu wrote the
article Emil Isac redivivus! ("Emil Isac Brought Back to Life!"), published by his
Sburătorul magazine.[4] In the same context, Isac sparked debates by commenting
negatively on Poemele luminii, the debut volume of fellow Transylvanian poet Lucian
Blaga (his reaction was notably received with irony by poet-critic Artur Enăşescu and his
colleagues at Junimea de Nord magazine in Botoşani).[23] Three years later, Isac's
Symbolist colleague Davidescu reviewed his entire work in the critical essay Poezia d-lui
Emil Isac ("Mr. Emil Isac's Poetry"), contributed for a November 1922 issue of Flacăra
journal.[4] For part of that decade, Isac was close to Cezar Petrescu's Cluj-based literary
review Gândirea, whose agenda was a distinct mix of traditionalism and modernism, and
who later alienated its modernist contributors by switching to fascism.[24] He was also an
occasional contributor to Ion Vinea's avant-garde venue, Contimporanul.[25]

In parallel, the poet was pursuing his interest in visual arts, and especially involved in the
professionalization of Transylvania's art scene. To this goal, he joined Aurel Popp,
George Bacaloglu and János Thorma in setting up the Collegium Artificum
Transilvanicorum, an art salon where artists of all trades and ethnicities could exhibit
their work (February 1921).[26] From 1925 to 1931,[1] he was also a Professor of
Aesthetics at the newly founded Fine Arts School of Cluj, and as such a faculty colleague
of several influential figures in 20th century Romanian art theory, painters (Catul
Bogdan, Aurel Ciupe, Anastase Demian, Romulus Ladea, Eugen Pascu, Alexandru Popp)
as well as intellectuals (historian Coriolan Petreanu, critics Liviu Rusu and Gheorghe
Bogdan-Duică).[26] Around 1926, he was co-opted as a contributor by the venue of
ASTRA Society, Transilvania: it published one of Isac's poems and the text of his public
lecture Propaganda artistică ("Art Propaganda").[27]

During the interwar period, Isac published several new volumes of poetry and prose,
beginning with Poeme în proză ("Prose Poems", Oradea, 1923), and followed by two
books of articles and essays, both printed in 1925 under the auspices of the Arad Diocese:
Cartea unui om ("A Man's Book") and Notiţele mele ("My Little Notes").[28] The writer
also issued a print version of Maica cea tânără (Cluj, 1931), and two volumes of
collected poems, published in 1936 by, respectively, Cartea Românească publishing
house and the eponymous publishing company of Adevărul newspaper.[17] These various
works kept Isac in the focus of critical attention. Reviews were notably written by: Ovid
Densusianu, Claudia Millian and Camil Petrescu (Poeme în proză); Romulus Dianu and
Perpessicius (Cartea unui om, Notiţele mele); Tudor Bugnariu, Alexandru Al. Philippide
and Eugeniu Sperantia (the other poetry volumes).[4] In 1928, Isac was also interviewed
by short story author I. Valerian, their dialogues seeing print in Viaţa Literară magazine,
with the general title Un precursor al poeziei moderniste. De vorbă cu d. Emil Isac ("A
Precursor of Modernist Poetry. In Conversation with Mr. Emil Isac").[4] Five years later,
the same venue hosted Isac's conversation with cultural journalist Octavian Şireagu: Cu
d. Emil Isac despre critici şi modernişti ("With Mr. Emil Isac on Critics and
Modernists").[4] Several other such interviews followed, including a 1936 Adevărul piece
where was engaged by George Macovescu, the leftist activist, in a conversation about
"poetry, theater [and] peace".[4] Isac's own leftist views led him to contribute articles for
the pro-socialist newspaper Cuvântul Liber.[29]

[edit] World War II and late 1940s

During World War II and after the cession of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, Isac left
Cluj for the part of the country still controlled by Bucharest.[30] He made his return to Cluj
some time after the August 23, 1944 Coup which toppled the authoritarian Ion Antonescu
regime, aligned Romania with the Allies, and initiated the recovery of Northern
Transylvania (see Romania during World War II). Literary historians note that he
subsequently became, with Lucian Blaga and Ion Agârbiceanu, one of the most important
Romanian writers to continue residing in that city after 1945.[30][31] In 1946, poet Miron
Radu Paraschivescu, who had already published a review of Isac's lifelong contributions
in Timpul newspaper (1942), supervised the publication of his integral edition, Opere
("Works").[28] The following year, Hungarian versions of some of his poems were
included in the anthology Mai román lira ("Modern Romanian Verse"), published in
Budapest.[17]

During the political transition ending with the establishment of a Romanian communist
regime, Emil Isac adapted his literary and political stances to the new ideological
requirements, sparking negative comments in later exegesis with his effective
endorsement of a totalitarian state. His cooperation with the Romanian Communist Party
and his endorsement of Romania's political alignment with the Soviet Union resulted in
his collaboration on Veac Nou, official newspaper of the Romanian Society for
Friendship with the Soviet Union.[32] Of the Cluj writers, he and Agârbiceanu became
associates of the communists, while Blaga resisted such advances and was censored.[31][33]
Both of them, however, were for a while equally unsuccessful in setting up new
Romanian-language cultural reviews: their projects were rejected by the communist
authorities, who would only allow the existence of a Hungarian venue (Utunk) and
literary supplements in local newspapers (such as Almanahul Literar, which was
published together with Lupta Ardealului).[34] Although not enlisted in the ruling
Communist Party—or, as it styled itself at the time, the Workers' Party, PMR—Isac also
received Ordinul Muncii medal, the regime's recognition of social or cultural importance.
[1]
In 1948, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy.[1]

[edit] Steaua affiliation and final years

Isac was affiliated with Almanahul Literar before 1949, when it was redisigned as Steaua
monthly (for long still the only Romanian-language literary periodical published in Cluj).
[35][36]
His contributions reflected the politicized editorial line, especially by endorsing the
personality cult of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin: his poem Scrisoare către Stalin ("A Letter
to Stalin") opened the very first issue of Steaua,[36][37] and another such piece, Slavă
nemuritorului Stalin ("Glory to the Immortal Stalin"), was hosted by the review upon
Stalin's 1953 death.[38]
In 1951, Isac was part of Steaua jury presided upon by poet Anatol E. Baconsky,
awarding the magazine's annual prize to a high school student by the name of Ion
Motoarcă. They were thus the unwitting subjects of a prank, played on them by the anti-
communist poet and Sibiu Literary Circle member Ştefan Augustin Doinaş: waging that
he could write poetry better poetry than those authors promoted by the regime, and
probably enticed by the prospect of financial gain, Doinaş had agreed to hide his parodic
contributions under Motoarcă's signature.[39]

Emil Isac died in March 1954, in Cluj.[1][3] Some of his final works were published later
that year: the Workers' Youth organ Scînteia Tineretului featured three pages of his
posthumous poetry.[17] The PMR voice, Scînteia, hosted an article signed by communist
poet laureate Mihai Beniuc, and similar posthumous homage pieces were published by
Ion Brad, Cezar Petrescu, Veronica Porumbacu and, at an Eastern Bloc level, Hungarian
author Károly Molter (in both Igaz Szó and Literárni Noviny).[4] In 1957, the same venue
published his final text for the stage, Domnul Million ("Mr. Million").[17]

[edit] Work
[edit] Early positioning and Symbolist prose

Fragment from Isac's poem Cântec ("Song")

Emil Isac's contribution to the development of modernist literature in Romanian-speaking

areas was pioneering: deemed "the first 'modernist' Transylvanian poet" by critic
Gheorghe Grigurcu,[40] he was also called "a [Symbolist] exception on the other side of
the Carpathians" by literary historian Paul Cernat.[14] Reviewing his own political battles,
the poet identified such support for innovation with the rejection of isolationism: "I write
these words, these consoled, gentle, tired words, after a violent campaign. And I am
tranquil when noting that I was right after all, in maintaining that, to us Romanians,
modernism is the only force that may lead to a victory. [...] The world is not aware of us,
because our nationalism has sealed us hermetically in front of all propitious
influences."[41]
Isac's trademark contribution to the development of Romania's Symbolist movement was
his work in the prose poem genre, with exotic reveries borrowing from a cosmopolitan
model set in English literature by Oscar Wilde.[2] In general, literary historian George
Călinescu notes, these pieces are "willingly grandiloquent and egolatrous, often ending
with a pun".[2] According to Călinescu, they merged in style with Isac's various satirical
articles, the latter of which make use of techniques similar to those employed by writer
and humorist Tudor Arghezi, but display original "Rococo" touches.[2] Isac's basic
humorous technique, the critic notes, was one where "the most humble occurencies are
eerily detached", such as in depicting a Japanese man's visit to Cluj: "But what is it you're
looking for, child of Dai-Nipon, with your typhoon-like soul, here in our home?"[2]
Similarly, the Nyugat piece A szerecsen delves into racial stereotypes, discussing the
perception of Black men as sex symbols.[9] In one of his Vieaţa Nouă essays, published in
1911 to the irritation of Ilarie Chendi, Isac aimed to prove that Transylvanians were
"demagogues"—this thesis quoted liberally from philosophers such as Desiderius
Erasmus, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche.[7]

Another product of this creative period was his main contribution to Simbolul, the faux
memoir piece Protopopii familiei mele ("My Family's Protopopes"). The piece was
reviewed by literary historians as a relevant step in Symbolism's mutation into the avant-
garde. Paul Cernat, who notes its similarity to the prose poetry of absurdist cult hero
Urmuz, defines it as an "a very modern playful-ironic and imaginative-parodic piece".[14]
The text is Isac's answer to political attacks, and indirectly evidences his solidarity with
the Jewish-Romanian community. Cernat sees in it: "[Isac] answers to antisemitic
insinuations made by the nationalist publications, intrigued by the [Jewish] resonance of
his name."[14] Swedish researcher Tom Sandqvist, who finds the implication of solidarity
with the Romanian Jews "quite remarkable", also argues: "The story is also explicitly
aimed against Nicolae Iorga and his anti-Semitism, telling how Iorga—obviously—has
written that the narrator Emil Isac's omitting to properly pay homage to the great
historian and philosopher Nicolae Iorga is due to the simple fact that Isac is a Jew."[15]
Written as the short biography of a "decadent joker" in relation to his extended family,
Protopopii familiei mele shows its protagonist being visited at his deathbed unusually
long-living Orthodox clergymen, who present him with absurd gifts.[15]

[edit] Isac and Symbolist poetry

Like many other Romanian Symbolists, from Eugeniu Ştefănescu-Est and Ion Minulescu
to N. Davidescu, George Bacovia and D. Iacobescu, Isac made a point of using free verse
to as a way of airing ideological differences, and, according to critic Vladimir Streinu
"cultivated literary scandal either in macabre or immoral motifs, or in a meter that defied
all norms".[42] Alternating free verse with more conventional forms (he was among the
few affiliates of the movement to still appreciate the traditional metrical foot),[43] his
Symbolist poetry is defined by Călinescu as a compilation of elements borrowed from
poets based in the Kingdom of Romania: Minulescu (in his descriptions of furnished
interiors) and Bacovia (the "heart rending" ambiance and the references to musical
instruments).[2] According to the same author, Isac viewed his sources in the manner of a
Renaissance humanist and "Vlach" author in his relation to Protestant Reformation.[2]
Together with the Minulescian or Bacovian elements, the Transylvanian author's poetry
followed the other conventions of the Symbolist epoch, from depictions of the autumnal
landscapes or everyday tragedies (the burial of an Anglican priest's daughter) to elements
which, Călinescu notes, suggest a "tendency of transfiguring the real" (for instance, the
ocean life trapped inside a jar, or a waiter's flight to Mars).[2]

One particular trait of Isac's poetic universe is his preference for strong chromatic
contrasts. Călinescu, who notes this "pictorial aspect" (and likens it to poster art),
supports his interpretation with the fragment from one of Isac's poems:

Contesa şedea pe un scaun de argint.
Ochii ei erau albaştri. Am băut şampanie
multă.
Contesa a vrut să plângă.
A poruncit lăutarilor să cânte vesel, căci
veselia lăutarilor stoarce lacrimi.
Şi la masa de aur au cântat ţiganii negri,
din lăute roşii.[2]
The countess was sitting on a silver chair. Her
eyes were blue. We drank lots of champagne.
The countess wanted to sob.
She ordered the lăutari to sing merrily, for the
joy of lăutari wrings tears.
And, at the golden table, the black Gypsies
sang, playing red lutes.

Discussing the Symbolists' overall appreciation of "synesthesic" epithets, scholar Carmen

Nicolescu writes about Isac's particular reference to the color white when suggesting
suffocation:

Nu mai cred în tine, I no longer trust in you,

Sunt robit de ceaţă. I'm trapped by the fog.
Moare-n mine, moare-n mine Within me dies, within me dies
Dragostea de viaţă. The love for life.

Vine alba ceaţă, Here comes the white fog,

Viaţă, neagră viaţă[44] A life, a life of black

Maica cea tânără, a one-act verse drama called "neo-romantic dramolet" by Călinescu,
shows an Orthodox nun committing murder against the bride of her former lover.[2]
Călinescu primarily notes the play for illustrating in dramatic form Isac's generic poetic
principles, in particular his use of visual elements such as color clashes.[2]

[edit] From protest poems to Socialist Realism

A second stage in Isac's career came with the reorienting toward certain traditionalist
subjects, in particular by taking inspiration from his rival Octavian Goga, the leading
voice of Transylvanian traditionalism. Like Goga and other voices in Transylvania, he
wrote verse shaped by the influence of Mihai Eminescu, the national poet and mentor of
all traditionalist sub-currents.[45] According to John Neubauer and Marcel Cornis-Pope,
Isac's interwar career exemplified one of the two schools in Transylvania's Romanian-
language poetry: to the current of Emil Giugiuca and other poets inspired by George
Coşbuc's elegiac tone, Isac and Aron Cotruş opposed a neo-romantic and "prophetic"
attitude borrowed from Goga.[46] While, in Cotruş's case, this came as an ethno-nationalist
discourse about "the ethnic and social battles of the Romanians", Isac "combined social
realism with Symbolism, offering dramatic-grotesque descriptions of Transylvanian rural
and city culture, and depictions of the poet's existential isolation."[47]

The traditionalist elements in Isac's writings were inventoried by George Călinescu. He

suggested that the poet merged Goga's "grief" with elements of social protest ("pale
workers gathering at the sound of a siren, orphaned children of the moţi") and even
imagery related to that of devotional Romanian Orthodox ("Orthodoxist") poets.[2]
Another significant trait of his modernist synthesis is, according to Grigurcu, the "air of
confrontation between peasant 'health' and the 'decadent' temptation".[40]

This aspect of Isac's career notably produced lyrics expressing his intense love for the
place of his birth:

Ardealul este fântâna de aur Transylvania is the golden fountain

Ardealul este mătase,
Ardealul este lacrimi de pâne;
Ardealul este dulce ca mierea
Ardealul este ciobanul cu câne
El este visul fără deşteptare[48]
Transylvania is silk,
Transylvania is tears of bread;
Transylvania is as sweet as honey
Transylvania is the shepherd and his dog
It is the dream with no reveille

The final part of Isac's career was marked by the politicization of his writing, in line with
Socialist Realism and its Romanian literary avatar. His poetry pieces for Veac Nou are
seen by academic Letiţia Constantin as evidence that Isac had a satisfactory political
background from the communist point of view, as well as agitprop pieces, stylistical
"pastiches" of Soviet poetry.[32] The importance Isac had for the new literary mainstream,
shaped in the 1950s by censorship and waves of political repression, was underlined by
communist poet Dan Deşliu in a 1956 report for the Writers' Union of Romania: "after
World War I and especially in the period of our country's fascization, [...] the flame of
poetry continued to burn, lighting the way of tomorrow. With different intensities, its rays
are the creation of poets who have long since entered Romanian literary history, such as:
G. Topîrceanu, A. Toma, Emil Isac, G. Bacovia or maestro Tudor Arghezi, whom we
presently take joy in counting among the active members in our ranks".[49]

The contextual relevancy of Isac's lyrical tributes to Joseph Stalin was assessed by
literary historians such as Diana Câmpean and Mariana Gorczyca, who researched the
impact of communization on the various literary magazines of the 1950s and '60s. In
Câmpean's view, Scrisoare către Stalin as one of the signs that Steaua was "tributary to
proletkult demands", as a package for the other content, which was more focused on the
"actual" and "valuable" elements in Romanian literature (from the celebration of its dead
classics to the recovery of non-political voices such as Blaga).[50] According to Gorczyca,
Isac's 1949 poem, together with similar ones by Ion Brad, Victor Felea and Miron Radu
Paraschivescu, illustrates the "embarrassing obedience" to a political line imposed on
writers by the country's officials.[36] To underline its circumstantial nature, she notes that
the Steaua of the mid 1960s (that is, during De-Stalinization) replaced its cult of Stalin
with that of Vladimir Lenin, and afterwards dropped most politicized content.[36] In
autumn 1953, as Anatol E. Baconsky was facing a political investigation for having
opened Steaua to non-political content, official critic Mihu Dragomir suggested that
"maestro Emil Isac"'s contributions were a good poetic standard to follow, urging
Baconsky to again endorse it.[51]

[edit] Legacy
Several literary historians and critics have described the impact of Emil Isac's
contributions in the work of other authors, beginning with those elements which were
transferred into Adrian Maniu's modernist poetry (in particular, Călinescu notes, the
"pictorial" quality the two shared).[2] Among the young Symbolists outside Transylvania,
Isac also found a follower in the Moldavian-born poet Benjamin Fondane (Fundoianu),
who mentioned his importance as a literary guide in several of his early articles for the
cultural press.[52] Outside this context, Isac was the target of two epigrams by Cincinat
Pavelescu (a poet who attended Symbolist circles): connecting his visit to Berlin with Ion
Luca Caragiale's death in the same city, they mockingly assert that Caragiale would
rather die than have to greet the young poet.[6]

Isac's early commitment to radical and cosmopolitan aesthetics, generally perceived as

alien by his more nationalist colleagues in Transylvania, left few traces in Isac's native
region before World War I.[3] However, through his eventual synthesis of modernism and
traditionalism, Isac is credited with having created a school of Transylvanian poets,
whose careers spanned the 20th century. This was in particular noted by Călinescu, who
found that Isac's "prosaic, abrupt" use of poetic language had been assimilated, alongside
echoes from Walt Whitman and Russian Symbolism, into the early works of Aron
Cotruş.[53] Likewise, researcher Carmina Tămăzlăcaru speaks of Cotruş's poems as being
in the line of Goga and Isac, but modifying it through the adoption of Expressionism.[54]

According to Gheorghe Grigurcu, Isac's poetic language made possible the development
of a "cosmic perspective" in Transylvanian poetry, adopted by the traditionalist-
modernist Gândirea contributor Lucian Blaga, and later by Steaua poet Aurel Rău.[55] The
links between Isac and Blaga had earlier been noted by Călinescu, who suggested that the
innovative elements in Maica cea tânără already announce the "stylized iconography" of
Blaga's works for the stage, "which is in effect a Transylvanian perspective on things".[2]
Gigurcu also notes that Isac's influence in Maramureş was eventually reflected in the
poems of Gheorghe Pârja, in what concerns their common view of the rural-urban
confrontation.[40]

Emil Isac's work was published in several new editions during the decades after his death.
Such volumes enlisted contributions from several authors and critics of the day: Ion Brad,
Veronica Porumbacu, György Rába, Elemér Jancsó, Mircea Zaciu, Mircea Tomuş, Ion
Oarcăsu, Leon Baconsky, Dumitru Micu, Constantin Ciopraga etc.[4] His contributions
were gathered into a definitive Hungarian-language translation, printed in Bucharest in
1962, while his correspondence with Hungarian intellectuals was issued as Hungarian-
language magazines and separate volumes, in both Romania and Hungary.[28] His various
poems were included into several anthologies of Romanian poetry, or published
individually, in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Soviet
Union (Russian SFSR, Armenian SSR), and the United Kingdom.[17]

Isac's name was assigned to an avenue in Cluj, and his family home, located on that road,
was opened as a memorial museum in 1955.[48] The poet was survived by his son, Dan
Isac. A historian and writer, he joined the academic staff of Babeş-Bolyai University,[48]
and notably edited his father's correspondence with Vasile Goldiş.[4] During the final,
national communist, stage of the Romanian regime, Dan Isac was reportedly made a
target of censorship for his alleged closeness to the Hungarian-Romanian community.[56]

Isac's legacy was touched by the fall of Romanian communism during the 1989
Revolution. His memorial home was effectively disestablished in 2001, following an
administrative decision of the Cluj County Council, and the cultural items in its
patrimony were transferred to the Octavian Goga County Library.[48] However, in autumn
2004, Isac was one of the contributors whose work was paid homage to in Steaua
magazine's 50th anniversary issue.[57]