Leonid Dimov (b. January 11, 1926, in Izmail, Bassarabia, which was part of Romania at the time; d. December 5, 1987, in Bucharest) was a Romanian poet and translator, founder of aesthetic oneirism alongside Dumitru Ţepeneag. He was considered by the 1980s generation one of the forerunners of postmodernism. In an age and society where many Romanian poets and writers compromised their conscience in order to be able to publish more, Dimov was not an outright political dissident, but rather a nonconformist, one of the few who refused to praise the regime, a fact that brought him to the attention of the Romanian secret police, the feared Securitate. As a consequence, literary critics either had to reject him or simply considered him too eccentric (and praised instead "accepted" writers such as Nichita Stănescu). However, beginning with the efforts of Nicolae Manolescu and Ion Bogdan Lefter, he has become an important poet of the post-war period canon.
The son of Nadejda Dimov and Naum Mordcovici, he graduated from the Sf. Sava highschool in Bucharest. Then he studied for three years at the philology department of the University of Bucharest. Without graduating, he studied again for three years at the biology department. After a dispute (it seems that he questioned at a seminar the logic of Michurinist science) he was expelled. He also followed courses in law and mathematics at the same University of Bucharest. In 1957 he was arrested for urinating on a statue of Joseph Stalin in Bucharest, but was released after two months due of lack of evidence. His literary debut came rather late, in 1965, when he published some poems in the Viața Românească magazine, where Șerban Cioculescu, Dimov's old French teacher, had become chief editor. Soon after, Miron Radu Paraschivescu, the editor in charge of the literary supplement "Povestea vorbei" of the "Ramuri" magazine in Craiova, also let Dimov publish some poems. His first book, Versuri ("Poems"), was published in December 1966. After becoming a member of the Writers' Union of Romania, he was hired as an editor at the Romania literară magazine in 1970, where he worked until 1975, when he went into early retirement due to illness. He was married twice: the first time, to Lucia Salam (with whom he had a daughter, Tatiana, born in 1952), and the second time, to Ana-Marina Voinescu (whose daughter, Ileana- born in 1957 from her marriage to Teodor Pâcǎ he would adopt as his own child). He continued to publish until shortly before his death, the last published poems being Sonete pentru Irina ("Sonets for Irina"), dedicated to his granddaughter Irina (Ileana's daughter). He died of a heart attack.
Books[]
- Versuri (Stanzas), 1966
- 7 poeme (7 Poems), 1968
- Pe malul Styxului (On the Banks of River Styx), 1968
- Carte de vise (Dream Book), 1969 (illustrated by Florin Pucă)
- Semne cereşti (Celestial Signs), 1970
- Eleusis, 1970 (illustrated by Florin Pucă)
- Deschideri (Openings), 1972
- A.B.C., 1973 (cover by Florin Pucă)
- Amintiri (Memories), 1973 (collaboration with Mircea Ivănescu and Florin Pucă)
- La capăt (At the End), 1974
- Litanii pentru Horia (Litanies for Horia), 1975
- Dialectica vârstelor (The Dialectic of Ages), 1977
- Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe: basm după Petre Ispirescu și nu prea (Youth Without Old Age: fairytale after Petre Ispirescu and not quite), 1978 (illustrated by Ioan Donca)
- Spectacol (Show), 1979 (illustrated by Florin Pucă)
- Texte (Texts), 1980 (Cele mai frumoase poezii collection; with foreword by Mircea Iorgulescu and portrait by Florin Pucă)
- Veşnica reîntoarcere (Eternal Return), 1982
- Baia (The Bath) - anthology, 1995 (Poeți români contemporani collection; edition by Marina Dimov)
- Carte de vise (Dream Book) - anthology, 1997 (Biblioteca școlarului collection)
- Momentul oniric (The Oneiric Moment), 1997 (theoretical texts by Dimov and Dumitru Țepeneag, edition by Corin Braga)
- Poezii (Poems), 2000 (edition by Nicolae Bârna)
- Pe malul Styxului (On the Banks of River Styx), I-II?, 2003-? (edition by Nicolae Tzone, foreword by Gheorghe Grigurcu)
- Scrisori de dragoste: 1943-1954 (Love Letters), 2003 (edition by Corin Braga)
- Onirismul estetic (Aesthetic oneirism), 2007 (theoretical texts by Dimov and Dumitru Țepeneag, edition by Marian Victor Buciu)
- Opera poetică (Poetic Works), I-III, 2006/2010-2012 (edition by Ion Bogdan Lefter)
Covers[]
