WRITER

Benjamin Fondane

1898 - 1944

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Benjamin Fondane (French pronunciation: [bɛ̃ʒamɛ̃ fɔ̃dan]) or Benjamin Fundoianu (Romanian pronunciation: [benʒaˈmin fundoˈjanu]; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944) was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated neoromantic and expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor Arghezi, and dedicated several poetic cycles to the rural life of his native Moldavia. Fondane, who was of Jewish Romanian extraction and a nephew of Jewish intellectuals Elias and Moses Schwartzfeld, participated in both minority secular Jewish culture and mainstream Romanian culture. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Benjamin Fondane has received more than 145,611 page views. His biography is available in 19 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 17 in 2019). Benjamin Fondane is the 2,819th most popular writer (down from 2,566th in 2019), the 197th most popular biography from Romania (down from 177th in 2019) and the 25th most popular Romanian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 150k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 53.46

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 19

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.90

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.81

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Rimbaud le voyou
Biography, French Poets
1933
Poezii
1965
La conscience malheureuse
Addresses, essays, lectures, Modern Philosophy
1936
Faux traité d'esthétique
Aesthetics, Art, History and criticism
1980
Baudelaire et l'expérience du gouffre
1947
Existential Monday
Existentialism
"Benjamin Fondane--who was born and educated in Romania, moved as an adult to Paris, lived for a time in Buenos Aires, where he was close to Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges's friend and publisher, and died in Auschwitz--was an artist and thinker who found in every limit, in every border, "a torture and a spur." Poet, critic, man of the theater, movie director, Fondane was the most daring of the existentialists, a metaphysical anarchist, affirming individual against those great abstractions that limit human freedom--the State, History, the Law, the Idea. Existential Monday is the first selection of his philosophical work to appear in English. Here Fondane, until now little-known except to specialists, emerges as one of the great French philosophers of the twentieth century"--
2016

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Benjamin Fondane ranks 2,819 out of 7,302. Before him are Theodore Balsamon, Abraham Sutzkever, John Webster, Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, Aleksandar Tišma, and Panteleimon Kulish. After him are Juan Marsé, Vilhelm Moberg, Ram Prasad Bismil, Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Jorge Bucay, and R. A. Salvatore.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1898, Benjamin Fondane ranks 121. Before him are Tian Han, Helmut Hasse, Albert Lutuli, Étienne Decroux, Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, and Irene Dunne. After him are Vilhelm Moberg, José María Gil-Robles y Quiñones, Warren Sturgis McCulloch, Lucius D. Clay, Ben Shahn, and Ira Sprague Bowen. Among people deceased in 1944, Benjamin Fondane ranks 168. Before him are Itzhak Katzenelson, Alberts Kviesis, Motobu Chōki, Martin Kutta, Ramón Castillo, and Lou Henry Hoover. After him are Endre Kabos, Gabriel Hanotaux, Orde Wingate, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven, and Miklós Radnóti.

Others Born in 1898

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Others Deceased in 1944

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In Romania

Among people born in Romania, Benjamin Fondane ranks 197 out of 844. Before him are Lucian Mureșan (1931), Elek Schwartz (1908), Helmuth Duckadam (1959), Nicolae Paulescu (1869), Nicolae Rădescu (1874), and Patriarch Miron of Romania (1868). After him are Michael von Melas (1729), Endre Kabos (1906), Constantin Constantinescu-Claps (1884), Ferenc Kazinczy (1759), Tamás Bakócz (1442), and Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (1887).

Others born in Romania

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Among WRITERS In Romania

Among writers born in Romania, Benjamin Fondane ranks 25. Before him are János Arany (1817), Mircea Cărtărescu (1956), Vasile Alecsandri (1821), Mihail Sebastian (1907), Mihail Sadoveanu (1880), and Richard Wurmbrand (1909). After him are Ferenc Kazinczy (1759), Ana Blandiana (1942), Tudor Arghezi (1880), Olha Kobylianska (1863), Liviu Rebreanu (1885), and Nichita Stănescu (1933).

Romanian born Writers

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