Ioan A. Bassarabescu

Ioan Alecu Bassarabescu (commonly rendered I. A. Bassarabescu; December 17, 1870 - March 27, 1952) was a Romanian comedic writer, civil servant and politician, who served one term (1926–1927) in the Senate of Romania. His work, mainly in prose form, is remembered as an accomplished and noteworthy contribution to Romanian literature, capturing the dreary life of provincial clerks in the early 20th century. Not interested in producing a singular novel, like his mentor Gustave Flaubert, he concentrated instead on the sketch story genre.

In his debut stage, Bassarabescu belonged to Junimea, the mainly literary and politically conservative club. He was friends with Titu Maiorescu, Junimea leader, and with the Junimist author Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești (with whom he is often compared). Married into a political family, Bassarabescu had joined the Conservative Party by 1906, and, although still mainly active as a teacher, received high appointments in the bureaucracy.

During World War I, Bassarabescu he supported the Central Powers and was even appointed Prefect of Prahova County under a German-led occupation. This put his political career on hold until 1925, when he joined the People's Party. Moving into right-wing populism in the 1930s, Bassarabescu had stints in the National Agrarian Party and the National Christian Party, and joined the official National Renaissance Front in 1939. His last years were spent in seclusion: losing his fortune to Allied carpet bombing, stripped of his Romanian Academy membership by the communist regime, he died suddenly in a road accident.