Benjamin Fondane

Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu 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. During and after World War I, he was active as a cultural critic, avant-garde promoter and, with his brother-in-law Armand Pascal, manager of the theatrical troupe Insula.

14 November 1898

Born on the same birth day (14 November): Anna of Oldenburg • Carey Bell • Enzo Cucchi • Graham Patrick Martin • Harold Larwood • Kyle Orton • Leopold Mozart • Mary Greyeyes • Miguel Sabah • Monique Mercure • Park Chung Hee • Petra Rossner • Robert Fulton • Stéphane Bern • Tung-Yen Lin • Vikram Gokhale • Wendy Carlos

Born in the same month (November 1898): Adrian Piotrovsky • Arthur R. von Hippel • C. S. Lewis • Firpo Marberry • Fredric Warburg • Karl Ziegler • Leon Štukelj • Margaret Morris (actress) • Raphaël Salem • René Magritte • Richmond Landon • Sippie Wallace • Wiley Post • İhap Hulusi Görey