Elena Văcărescu or Hélène Vacaresco (September 21, 1864, Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 - February 17, 1947, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

) was a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n-French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 aristocrat writer, twice a laureate of the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

.

Life

Through her father, Ioan Văcărescu, she descended from a long line of boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

s of Wallachia

Wallachia

Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

 (the Văcărescu family

Vacarescu family

The Văcărescu family was a boyar family of Wallachia .According to tradition it is one of the oldest noble families in Wallachia.* Enache Văcărescu grand treasurer of Wallachia...

), including Ienăchiţă Văcărescu

Ienachita Vacarescu

Ienăchiţă Văcărescu was a Wallachian Romanian poet, historian, philologist, and boyar belonging to the Văcărescu family...

, the poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 who wrote the first Romanian grammar

Romanian grammar

Standard Romanian shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, viz...

. She was also a granddaughter of Romanian poet Iancu Văcărescu

Iancu Vacarescu

Iancu Văcărescu was a Romanian Wallachian boyar and poet, member of the Văcărescu family.-Biography:The son of Alecu Văcărescu, descending from a long line of Wallachian men of letters — his paternal uncle, Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, was author of the first Romanian grammar; Iancu was the...

. Through her mother, Eufrosina Fălcoianu, she descended from the Fălcoianu family, a prominent clan in the times of Prince Michael the Brave.

She spent most of her youth on the Văcărescu estate near Târgovişte

Târgoviste

Târgoviște is a city in the Dâmbovița county of Romania. It is situated on the right bank of the Ialomiţa River. , it had an estimated population of 89,000. One village, Priseaca, is administered by the city.-Name:...

. Elena first got acquainted with the English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 through her English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 governess, Miss Allan. She also studied French literature

French literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

 in Paris, where she met Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

, whom she later mentioned in her memoirs. She attended courses of philosophy, aesthetics and history, and also studied poetry under the guidance of Sully Prudhomme

Sully Prudhomme

René François Armand Prudhomme was a French poet and essayist, winner of the first Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1901....

.

Another influence on her early life was the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878 that also involved Romania - the country declared independence from the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, and joined Imperial Russia's camp. Elena's father fought in the war, experience which influenced her first book (published in 1886).

The meeting that changed her life was that with Elisabeth of Wied

Elisabeth of Wied

-Titles and styles:*29 December 1843 – 15 November 1869: Her Serene Highness Princess Elisabeth of Wied*15 November 1869 – 26 March 1881: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Romania...

, Queen of Romania, wife of King

King of Romania

King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....

 Carol I

Carol I of Romania

Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...

. The Queen invited her to the palace in 1888. Interested in Elena Văcărescu's literary achievements, she became much more interested in the person of the poet. Having not yet recovered from the death of her only daughter in 1874, Elizabeth transferred all her maternal love on Elena.

In 1889, due to the lack of heirs to the Romanian throne, the King had adopted his nephew Ferdinand of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Ferdinand I of Romania

Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...

 who, due to his loneliness in a strange country, grew close to Elena, fell in love with her, and eventually expressed the desire to marry her. But, according to the 1866 Constitution of Romania

1866 Constitution of Romania

The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...

, the heir to the throne was not allowed to marry a Romanian. The result of the affair was that the Queen (who had encouraged the romance) was exiled to Neuwied

Neuwied

Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...

 for two years, Elena was exiled to Paris for life, while Ferdinand was sent off in search for a new bride (which he eventually found in Marie of Edinburgh).

Văcărescu was the Substitute Delegate to the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 from 1922 to 1924. She was a permanent delegate from 1925 to 1926. She was again a Substitute Delegate to the League of Nations from 1926 to 1938. She was the only woman to serve with the rank of ambassador (permanent delegate) in the history of the League of Nations.

In 1925 she was welcomed as a member of the Romanian Academy. She translated into French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, works of Romanian poets such as Mihai Eminescu

Mihai Eminescu

Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...

, Lucian Blaga

Lucian Blaga

-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...

, Octavian Goga

Octavian Goga

Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...

, George Topîrceanu

George Topîrceanu

George Topîrceanu was a Romanian poet, short story writer, and humourist.-Biography:Born in Bucharest, Topîrceanu began his schooling in the city, and then moved to the hilly countryside of the Argeş county, in the Şuici commune, where he formed his taste for themes taken from nature...

, Ion Minulescu

Ion Minulescu

Ion Minulescu was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor , he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and...

 and Ion Vinea.

Just before her death, Văcărescu was a member of the Gheorghe Tătărescu

Gheorghe Tatarescu

Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...

-headed Romanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference

Paris Peace Treaties, 1947

The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...

 at the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She is interred in the Văcărescu family crypt in the Bellu

Bellu

Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...

cemetery in Bucharest.

Original poetry

• Chants d'Aurore (1886)
• L'âme sereine (1896)
• Lueurs et Flammes (1903)
• Le Jardin passioné (1908)
• La Dormeuse éveillée (1914)

Folklore themes interpreted

• Le Rhapsode de la Dâmboviţa (1889)
• Nuits d'Orient (1907)
• Dans l'or du soir (1927)

Theatre

• Stana (1904)
• Pe urma dragostei