Cioran, Emil Mihai

▪ 1996

      Romanian-born writer (b. April 8, 1911, Rasinari, Rom.—d. June 20, 1995, Paris, France), was the author of elegantly written philosophical essays in which he displayed a sense of alienation and pessimism that was, according to one critic, "so profound and ironic as to almost meet a serious optimism at the other end of its arc." Cioran received a degree in philosophy (1932) from the University of Bucharest, Rom., having written his thesis on the French philosopher Henri Bergson. His first book, Pe culmile disperarii (1933; On the Heights of Despair, 1992), won a prize for young writers from the Romanian Royal Academy. Over the next four years he studied philosophy in Berlin, taught briefly in Bucharest, and wrote three more volumes of essays. In 1937 Cioran went to Paris on a grant from the French Institute in Bucharest. There his philosophy of futility and despair found a suitable home among French existentialist and nihilist writers. He lived in Paris for the rest of his life and wrote 10 books in French, beginning with Précis de décomposition (1949; A Short History of Decay, 1975). Later books include La Tentation d'exister (1956; The Temptation to Exist, 1968) and De l'inconvénient d'être né (1973; The Trouble with Being Born, 1976).

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