Zoe Verbiceanu

Zoe Verbiceanu was a Romanian playwright and prose writer.

Biography

Born in Bucharest, into an old family of Oltenian boyars, she attended primary school in her native city. This was followed by two years at the Carol I [National College|central school] in Craiova and then Saint Sava High School in Bucharest.
Verbiceanu enrolled in the University of Bucharest, earning a degree in French and Romanian literature. She began to prepare a doctorate in Paris, but interrupted her studies due to illness. In 1954, she moved to Calafat.

Career

During her career, she worked as a high school teacher of French language and literature.
She was particularly known as a playwright; her works included Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Logodnica lui Don Juan, Anacronicii, Da capo al fine, Pălăria cu clopoței and Nastratin Hogea.
Verbiceanu's contributions appeared in Viața Românească and Adevărul literar și artistic.
More successful as literature were her prose and translations. The latter included William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors ; Balade after François Villon ; and De-ale lui Nastratin, a free adaptation, from memory, of an anthology by Albert Wesselski. Suprema iertare, a 1958 three-act drama, with prologue and epilogue in verse, remains in manuscript form, as does an ample essay on Villon, together with a translation of his complete poetry.