Peter Neagoe
Peter Neagoe was a Romanian-born writer and artist whose creative journey spanned several countries and artistic disciplines. Born in Transylvania, he grew up in an intellectual environment but found inspiration among local peasant farmers. Neagoe pursued studies in philosophy and painting before immigrating to the United States in 1901, where he continued his education in the arts. In New York City, he met his future wife, Anna Frankeul, and together they sought a more conducive environment for their artistic ambitions in Paris, which they moved to in 1926.
While initially focused on painting, Neagoe shifted to writing in the late 1920s, publishing stories that reflected his childhood experiences. He contributed to various literary journals and became coeditor of the New Review, promoting the works of notable expatriate American writers. Neagoe's writings often explored themes of identity and cultural displacement, with a notable collection titled "Storm" drawing inspiration from Romanian peasant life. His literary career was further enriched during World War II when he created radio broadcasts for Romanians on behalf of the United States. In his later years, he produced the memoir "A Time to Keep," which encapsulated his childhood and experiences, solidifying his legacy as a significant figure in 20th-century literature.
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Subject Terms
Peter Neagoe
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: November 7, 1881
- Birthplace: Transylvania (now Romania)
- Died: October 28, 1960
- Place of death: Woodstock, New York
Biography
The son of a wealthy Transylvanian notary, Peter Neagoe grew up in a small village in present-day Romania amid an intellectual community. However, as a boy Neagoe felt most comfortable in the company of peasant farmers and sheep herders, and it was among these friends that Neagoe began writing, taking transcription for illiterate neighborhood servants and writing servant girls’ letters to their boyfriends.
In 1898, at age seventeen, Neagoe left home to study philosophy at the University of Bucharest and to pursue painting at the Romanian Academy of Fine Arts. He immigrated to the United States in 1901, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen. He lived in New York City, where he furthered his art studies at the National Academy of Design and met fellow artist Anna Frankeul, a Lithuanian native and his future wife, at a social chess game. From 1911 to about 1919, Neagoe translated and illustrated a sizeable mail-order catalog. Following World War I, the Neagoes decided they would be financially better off in Paris, where the cost of living was lower and they could devote themselves more fully to painting. With Neagoe focusing on his art career beginning in 1919, the couple began saving for the move, which they made in 1926, establishing themselves in Paris near neighboring artists Georges Braque, Rene Magritte, and Andre Lothe.
Anna Neagoe quickly achieved success in Paris galleries. Although a talented artist in his own right, Peter Neagoe began feeling inferior to his wife, abandoning painting in 1928 to write. The journal Transition published Neagoe’s first complete short story, “Kaleidoscope,” a reflection on Neagoe’s childhood written with dreamlike style, in March 1928, and Neagoe continued to publish stories in Transition through 1932. Other stories appeared in the 1931 anthology Readies for Bob Brown’s Machine, in the American magazines Contact and Pagany, and in the Viennese magazine Story during the early 1930’s. At this time, Neagoe also joined the Paris literary journal New Review as an assistant editor, later becoming coowner and coeditor with Samuel Putnam; the controversial poet Ezra Pound also joined the publication as an associate editor. The Putnam and Neagoe families settled in the artists’ colony of Mirmande, in the south of France.
Neagoe’s first collection of short stories appeared in 1932, as did his important anthology Americans Abroad, which included pieces by such writers as Kay Boyle, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, Kathleen Cannell, William Carlos Williams, and Neagoe himself, who in his foreword explored why nonconformist American writers made the move to Paris. His short story collection Storm (1932) told of peasant life in Romania and received high praise, but United States’ custom officials banned it for some of its slightly erotic content.
After the New Review ended its run, Neagoe returned to the United States in 1933; his first novel, Easter Sun, was published the next year. With the onset of World War II, Neagoe became an asset to the United States because of his proficiency in five European languages; throughout the war, he created radio broadcasts for the Romanian people on the United States’ behalf. In postwar years, the Neagoes spent summers in the artists’ community in Woodstock, New York, and winters in Sarasota, Florida. In 1949, Neagoe produced one of his best-known works, the memoir A Time to Keep, recalling his Romanian childhood, which featured so prominently in all his writings.