Alexandru Macedonski

Alexandru Macedonski (Romanian pronunciation:  [alek'sandru mate'donski] ; also rendered as Al. A. Macedonski, Macedonschi or Macedonsky ; March 14, 1854 – November 24, 1920) was a Wallachian -born Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement during its early decades. A forerunner of local modernist literature, he is the first local author to have used free verse, and claimed by some to have been the first in modern European literature. Within the framework of Romanian literature, Macedonski is seen by critics as second only to national poet Mihai Eminescu ; as leader of a cosmopolitan and aestheticist trend formed around his Literatorul journal, he was diametrically opposed to the inward-looking traditionalism of Eminescu and his school.