Eugène Ionesco (Romanian spelling: Eugen Ionescu) (November 26, 1912 - March 28, 1994) was one of the foremost playwrights of the theater of the absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude of humans and the insignificance of one's existence.

Born in Slatina, Romania, to a Romanian father and a French-Jewish mother, Ionesco spent most of his childhood in France, but in his early teenage years returned to Romania. There he qualified as a teacher of French and married in 1936. In 1928, at the University of Bucharest, he met Emile Cioran and Mircea Eliade, and the three became lifelong friends.

He returned to France in 1938 to complete his doctoral thesis. Caught by the outbreak of war in 1939, he remained there, eventually becoming a gifted writer. He was made a member of the Académie française in 1970.

In 1967 Ionesco made a visit to Israel and in the second volume of his autobiography he affirmed his Jewish origins.

He died at 81 and is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Although Ionesco wrote almost entirely in French, he is one of Romanians' proudest citizens. There is much resentment over what could be called the French's "adoption" of him, specifically the fact that most of the world knows him as Eugène Ionesco, rather than his birth name and name in his native Romanian language, Eugen Ionescu.

Selected works

• The Bald Soprano (1950)
• The Lesson (1951)
• The Chairs (1952)
• Rhinoceros (1959)
• The Killer (1958)
• Exit the King (1962)
• A Stroll in the Air (1963)
• Hunger and Thirst (1964)
• Macbett (1972)
  • Productions, 1972 to present (http://www.ionesco.org/macbett.html) (in French)

Theoretical writings

• Notes and Counternotes (1962)
• Fragments of a Journal (1966)
• Le Solitaire (1973)
• Journeys among the Dead (1980)

External links

• The Eugène Ionesco Homepage (http://www.ionesco.org/)