Radu Florescu

Radu Florescu (23 October 1925 – 18 May 2014) was a Romanian academic who held the position of Emeritus Professor of History at Boston College. His work on Vlad Dracula includes a series of bestselling[1] books that he co-authored with his colleague Raymond T. McNally. Along with serving as Director of the East European Research Center at Boston College, Florescu was also a philanthropist and an adviser to Edward Kennedy on Balkan and Eastern European affairs. At the time of his death, Radu Florescu was considered the patriarch of the Florescu family.[2]

Radu Florescu
Florescu at Clemson University in 1977
Born(1925-10-23)23 October 1925
Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
Died18 May 2014(2014-05-18) (aged 88)
Mougins, France
EducationChrist Church (BA & MA)
Indiana University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Historian, Professor
SpouseNicole Michel
Children4
Parent(s)Radu Florescu, Vera Soepkez

Life

Escape from Romania

Florescu was born in Bucharest to an aristocratic Florescu family, one of the oldest of the extant Romanian Boyar families.[2] He left Romania at the outbreak of World War II and moved to London, as his father, a pro-Allied diplomat who served under Romanian Minister Viorel Tilea to the United Kingdom, defied a recall order from the pro-Axis government of Ion Antonescu.[3][4] In protest of Romania's new alliance with Nazi Germany, Florescu's father resigned his post and joined the Free Rumanian Committee in opposition to the fascist Antonescu regime.[5] After leaving St. Edward's School, Oxford, Florescu received a scholarship to study history (BA, MA) at Christ Church, Oxford. He moved to Indiana University Bloomington in the United States for his doctorate.

Boston during the Cold War

With one child, Nicholas, born in Austin, Texas, Radu Florescu moved east and began his academic career as a Professor of history at Boston College. In the Boston area, he will have 3 more children: John (1954), Radu (1961), and Alexandra (1963). At Boston College, he joined forces with Raymond T. McNally, and the two began their research on Vlad the Impaler. Then with McNally and Matei Cazacu, of the Paris Institut des Hautes Etudes, Florescu will go on to write six books on Vlad the Impaler's life. Alongside his work on Vlad the Impaler, Florescu would write seven more books on East European History and on the history of Romania such as The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian principalities, 1821-1854.

Radu Florescu created a diplomatic bridge between the United States and Romania. He advised Edward Kennedy on matters of the Balkans, and also served as the press liaison for the White House during the state visit of President Richard Nixon in 1969 in Romania.

In 1986, Florescu became the Director of the East European Research Center at Boston College and remained in that position until his retirement in 2008. In that function, he organized symposiums on themes varying from the diffusion of Thracian culture in antiquity to the rise of antisemitism in interwar Romania.

Post-revolution Romania

From 1996 to 2004, Florescu served as Honorary Consul for New England by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the first person to hold such a position in the United States. His first job as honorary consul was to oversee voting by Boston-area Romanian citizens in one of the first democratic Romanian elections since the Revolution of 1989. After the Revolution of 1989, he also organized visits of Romanian presidents, and members of the Romanian Royal House to Harvard University, The John F. Kennedy library and Boston City Hall. He was Emeritus Honorary Consul. In his retirement from France and Poiana Brașov, Florescu repurposed the East European Research Centre to create an annual scholarship for several gifted Romanian teenagers to study in the Boston area during summer months. These scholarships still continue to this day. His son, John M. Florescu, serves on the board of Educational Enrichment for Romanian Children.[6][7]

Florescu died on May 18, 2014, in Mougins, France from complications of pneumonia. [8] Upon his death, the Romanian royal family released a statement of condolences and recognition for Florescu's work.[2]

Dracula research

In his bestseller In Search of Dracula (1972), co-authored with Raymond T. McNally,[9] he claimed that the brutal Vlad III, voivod of the principality of Wallachia, was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Vlad was a member of the House of Drăculești, and Stoker's novel took place in real locations such as Transylvania and Tihuța Pass, including even correct rail lines. For this reason, Florescu concluded that the main character must also be inspired by facts. Vlad Țepeș, known for the slaughter of many Saxons and Ottomans, with a penchant for impaling his enemies on stakes, was the logical choice as the model for Dracula. The book was translated into 15 languages and boosted the Romanian tourism industry as young Westerners flocked to Romania to trace the footsteps of the historical Dracula.

Other research

Florescu also wrote about literary creations like Frankenstein with In Search of Frankenstein (1975)[10] and the Pied Piper of Hamelin with In Search of the Pied Piper (2005). In the former, Florescu advocated the theory that the German theologian, alchemist, anatomist, and physician Johann Konrad Dippel was the inspiration for Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Florescu's last book, also written with McNally, investigated the possible true identity of the person on whom Robert Louis Stevenson may have based Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Books
  • Florescu, Radu (2005). In Search of the Pied Piper. Athena Press. ISBN 1-84401-339-1.
  • Florescu, Radu; McNally, Raymond T. (1994). In search of Dracula: the history of Dracula and vampires. Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 0-395-65783-0.
  • McNally, Raymond T.; Florescu, Radu (1992). The complete Dracula. Acton, Mass: Copley Pub. Group. ISBN 0-87411-595-7.
  • McNally, Raymond T.; Florescu, Radu (1989). Dracula, prince of many faces: his life and his times. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-28656-7. 2009 eBook edition
  • In Search of Frankenstein: Exploring the Myths Behind Mary Shelley's Monster. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. 1996 [1975]. ISBN 978-1-861-05033-5.
  • McNally, Raymond T.; Florescu, Radu (2000). In Search of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781580631570.

References
  1. "Radu Florescu – Obituary". The Telegraph, 20 May 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  2. " A murit Radu Florescu. Celebrul istoric, care a făcut din Dracula un brand în SUA, s-a stins la 89 de ani". Adevărul, 19 May 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  3. "Radu Florescu, Scholar Who Linked Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, Dies at 88". The New York Times, 27 May 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. "Radu Florescu dead: Legacy of the Romanian 'Dracula professor' remembered". The Independent, 20 May 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  5. "Rumanian envoy in London defies recall order to join Free Rumanians in Britain". Science & Society Picture Library, 15 February 1941.
  6. "On August 3rd the 2009 EERC students returned to their families in Romania". Educational Enrichment for Romanian Children (EERCboston.org). Retrieved 28 June 2009.
  7. ""MIRCIŞTII" BURSIERI LA BOSTON - AU PARTICIPAT LA SIMPOZIONUL ORGANIZAT DE EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT FOR ROMANIAN CHILDREN". viatavalcii.ro. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  8. Radu Florescu, Scholar Who Linked Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, Dies at 88 by Margalit Fox May 27, 2014. The New York Times. Accessed online June 20, 2022
  9. Bullard, Thomas E. (1973). "Review of In Search of Dracula". Folklore Forum. Indiana University, IUScholarWorks. 6 (4): 251–252.
  10. "Review of In Search of Frankenstein by Radu Florescu". Kirkus Reviews. July 1975.
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