Vladimir Colin (Romanian pronunciation: [vladiˈmir koˈlin]; pen name of Jean Colin; May 1, 1921 – December 6, 1991) was a Romanian short story writer and novelist. One of the most important fantasy and science fiction authors in Romanian literature, whose main works are known on several continents, he was also a noted poet, essayist, translator, journalist and comic book author. After he and his spouse at the time Nina Cassian rallied with the left-wing literary circle Orizont during the late 1940s, Colin started his career as a communist and socialist realist writer. During the early years of the Romanian Communist regime, he was assigned offices in the censorship and propaganda apparatus. His 1951 novel Soarele răsare în Deltă ("The Sun Rises in the Delta") was an early representative of local socialist realist school, but earned Colin much criticism from the cultural establishment of the day, for what it perceived as ideological mistakes.
Progressively after the mid-1950s, Colin concentrated on his literary career and abandoned communist ideology. He authored celebrated works such as the mythopoeia Legendele țării lui Vam ("Legends from Vamland") and fairy tale collections, making his debut in local science fiction literature with Colecția de Povestiri Științifico-Fantastice journal. His work in science fiction, culminating in the 1978 novel Babel, earned Colin three Eurocon prizes. He was given posthumous recognition for his contribution to the genre, and an award named in his honor is regularly granted to established Romanian science fiction authors. From 1970 until his death, he was one of the editors for the Writers' Union literary magazine, Viața Românească.
Colin was born on May 1, 1921, in Bucharest, into a family of emancipated Romanian Jews. He was the son of Lazăr Colin, a civil servant, and his wife Ella. His mother was the sister of Ana Pauker, a prominent activist of the Romanian Communist Party and later one of Communist Romania's political leaders. On his paternal side, he was also the nephew of Liviu Cohn-Colin, who was a known lawyer employed by the Ministry of Commerce.
During World War II and Ion Antonescu's dictatorial regime, as part of Romania's adoption of antisemitic policies, Colin was denied access into educational facilities. At the time, together with poet Nina Cassian, he attended informal lectures on the history of literature and the work of William Shakespeare, given by writer Mihail Sebastian. Both Colin and Cassian had by 1941 joined the then-illegal Communist Party, as activists of its Communist Youth (UTC) wing—as Cassian recalled in 2008, they were motivated by a will to "change the world for the better", abhorring both antisemitism and fascism.
Colin married Nina Cassian in 1943. The two divorced five years later, and Cassian remarried Al. I. Ștefănescu. During their period together, both Cassian and Colin grew close to writer and literary critic Ovid Crohmălniceanu, later known as a Communist Party activist, as well as to future literary historian Geo Șerban and translator Petre Solomon. Later, Colin was again married, to graphic artist Marcela Cordescu.
After the August 1944 Coup against the pro-Axis Antonescu and the start of Soviet occupation, Colin became a noted supporter of left-wing causes. That year, at the age of twenty-three, he also graduated from Bucharest's Cantemir Vodă High School and had his first poem published in Victoria journal. The piece was titled Manifest ("Manifesto") and signed Ștefan Colin. Colin studied at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters, but left the institution after only one year, spending much of his time working for the UTC, which employed him as publisher of its books. Having served as an activist for the UTC's Central Committee in 1945–1946, Colin was later a broadcast editor for the Radio Company's Bucharest branch, worked as an editor for various left-wing magazines, including Orizont, Flacăra, and Revista Literară. In 1945, he published Poemul lui Octombrie, a translation of Russian-language poems by Soviet writer Vladimir Mayakovsky.
As contributors to Orizont, Colin, Cassian and Solomon supported the view that writers were supposed to immerse themselves into social struggles, an attitude which represented one of the main literary tendencies in the post-war young literature of Romania. They were somewhat close to the group of writers gathered around Geo Dumitrescu, while contrasting with the bohemian group formed around Constant Tonegaru and the Kalende magazine, with the Sibiu Literary Circle, with the Surrealists (Gherasim Luca, Dolfi Trost and their colleagues), and with independent and distinct authors such as Paul Celan and Ion Caraion.
After the establishment of a Romanian Communist regime, Vladimir Colin became noted for his vocal support of the new authorities. In 2006, the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania nominated him (together with Ștefănescu, Sorin Toma, and others) among the prominent Communist activists responsible for censorship. In parallel, he was pursuing a career as a poet: his debut volume 27 de poeme ("27 Poems") saw print in 1947. Soon after, Colin came to affiliate with the Romanian socialist realist current, at which time he published the short story Flăcări între cer și apă ("Flames between the Sky and the Sea", 1950), followed in 1951 by the novella Cormoranul pleacă pe mare ("The Cormorant Heads for the Sea") and, later that year, by Soarele răsare în Deltă. All three writings were set in the Danube Delta. Although they were largely compliant with the regime's cultural guidelines, these books were judged to be unsatisfactory by many who reviewed them in the communist press, becoming the subject of a lengthy literary debate. The Writers' Union convened a special session to review Colin's case. On that occasion, several of his writer colleagues expressed criticism on behalf of the Union, among them Ben Corlaciu, Petru Dumitriu, Alexandru Jar, and Mihail Novicov, most of whom expressed the view that Colin was indebted to "formalism".
After he made his fantasy and children's literature debut with Basme ("Fairy Tales"), which earned him the State Prize for Prose for 1953, Colin adopted the fantasy genre as his preferred means of expression, following up with Nemaipomenita bătălie dintre Papură-Împărat și Pintilie ("The Incredible Battle between Emperor Cattail and Pintilie", 1953), Toroiman (1954), Poveștile celor trei mincinoși ("The Stories of the Three Liars", 1956), Zece povești pitice ("Ten Dwarfish Stories", 1957) and Basmele Omului ("The Fairy Tales of Man", 1958). These were accompanied in 1961 by mythopoeia, with Legendele țării lui Vam, also known as A Mythology of Man, which became one of his most popular works. In 1968, Geo Dumitrescu included his translation from French poet Charles Baudelaire into the luxury bilingual edition of Les Fleurs du mal, released under contract with Editura pentru literatură universală.
Vladimir Colin made his science fiction debut contributing short stories for Colecția de Povestiri Științifico-Fantastice, which functioned as a literary supplement for the magazine Știință și Tehnică and was edited by Adrian Rogoz. He became especially noted for his works in the science fantasy genre, beginning with the 1964 novel A zecea lume ("The Tenth World"). It was followed by the short story volume of 1966, Viitorul al doilea ("The Second Future"), the 1972 sword and sorcery novel Divertisment pentru vrăjitoare ("Entertainment for Witches") and short story collection Capcanele timpului ("Time Traps"), and the 1975 novella Ultimul avatar al lui Tristan ("Tristan's Final Avatar") and short story volume Dinţii lui Cronos ("The Teeth of Chronos"). One of the most successful books in this category was the 1978 novel Babel, which also established his reputation outside Romania. Colin also continued to publish non-science fiction works, such as the 1967 mythopoeic novel Pentagrama ("The Pentagram") and the 1984 narrative poem for children, Xele, motanul din stele ("Xelar, Tomcat Stellar"). Others include Povestea scrisului ("The Story of Writing", 1966), Imposibila oază, povestiri fantastice ("The Impossible Oasis, Fantasy Stories", 1982) and Timp cu călăreț și corb ("Time with Rider and Raven", 1985).