Reading Between the Lines: The importance of Eliade’s correspondence

Abstract

Letters are among the most significant memorial person can leave behind.(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)For several years now, working on the subject of Mircea Eliade, I have had the privilege to be in touch with many former students and colleagues of Eliade and it became clear to me that, in one way or another - whether in their academic studies, spiritual practice, or otherwise - the encounter with Mircea Eliade changed their lives. He widened their horizons and offered them new methodologies in their research work. I became fascinated by Eliade in high school, when I read his novel Bengal Nights, and decided to learn more about his work and life. I studied philosophy, as Mircea Eliade did, and my PhD dissertation examines his political affiliations during interwar Romania. By then, Eliade had already changed my life, since I had gotten in touch with his former students and also with his nephew, Sorin Alexandrescu, and learned new and previously unknown things about his personality. A postdoctoral scholarship in India (2009), and some invitations to different conferences organized in New Delhi and Calcutta between 2007 and 2012, gave me the opportunity to realize that he is well known there and that his legacy is respected. I also had the honor to meet Maitreyi Devi's family.Also, several visits to Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at The Center for Research on Romanian Jewry, as part of research grant, reminded me of the persistent issue of his alleged anti-Semitism. During the same period (2012-2013), as part of the same project, I worked with Liviu Bordas on editing Mircea Eliade's inedited correspondence with his Jewish friends, colleagues and students and it became clear to me that there still are many hidden things regarding his past.3 The two volumes containing Eliade's correspondence to and from his Jewish friends were followed by more two volumes, edited along with Miriam Caloianu, containing letters and memoirs found in the archives of The Center for Research on Romanian Jewry in Jerusalem.4 These contain especially important details about Mihail Sebastian and how and why Toladot magazine came into existence.The continued interest in Eliade in Romania, USA, India, Israel and elsewhere confirms his immortality as profound thinker. For those who have known him personally, Eliade was good friend who knew how to graciously overcome the complexities and constraints in teacher-student relationships, and to reach the heart of his interlocutor. His good wishes and his concern for those around him, irrespective of their race or their political and religious beliefs are amply reflected in the memories, correspondence and personal communications of people who were, in different ways, in touch with him.Some personal examples can show us what kind man Eliade was. Even though deeply engaged in editing the Encyclopedia of Religions, Eliade could find time to enquire about Gregory Alles' daughter, who at that time had undergone eye surgery. The visit to Jerome Long's family gave him the opportunity to bring to Jerome's two children bag of candy. Many of his students and collaborators have benefited from his well-known generosity. Douglas Allen speaks of Mircea Eliade as an impressive, but also flawed, human being and as a frenetic person, full of nervous energy, dissatisfaction, and melancholy. In reply to recent accusations that Eliade was an anti-Semite, Allen, who spent many years with Eliade and is always happy to speak about their encounter, says:What is remarkable about my encounters with Eliade is that his warm, generous, and supportive relations with me, as with many of his other individual Jewish colleagues and friends, never exhibited the usual manifestations of anti-Semitism or personal hostility.5Before discussing some of the most remarkable encounters with Eliade, we should mention some general things about his impressive correspondence, and cite some recent published letters from his exchange with his Swiss student Henry Pernet6 and with some Jewish colleagues and close friends7. …