Mircea Eliade: An English Perspective

 Launch of “Time, Death, and the Unspeakable Secret”, the third volume by Mircea Eliade in English translation, hot off the press from Istros Books!

Journalist George Stanică moderated a conversation that explored Eliade’s cultural legacy and contemporary relevance. This was part of the launch event celebrating the publication of Mircea Eliade’s book “Time, Death and the Unspeakable Secret”, recently published by Istros Books.

🗓️ When: Thursday 29 May, 7 pm

📍 Where: RCI London, 1 Belgrave Square, SW1X8PH

Our guest speakers, Professors Bryan Rennie and Robert Temple, joined by editor Susan Curtis, provided a 🇬🇧 English perspective on Eliade’s cultural legacy and contemporary relevance. Moderated by journalist George Stanica.

Susan Curtis is the founding director of Istros Books, a London-based publisher of literature from South East Europe and the Balkans. Istros Books was established in 2011 to showcase the finest European literature, introducing its titles to a new audience of English speakers through high-quality translations. Its authors include European prize winners, polemic journalists turned crime writers, and social philosophers turned poets. Coming from a Liberal Arts background, she has worked in schools and adult education centres, while pursuing a parallel career in writing and translation from Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian to English.

Robert Temple is a UK-based American author whose books, including the bestseller The Sirius Mystery (Arrow Books, 1999) and titles on Chinese science and ancient Egyptian wisdom, have been translated into over 40 languages. He is a Visiting Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Tsinghua University in Beijing and, in 2004, founded the Prodan Cultural Foundation with his wife, Olivia, in memory of Mia Prodan de Kisbunn of Romania and her daughter, the late Maria Bjornson. The Prodan Foundation has financially supported numerous Romanian projects over the years, including the publication of Eliade books by Istros Books.

Bryan Rennie is a British historian of religions and Emeritus Professor at Westminster College, Pennsylvania. A specialist in religious studies and philosophy, Rennie focused his research, ever since the start of his career, on the work of Mircea Eliade. The book that followed his doctoral thesis, "Reconstructing Eliade: Making Sense of Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1996), is one of the most relevant analyses of the Romanian thinker’s work in the English-speaking world and beyond. In 2006, Rennie was awarded the Mircea Eliade Centennial Jubilee Medal by Traian Băsescu, then the President of Romania.

George Stănică worked as a radio producer, presenter, and correspondent with the BBC World Service in London. He taught and translated English, American, and German literature, as well as aesthetics and philosophy. He holds a degree in English, American, and German literature and wrote a dissertation on Saul Bellow. Currently, he is a freelance translator and writer/journalist residing and working in the UK.

“Time, Death, and the Unspeakable Secret” consists of six of Eliade's best short stories, taken from a 30+year period: starting in 1959 with the fantastic novella "A Fourteen-Year-Old Photograph", continuing with perhaps his most famous short story, "At the Gypsies", and culminating with "In the Shadow of a Lily", the last novella Eliade is known to have written. Each of these stories is dense with allusions and interwoven with connections and references drawn from the imagination and vast knowledge of a great man.