Constantin Sandu-Aldea (November 22, 1874 â March 21, 1927) was a Romanian agronomist and prose writer.
Born in TichileÃÂti, BrÃÂila County, his parents were the cart driver Sandu Petrea Pârjol and his wife Tudora. After completing studies at Nicolae BÃÂlcescu High School in BrÃÂila, he attended the Bucharest-based HerÃÂstrÃÂu Agriculture School between 1892 and 1896, graduating as an agronomist. He did not find a job in the field, but instead worked as an estate administrator at Crivina, Prahova County; a fisheries agent; a CÃÂile Ferate Române clerk and an editor and proofreader for Floare-albastrÃÂ, Epoca, România junàand ApÃÂrarea naÃÂionalàmagazines. Between 1901 and 1907, he took advanced courses at the ÃÂcole nationale supérieure d'horticulture in Versailles; he studied at the Agricultural University of Berlin from 1904 and earned a doctorate in 1906. Sandu-Aldea worked as a teaching assistant for applied agriculture and zootechnics at the model farm in Laza, Vaslui County; served as bureau chief in the Agriculture and Domains Ministry; and, from 1908, was professor and director of the HerÃÂstrÃÂu school. He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1919.
Sandu-Aldea made his literary debut with poems in VieaÃÂa (1896), also writing for Lumea nouàliteraràÃÂi ÃÂtiinÃÂificÃÂ, Familia, Floare-albastrÃÂ, Curierul literar, SÃÂmÃÂnÃÂtorul, Convorbiri Literare, LuceafÃÂrul and ViaÃÂa RomâneascÃÂ, and using the pen names S. Voinea, C. RÃÂsvan, S. Dancu, Cheptea, Stan Pârjol and Miron Aldea. He wrote a number of valued scientific texts about wheat; his prose fiction deals especially with rural subjects and attempts to reveal the depth and diversity of the peasant soul. Representative works include Drum ÃÂi popas (1904), ÃÂn urma plugului (1905) and Pe drumul BÃÂrÃÂganului (1908), collections of tales and short stories; and the novels Douàneamuri (1906) and Pe MÃÂrgineanca (1912), which feature bitter conflicts between social classes, resolved in SÃÂmÃÂnÃÂtorist fashion. He translated works by Henrik Ibsen, Hermann Sudermann, Pierre Loti and Leonid Andreyev.