Raicu Ionescu-Rion (born Raicu Ionescu; August 24, 1872 – April 19, 1895) was a Romanian literary critic and socialist commentator.
Born in BÃÂlÃÂbÃÂneÃÂti, GalaÃÂi County, he came from a poor peasant family. He attended primary school in TÃÂcuta village (1879–1882), the Codreanu High School in Bârlad (1882–1889), and the faculty of literature and philosophy at the University of IaÃÂi (1890–1893), meanwhile taking classes on a scholarship at the higher normal school. While in high school in 1887, together with Garabet IbrÃÂileanu, N. Savin, D. Moscu, and T. CardaÃÂ, he founded the socialist Oriental literary society. During this period, he undertook a systematic reading of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Max Nordau, Charles Darwin, and Herbert Spencer, as well as of Hippolyte Taine and Georg Brandes. His published debut came in 1889 with the article "ÃÂmprejurÃÂri uÃÂurÃÂtoare", published in the Roman ÃÂcoala nouÃÂ, an outfit headed by P. MuÃÂoiu and E. Vaian, and where IbrÃÂileanu was chief editor. He contributed social criticism and theoretical articles to the socialist newspapers Critica socialàand Munca, as well as to Evenimentul (also edited by IbrÃÂileanu). The majority of his literary studies appeared in Evenimentul literar. He worked as a substitute teacher in TârgoviÃÂte (1893-1895), where he died of consumption. He used the pen names Rion, V. Rion, Noir, Th. Bulgarul, Faust, Paul FortunÃÂ, and G. Mirea. His close friends IbrÃÂileanu and Sofia NÃÂdejde published a posthumous collection of his criticism as Scrieri literare (1895). In his work, Ionescu-Rion showed himself to be a follower and admirer of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, also displaying a close affinity with IbrÃÂileanu.