PT Journal AU Maftei, MM TI An unknown Cioran SO Romanica Olomucensia PY 2017 BP 87 EP 106 VL 29 IS 1 DI 10.5507/ro.2017.007 DE Cioran; Iron Guard; friendship; reception of Cioran's Romanian and French books AB It is said that youth marks us for ever, that the past is never forgotten. What about when it comes to a controversial writer with a double culture, French-Romanian, and born in a turbulent historical context? This paper emphasizes some original matters concerning the writer Emil Cioran. It presents the interwar Romanian political and intellectual context, Cioran's friends, who were then separated by the Iron Curtain, the reception of his Romanian and French books by his generation, the comments of the philosopher on his own writings, and the context that contributed to the birth of his philosophical thought. ER