Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco, born Eugen Ionescu (1909-1994), was one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict in a tangible way the solitude and insignificance of human existence. Ionesco was born in Slatina, Olt county, Romania, to a Romanian father and a mother of French and Greek-Romanian heritage. He spent most of his childhood in France. He returned to Romania with his father in 1925 after his parents divorced. There he studied French Literature at the University of Bucharest from 1928 to 1933, where he met Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade - the three having become lifelong friends. In 1936 Ionesco married Rodica Burileanu. Together they had one daughter for whom he wrote a number of unconventional children's stories. He and his family returned to France in 1938 for him to complete his doctoral thesis. Caught by the outbreak of war, he remained there, living in Marseille before moving to Paris after its liberation in 1944. Ionesco was made a member of the Académie française in 1970. Although he wrote almost entirely in French, Ionesco is one of Romania's most honored artists.

Source: Wikipedia