Mircea Eliade is perhaps one of the best known Romanian writers and philosophers, known to many for having authored the History of Religion. He was a historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago.

The fantastic, the sacred and the profane had central roles in his writings, which included Noaptea de Sânziene ("The Forbidden Forest"), Isabel şi apele diavolului ("Isabel and the Devil's Waters") and the Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent, the novellas Domnişoara Christina ("Miss Christina") and Tinereţe fără tinereţe ("Youth Without Youth"), and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger ("The Secret of Dr. Honigberger") and La Ţigănci ("With the Gypsy Girls").

He also wrote an autobiographical novels Maitreyi (translated as "La Nuit Bengali" or "Bengal Nights"). Eliade spoke five languages (Romanian, French, German, Italian, and English) and could read three others (Hebrew, Persian, and Sanskrit).

He is known for his very short sleeping periods, in order to dedicated more time during his day to reading. Eliade was born in 1907 and died in 1986 in Chicago.