Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu [Hardcover]

Ted Anton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1996

Investigates the murder of Ioan Culianu, a popular University of Chicago Divinity School Professor who was slain execution-style in May of 1991, the victim--according to the author--of right-wing political operatives in his native Romania. UP.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Police have been stumped ever since popular University of Chicago Divinity Professor Ioan Culianu was killed in the middle of a workday in a campus bathroom. The 1991 murder has offered few profitable leads. Author Ted Anton suggests strongly that radicals from Culianu's native Romania did the deed. If he's right, then the death of Culianu probably marks the first political assassination of a professor on American soil. The bulk of this book focuses on the life, times, and scholarship of a man heralded by many to be his generation's Mircea Eliade--as well as why Romanian thugs would have any interest in such a person. The case's apparent unsolvability is maddening, but Anton does a fine job of recounting its essentials.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1991, a 41-year-old Romanian professor, Ioan Culianu, was killed on the University of Chicago campus where he taught. The case is still a mystery, although DePaul University English professor Anton does his best here to explain the exceedingly murky details of Culianu's life, work and death?and their relationship to even murkier events in the Balkans?in clear journalistic prose. The problem is that neither the victim's life nor death lend themselves to clarity. Much of Culianu's political activity remains vague, such as why he phoned someone in Medellin, Colombia, the capital of the world cocaine cartel, shortly before he died. Also unclear is the nature of his relationship with Mircea Eliade, whom he knew to have been an active supporter of the Romanian fascist Iron Guard movement. Some of Anton's descriptions of Culianu's academic achievements are narrated in a gee-whiz style that suggests that were it not for Culianu, well-known thinkers like Giordano Bruno and Giambattista Vico would have been forgotten. Nor does the author seem to take into account the abundant literature in France that proves Eliade's fascist ties. Detailed biographical material on Culianu leaves the reader convinced that the most remarkable thing about his life was its grotesque ending in a university toilet stall. Odds are it was the work of the Romanian Securitate secret police, and Anton's cautious ambiguity is at times uncalled-for. However, the book serves to keep this victim of skullduggery from being yet another forgotten statistic.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press; 1 edition (October 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810113961
• ISBN-13: 978-0810113961
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,092,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #85 in Books > History > Europe > Romania

More About the Author

Ted Anton is the author of Bold Science: Seven Scientists Who Are Changing Our World (Henry Holt: 2000, 2001), an amazon.com pick and a featured choice on www.howthingswork.com. His book, Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu (Northwestern University Press: 1996) won a Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library. The New York Times called it "an engrossing story of a twentieth century original."

Anton's articles have been honored as finalist for a National Magazine Award, as notable essays in three years of Best American Essays, and appeared in several anthologies. A co-editor of The New Science Journalists (Ballantine, 1995), he is a professor in the English department at DePaul University in Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Murder Mystery, by fermed, April 30, 2002

By 

Fernando Melendez "fermed" (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu (Hardcover)

The shot that killed professor Ioan Culianu while he was sitting in a stall in the men's room came from a small Beretta: a .25 caliber gun, fired at leat 18 inches away from his head, for there were no gunpowder traces around the entry wound. It was the work of an expert, a person who stood on the toilet seat of the adjoining stall, and fired downward and into the back of his head; probably the shot of a left hander. Why only one shot? Why such a small caliber gun? Professionals are more heavy handed, more redundant, more brutal. This was exquisitely done, with minimal fuss and no traceable clues.

It was May, 1991, a little after one in the afternoon, at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Prof Culianu, a handsome man in his 40's had three books in press, was about to get married, was loved and respected by students and faculty, and was at the peak of his profession as a historian of religion. His work was recognized internationally, and he could look forward to the honors and comforts of a successful academic career.

Ted Anton presents the true tale of Prof. Culianu with deftness and care. It is a story that to this day continues to reverberate in academia and law enforcement because it has never been solved. Far more exciting than fiction, the story of this professor takes turns and dips that keep the reader on edge and breathless.Culianu was an expert not only on the traditional aspects of religions, but had an interest in the occult arts that formed part of the ancient rituals and practices. He was an expert in divination through geomancy, and was about to teach a course in this practice. He gravitated towards the occult. He knew about near death experiences and about the transmigration of souls; and at the same time he maintained his status as a legitimate scholar and teacher in one of America's prestigious universities.

Fictional stories about crimes and police work are very enjoyable, but reading a book like this renders the others insignificant by comparison. Of course truth is stranger than fiction, but it is also more exciting, more interesting, and finally...more scary.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eros and Magic., May 31, 2002

By 

New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu (Hardcover)

If you enjoyed Umberto Eco's _Foucault's Pendulum_, you will undoubtedly enjoy this true life tale of magic, European politics, and murder. The book gives an accounting of the life of Ioan Culianu, a professor of comparative religion at the University of Chicago, from his birth in Romania to his untimely murder. Professor Culianu provided astounding insights into the world of magic and attempted to explain its occurrences through complexity. He published many books on magic, comparative religion, shamanism, and gnosticism. Like Mircea Eliade, a fellow Romanian and his mentor before him, Culianu contributed a great deal to our understanding of religion and magic. He also wrote several novels along with his fiancee Hillary Wiesner. This book provides a look into not only the worlds of Eliade and Culianu, but also a disturbing examination of far-right politics in Romania. Culianu's murder remains unsolved despite its obvious link to his outspoken views on the Romanian revolution which occurred just prior to his murder. However, many disturbing coincidences abound regarding this event.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime, politics, religion and the occult, October 12, 2001

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu (Hardcover)

Culiano taught religious studies at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago--the hand-picked successor to the great Mircea Eliade. Culiano specialized in magic, dualistic heresies and mystical experiences. He practiced what he studied as well, entertaining students and aggravating colleagues. But he also wrote political articles and fiction for a Romanian journal. These got him in trouble with the Romanian secret police; his murder has never been solved.

Blending religious studies, occult phenomena, political analysis, and true crime journalism, this book is also an entertaining and intriguing look at Culiano, academics in America, Romanian intellectual traditions. I hope many people read and enjoy it.