Born: 29 December 1843, Germany
Died: 2 March 1916
Country most active: Romania
Also known as: Carmen Sylva
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Elizabeth, Queen of Rumania [sic], known as “Carmen Sylva”, a poet and novelist. She fostered the higher education of women in Rumania [sic], and established societies for various charitable objects. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878 she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the Order of Elizabeth to reward distinguished service at such work.
A lively poetic imagination led her to the path of literature, especially to folk-lore and ballads. In addition to numerous original works she put into literary form many of the legends current among Rumanian peasantry, and her poetry is full of homely beauty in its expression of nature and life. She wrote with facility in Rumanian, German, French and English, and her works include novels, plays, poems, short stories, essays, aphorisms, etc.
In 1888 she received the Botta prize from the French Academy and in 1914 she was elected honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom.