Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), a native of Rumania, was a leading scholar of religion, widely known for his writings on the history of religion, the structure of myth, and spiritual symbolism, including Shamanism, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, and A History of Religious Ideas. He also wrote autobiographical works as well as numerous stories, novels, and plays. Fiction offered him a unique complementary way to explore some of the themes of his scholarly work, such as sacred time and space.
