Early life[edit]

His father Sebastian Coșbuc, a Greek Catholic priest looked up to by his parish, drew from a line
reputed to have yielded fourteen consecutive generations of priests. George attended primary
school and graduated to secondary classes in the neighboring village of Telcs (now: Telciu). He
happily took to the scholarly bent encouraged by his father, earning the praise of instructors and
being chosen among the few who were to sign up for advanced courses at Liceul
Românesc (Romanian Lyceum), a higher learning academy in the town of Naszód (now: Năsăud).
He soon found himself doubling as teacher.
He began tearing through the library of the institution, impressing colleagues with his encyclopedic
inclinations, and joined a local literary club, the Virtus Romana Rediviva, an association his father
frowned upon as a deviation for a prospective career as clergyman. In 1884, already a well-loved
teacher at the age of 24, he published his very first poems in the yearly almanac of the literary club.