Cioran, E. M.: - E. M. Cioran (1911-1995) was one of Central Europe's most remarkable philosophers, whose thinking was influenced by pessimism and existentialism. A Romanian, he lived most of his life in Paris. His major works in Romanian include On the Heights of Despair and, in French, A Short History of Decay and Drawn and Quartered. He refused nearly every literary prize he was awarded.