The playwright's first play, A Stormy Night, well received by Junimea and published in 1879 in Convorbiri literare (in which all his plays were published), received, at its premiere, not insignificant attacks. After three years of collaboration, Caragiale withdrew from Timpul in July 1881, but the committee of the National Theatre of Iași, chaired by Iacob Negruzzi, appointed him stage director, a post the playwright refused. He frequently attended meetings of the Junimii, and at the meeting in March 1884, in the presence of Alecsandri, he confessed his preference for Eminescu's poems. On 6 October he read O scrisoare pierdută (A Lost Letter) at the anniversary of the Junim in Iași, which was premiered on 13 November to great acclaim in the presence of the Queen. In 1888 Titu Maiorescu appointed him director of the National Theatre in Bucharest and prefaced his volume of Theatre (1899) with a study entitled Comediile d'I. L. Caragiale. On 9 May 1892, Caragiale presented a lecture at the Athenaeum entitled Gaște și gâște literare, against the Junimii, which, together with the article Două note, led to his break with Titu Maiorescu and the end of his collaboration with Convorbiri literare. On 18 November 1895, Petre P. Negulescu wrote to Simion Mehedinți that he had obtained from Titu Maiorescu a request for Caragiale's collaboration with Convorbiri literare, without, however, resuming personal relations between the critic and the author of the article Two notes. Caragiale resumed contact with Titu Maiorescu only on 15 February 1908, when he sent him a birthday card.
