 S. Damian made his debut around 1955/1956 with literary criticism written in the spirit of that age's dogmatism.He worked for a while as a copy editor for Contemporanul, Gazeta literară, România literară and Luceafărul.Marginalised for a period of time, he was sent to West Germany in the mid-1970s to teach Romanian language and literature at the University of Heidelberg, after which he defected.