Liviu Rebreanu was a Romanian novelist, playwright, short story writer, and journalist.

Born in Târlișua (currently Bistriţa-Năsăud County), Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary, he was the second of thirteen children born to Vasile Rebreanu, a schoolteacher, and Ludovica Diuganu, descendants of peasants.

His father had been a classmate of George Coşbuc's and was an amateur folklorist. Liviu Rebreanu went to primary school in Maieru (where he was taught by his father), and then in Năsăud and Bistriţa, to military school at Sopron and later to the military academy in Budapest.

He worked as an officer in Gyula but resigned in 1908, and in 1909 illegally crossed the Transylvanian Alps into Romania, and lived in Bucharest.