Kosmas Politis
Paris (sometimes Paraskevas) Taveludis (Greek: Πάρις (Παρασκευάς) Ταβελούδης; 16 March 1888 – 23 February 1974), better known as Kosmas Politis, was a Greek writer, one of the most important novelists of the generation of '30s. His most characteristic works are the novels Eroïca (1938) and Στοῦ Χατζηφράγκου (1962). Politis was also an important translator, as he contributed to the Greek versions of William Shakespeare, Henry Miller, Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Pearl Buck and others.
Biography
Politis was born in Athens but lived in Smyrna from his early childhood until 1922. He worked in several, mainly European, banks in that city, where he married Clara Crespi, of Austro-Hungarian origin, in 1918. The couple had one daughter, Phoebe (1919). After the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Politis went first to France and then to England.[1]
He returned to Athens in 1924, as an employee of the Ionian Bank, and built a house of his own design in the suburbs of Psychiko.[1] In 1934 he moved to Patras, as manager of the branch of the Ionian Bank, and was thus estranged from his family. However, when his daughter and her newborn child died during the Axis occupation (1942), Politis relinquished his position and returned to Athens and his wife. So precarious were his economic circumstances at the end of the War that his house was forfeited by the State and he was obliged to pay rent until the end of his life. It was in this period that Politis began working as a translator of English and French literature, and to contribute articles to newspapers.[1]
In 1951, he stood for parliament with the United Democratic Left party (EDA) in Patras, but was not elected.[1] The morning of the coup d’état of 21 April 1967, he found his wife dead. On the same day he was arrested and taken to the Police headquarters. Thanks to the intervention of Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex, he was released in order to attend the burial of his wife. Encroaching deafness exacerbated his isolation.[1]
Kosmas Politis died of heart failure on 23 February 1974.
Works
- Λεμονοδάσος (1930; novel)
- Εκάτη (1933; novel)
- Ελεονόρα (1935; short story)
- Εroïca (1937; novel)
- Μαρίνα (1939; short story)
- Τρεις γυναίκες (1943; novel)
- Τζούλια (1943; short story)
- Το Γυρί (1944; novel)
- Το ρέμα (1945; short story)
- Ένα διπλό (1945; short story)
- Η κορομηλιά, νουβέλα (1946; novel)
- Santa Barbara (απόσπασμα) (1949)
- Κωνσταντίνος ο Μέγας (1957; theater)
- Πρώτη Ανάσταση (1959; short story)
- Στου Χατζηφράγκου (1962; novel)
- Τέρμα (1975; incomplete novel)
- Καϊάφας (1976)
- Μάρκο Πόλο (2001)
Notes
References
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
