The Selected Letters of Nikos Kazantzakis

Description

The life of Nikos Kazantzakis--the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ--was as colorful and eventful as his fiction. And nowhere is his life revealed more fully or surprisingly than in his letters. Edited and translated by Kazantzakis scholar Peter Bien, this is the most comprehensive selection of Kazantzakis's letters in any language. One of the most important Greek writers of the twentieth century, Kazantzakis (1883-1957) participated in or witnessed some of the most extraordinary events of his times, including both world wars and the Spanish and Greek civil wars. As a foreign correspondent, an official in several Greek governments, and a political and artistic exile, he led a relentlessly nomadic existence, living in France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Soviet Union, and England. He visited the Versailles Peace Conference, attended the tenth-anniversary celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution, interviewed Mussolini and Franco, and briefly served as a Greek cabinet minister--all the while producing a stream of novels, poems, plays, travel writing, autobiography, and translations. The letters collected here touch on almost every aspect of Kazantzakis's rich and tumultuous life, and show the genius of a man who was deeply attuned to the artistic, intellectual, and political events of his times. Tags: Literary, Literary Collections, Biography & Autobiography, Letters Cover The Selected Letters of NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS Title Copyright Contents Introduction His Importance A Maniacal Epistolographer Completeness Annotations Transliteration Acknowledgments Chronology THE LETTERS I • AT LAW SCHOOL IN ATHENS 1902 Letters 1903 Letters 1904 Letters 1905 Letters 1906 Letters 1907 Letters II • PURSUING GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARIS 1907 Letters, continued 1908 Letters III • POLITICALLY ACTIVE IN GREECE 1909 Letters 1911 Letters 1912 Letters 1913 Letters 1914 Letters 1915 Letters 1917 Letters 1918 Letters 1919 Letters 1920 Letters IV • FLEEING GREECE; RESIDENT IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY, ITALY 1922 Letters 1923 Letters 1924 Letters V • MEETS ELENI SAMIOU; BEGINS ODYSSEY; DIVORCES GALATEA; TRAVELS TO SOVIET UNION 1924 Letters, continued 1925 Letters 1926 Letters 1927 Letters VI • RESIDENT ALMOST EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN THE SOVIET UNION 1927 Letters, continued 1928 Letters 1929 Letters VII • TRYING TO MAKE A CAREER OUTSIDE OF GREECE, ESPECIALLY IN SPAIN 1929 Letters, continued 1930 Letters 1931 Letters 1932 Letters 1933 Letters VIII • BACK IN GREECE, HAVING FAILED ELSEWHERE; TRAVELING IN FAR EAST; ODYSSEY COMPLETED AND PUBLISHED; VISIT TO ENGLAND 1933 Letters, continued 1934 Letters 1935 Letters 1936 Letters 1937 Letters 1938 Letters 1939 Letters 1940 Letters IX • CONFINED TO AEGINA DURING THE GERMAN OCCUPATION; WRITES ZORBA AND MANY PLAYS; BEGINS TO TRANSLATE HOMER’S ILIAD 1941 Letters 1942 Letters 1943 Letters 1944 Letters X • IN ATHENS DURING ROUND TWO OF THE CIVIL WAR; RESOLVES TO HELP LIBERATED GREECE VIA POLITICAL ACTION; BRIEFLY A CABINET MINISTER; MARRIES ELENI SAMIOU 1944 Letters, continued 1945 Letters 1946 Letters XI • FINAL EXILE: RESIDES BRIEFLY IN ENGLAND, THEN IN FRANCE; WRITES FINAL NOVELS AND PLAYS; TRAVELS TO CHINA 1946 Letters, continued 1947 Letters 1948 Letters 1949 Letters 1950 Letters 1951 Letters 1952 Letters 1953 Letters 1954 Letters 1955 Letters 1956 Letters 1957 Letters References Cited Index