George Katsimbalis (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Γιώργος Κατσίμπαλης ''Giorgos Katsimbalis''; 1899 – July 25, 1978) was a

intellectual, editor and writer, and member of the

Generation of the '30s The Generation of the '30s () was a group of Greek writers, poets, artists, intellectuals, critics, and scholars who made their debut in the 1930s and introduced modernism in Greek art and literature. The Generation of the '30s is also cited as a so ...

. He was known as "

The Colossus of Maroussi ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

" owing to

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

's work of the same title.

Biography

George Katsimbalis was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1899. His father, Constantine Katsimbalis, was a professor who studied in Paris. His mother was a Greek woman from the Gousios family of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. The Katsimbalis family originated in Katsibali. Katsimbalis had a sister, Soso, who committed suicide as a young adult. Katsimbalis's father, his wife and two children, moved from Greece to Paris in 1916. That same year, George Katsimbalis left the family to fight for Greece in World War I. He left by ship from Marseilles to Greece, but the ship was torpedoed by a

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...

submarine, Surviving the attack, Katsimbalis ended up in Egypt. He eventually reached

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, then served as a second lieutenant in the

Greek Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches of the Hellenic Armed F ...

on the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

. At the end of World War I, Katsimbalis returned to France. He attended courses at the

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

Law School, but did not graduate. After the Greco-Turkish War started in 1919, Katsimbalis returned again to Greece to fight. He fought with the Greek Army in the unsuccessful invasion of Turkey. In 1924, the entire Katsimbalis family returned to Greece for permanent settlement. In 1939, Katsimbalis married Aspasia Sakorrafo, the daughter of a university professor. The couple adopted a son, Giorgos Katsimbalis. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Katsimbalis served in the Greek army as an artillery lieutenant. Katsimbalis died in

on June 25, 1978. He was buried in the first cemetery of Athens.

Literary work

Katsimbalis published 43 bibliographical works, 19 Greek and 14 foreign scholars, while already in 1925 he presented in London, a translation of poems. Katsimbalis was introduced to

in the late 1930s in Athens by their common friend and writer

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pa ...

. Miller and Katsimbalis became close friends and that is described in Miller's book ''

''.

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...

in an interview in 1978 said that George Katsimbalis' stories and friendship have greatly influenced his writings. In the 1930s,

Konstantinos Tsatsos Konstantinos D. Tsatsos (; July 1, 1899 – October 8, 1987) was a Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician. He served as the List of heads of state of Greece#Third Hellenic Republic (since 1974), second President of Greece, Pr ...

was constantly pressuring Katsimbalis to write until one day Henry Miller pulled him aside and said, "Stop asking him to write. Katsimbalis will never write, he is a story teller and story tellers do not have any urge or need to write".

References

Literature

* ''Κατσίμπαλης Γιώργος'', in: ''Παγκόσμιο Βιογραφικό Λεξικό'', vol. 4, Athens, Εκδοτική Αθηνών, 1985 * Αλέξης Ζήρας: ''Κατσίμπαλης Γιώργος'', in: ''Λεξικό Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας'', Athens, Εκδόσεις Πατάκη, 2007

External links

* * Εθνικό Κέντρο Βιβλίου
Γιώργος Κατσίμπαλης
(includes a comprehensive list of Katsimbalis' bibliographies of modern Greek poets) * Biblionet
Γεώργιος Κ. Κατσίμπαλης
* tvxs.gr
''Γιώργος Κατσίμπαλης: Ο Κολοσσός του Μαρουσιού''
* Anemi – Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies
online writings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katsimbalis, George 1899 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Greek writers Writers from Athens