Stratis Myrivilis
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Efstratios Stamatopoulos (30 June 1890 – 19 July 1969) was a Greek writer. He is known for writing novels, novellas, and short stories under the pseudonym Stratis Myrivilis. He is associated with 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 nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
three times (1960, 1962, 1963).


Biography

Myrivilis was born in the village of Sykaminea (Συκαμινέα), also known as Sykamia (Συκαμιά), on the north coast of the island of
Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...
(then part of the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
), in 1890. There he spent his childhood years until, in 1905, he was sent to the town of Mytilene to study at the Gymnasium. In 1910 he completed his secondary education and took a post as a village schoolmaster, but gave that up after one year and enrolled at Athens University to study law. However, his university education was cut short when he volunteered to fight in the
First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...
in 1912. During the
Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...
, he was shot twice in the leg in the
Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas The Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas took place between Greece and Bulgaria during the Second Balkan War. The two countries fought for the town of Kilkis in Central Macedonia from 19 to 21 June 1913 O.S. with Greece ultimately being victorious. ...
. After the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...
, he returned home to a Lesbos free from Turkish rule and united with the motherland Greece. There he made a name for himself as a columnist and as a writer of poetry and fiction. He published his first book in 1915: a set of six short stories collected together under the general title of ''Red Stories''. In
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Myrivilis saw active service in the army of
Eleftherios Venizelos Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos (, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Cretan State, Cretan Greeks, Greek statesman and prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. As the leader of the Liberal Party (Greece), Liberal Party, Venizelos ser ...
' breakaway government 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 ...
. He later served in the Asia Minor Campaign with the 2nd Transport Hospital at
Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...
. He returned to Lesbos in 1922, after the Campaign's catastrophic end. On 28 June 1920 he married Eleni Dimitriou. They had three children. From April 1923 to January 1924, Myrivilis published, in serialised form, the first version of his First World War
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
''Life in the Tomb'' in the weekly newspaper ''Kambana''. A longer, revised version was published in Athens in 1930, and almost overnight, Myrivilis became famous throughout Greece. ''Life in the Tomb'' established him as a master craftsman of Greek prose, and the work itself was seen as a turning point in the development of Greek prose fiction, marking its coming of age.Andreas Karandonis, "The Prose of Stratis Myrivilis", trans. J. A. Case-Kessissoglou, The Charioteer, 1(1960), 92. After the success of ''Life in the Tomb'', Myrivilis settled in Athens where he worked as editor of the newspaper ''Demokratia''. The newspaper ceased publication after one year, however, and he made a living writing columns and short stories for various newspapers and periodicals. In 1936, he was made General Programme Director for the Greek National Broadcasting Institute—a post which he held until 1951, excluding the period of German occupation when he resigned after a final broadcast in which he reminded the Greek people of their noble resistance to the Italian invasion of Greece and called on them to continue resisting with dignity and unity. After the occupation, he was given a post in the Library of Parliament and, in 1946, he founded the National Society of Greek Writers and was elected its first president. During the
Greek civil war The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...
he became one of the most strong opponents of the communists. In 1958, after having been nominated unsuccessfully six times, he was finally made a member of the Academy of Athens, a belated recognition of his important contribution to Greek literature. He died, after a long illness, in an Athens hospital on 19 July 1969.


Major works

Novels *'' Life in the Tomb'' (1923-4, 1930) *''The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes'' (1933) *'' The Mermaid Madonna'' (1949) Novellas *'' Vasilis Arvanitis'' (1943, 1944) *''The Pagana'' (1945) *''Pan'' (1946) Short story collections *''Red Stories'' (1915) *''Short Stories'' (1928) *''The Green Book'' (1936) *''The Blue Book'' (1939) *''The Red Book'' (1952) *''The Cherry Red Book'' (1959) Translations into English *''Life in the Tomb'' tr. P. Bien (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1977) (repr. 1987 London) *''The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes'' translated by Philip Sherrard (London: Hutchinson, 1964) *''The Mermaid Madonna'' translated by Abbot Rick (London: Hutchinson, 1959) *'' Vasilis Arvanitis'' translated by Pavlos Andronikos. (Armidale: University of New England Publishing Unit, 1983) *''The Step-daughter'' (short story) translated by Theodore Sampson, in ''Modern Greek Short Stories'' vol. 2 (Athens: Kathimerini, 1981, pp. 65–83) *''The Cat's Eye'' (short story) translated by Irvin Ziemann, in ''Introduction to Modern Greek Literature: An Anthology of Fiction, Drama, and Poetry'' ed. Mary P. Gianos (New York: Twayne, 1969, pp. 193–206)


Notes


References


Sources

* Alexiou, Margaret. "Women in Two Novels of Stratis Myrivilis: Myth, Fantasy, and Violence." ''Modern Greek Studies Yearbook'' 5 (1989). * Andronikos, Pavlos. “The Narrator of Vasilis Arvanitis: An Exploration Into Emotional Response to the Reading of Fiction.” In ''The Text and Its Margins: Post-Structuralist Approaches to Twentieth-Century Greek Literature'' (Eds. Margaret Alexiou & Vassilis Lambropoulos. New York: Pella Publishing Co., 1985), pp. 85–122. * Dimitris Tziovas, The Other Self: Selfhood and Society in Modern Greek Fiction (Lexington Books, 2003).


External links


"Stratis Myrivilis: A Brief Biography" by Pavlos Andronikos

“Chronicles of Modern Greece: Myrivilis Papers” by Leda Costaki in ''Gennadeion News'' Winter/Summer 2005, p. 4



The schoolmistress with the golden eyes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Myrivilis, Stratis 1890 births 1969 deaths People from Lesbos Greek writers Greek novelists Generation of the '30s Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) Greek military personnel of World War I Greek military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) 20th-century Greek novelists Greek military personnel of the Balkan Wars