Ilias Venezis

Ilias Venezis (1904 - 1973). Ilias Venezis (pen name of Ilias Mellos) was born in Kydonies (Ayvalik) in Asia Minor, the son of Michail D. Mellos and Vasiliki Giannakou Bimbela. He had six siblings. With the outbreak of World War I, his father and one sister were trapped in Asia Minor, while the rest of the family fled to Mytilene, where the author enrolled in high school. In 1919, they all returned to Ayvalik (following the landing of Greek troops in Asia Minor), except for Artemis, the family's daughter, who died from the Spanish flu epidemic in Mytilene. In 1922, Venezis, who had just finished high school in his hometown, was captured by the Turks and served in labor battalions in the interior of Asia Minor for fourteen months. He was released in 1923 and returned to Lesvos to reunite with his family. There, he initially worked in Plomari as an employee of the Directorate of Exchangeable Properties of the Ministry of Agriculture and later as an employee at the National and Bank of Greece. After being transferred to the Bank of Greece branch in Athens, he settled in the capital, where he worked until 1957. In 1938, he married Stavritsa Molyviati from Ayvalik, with whom he had a daughter, Anna. During the German occupation, he was arrested by the S.S. and imprisoned in Averoff Prison. He was released twenty-three days later following appeals from Archbishop Damaskinos and other prominent figures of the time. He died in Athens after a long and painful illness. He served as secretary and managing director of the National Theatre's board (1950-1952) and as administrative director and president of its artistic committee (1964-1967). He was a founding member of the Group of Twelve (1950), a collaborator of the National Radio Foundation (1954-1966), president of the Thessaloniki Film Festival (1963-1966), and vice-president of the board of the Hellenic American Union (1966-1970). Ilias Venezis was also elected a member of the Academy of Athens (1957), from which he engaged in intense cultural activities. He made his literary debut in 1921 with short stories published in the Constantinople magazine O Logos. In 1927, he was awarded by the magazine Nea Estia for his short story "Death" and later serialized the first version of his work inspired by his experience in the Eastern labor battalions, "The Number 31328," published in 1931. This was followed by the novels "Serenity," "Aeolian Earth," "Exodus," and "Ocean," all of which, like his first, are within the framework of documentary, with clear influences from the author's humanitarian ideology. He also completed short stories, historical studies, travelogues, and the play "Block C," first performed in 1945 by the Pélos Katselis troupe. His works have been translated into many foreign languages. In 1949, following an invitation from the State Department, he toured the U.S., where he gave lectures and interviews. He was honored with the First State Prize for Literature and the Academy of Athens Award (1940 for "Serenity"). For more biographical details on Ilias Venezis, see Vangelis Athanasopoulos, "Chronology of Ilias Venezis (1904-1973)," Diavazo 337, 8/6/1994, pp. 38-44, Alex Argyriou, "Venezis Ilias," World Biographical Dictionary 2. Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1984, Manolis Gialourakis, "Venezis Ilias," Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature 3. Athens, Haris Patsis, n.d. Stergiopoulos Kostas, "Ilias Venezis," Interwar Prose: From the First to the Second World War (1914-1939) Vol. B, pp. 334-376. Athens, Sokolis, 1992. (Source: Archive of Greek Authors, EKEVI).