Asimakis Panselinos

Asimakis Panselinos (1903-1984). Asimakis Panselinos, son of the fabric merchant Ioakeim and Myrto, née Velissariou, was born in Mytilene, where he spent his childhood and high school years. He studied at the Law School of the University of Athens, graduating in 1929, and worked as a lawyer. During his studies, he, along with Vasilis Archontidis, invited Yiannis Psycharis to Mytilene, an event hailed by the island's residents as a pioneering intellectual movement. During the Metaxas dictatorship, he was arrested for anti-regime activities (along with N. Karvounis, K. Varnalis, and G. Kordatos) and during the German occupation and the civil war, he joined the Resistance and was imprisoned by the Italians and the British in Averoff and Hasani prisons, respectively. After the end of the Civil War, he served as a Member of Parliament for Lesvos (1950-1951) with the ELD party. He first appeared in literature in 1921 when a short story of his won an award in a competition by Theodoros Theodoridis's (Doris Dorou) magazine Mytilinios, where he subsequently published poems and prose. He also published under various pseudonyms in publications such as Eleftheros Logos (1921), Kampana (1923-1924), Tachydromos (1925), Lesviaki Mousa (1925-1927), and Lesviakes Selides (1925). He collaborated with Neoi Protoporoi (from 1931), Neoellinika Grammata (after 1936), Machi (from 1945), Politiki, Elefthera Grammata (1945-1947), among others, where he published literary texts, articles, and critical essays. In 1946, he published the poetry collection "Days of Wrath." However, he became best known for his autobiographical narrative "When We Lived" (1974), which depicts the social and political situation in Greece from the pre-war period to the civil war era. In the same vein, he wrote another narrative titled "Waters and Soils" and many others. For more biographical details on Asimakis Panselinos, see Argyrio Alex., "Panselinos Asimakis," World Biographical Dictionary 8. Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1988, and Karagiannis Vangelis, Brief Genealogical, Biographical, Bibliographical of Asimakis Panselinos. Athens, reprint from the Bulletin of Lesviaki Parousia 86, 1984. (Source: Archive of Greek Writers, E.KE.VI.).