Kosmas Politis

Kosmas Politis (1888-1974). Kosmas Politis, the literary pseudonym of Paraskevas Taveloudis, was born in Athens, the son of merchant Leonidas Taveloudis from Lesbos and Kalliopi, née Chatzimarkou, from Ayvalik. In 1890, following his father's financial ruin, the family relocated to Smyrna. There, he received private lessons in English and French. His mother passed away in 1900, and Paris (as his family called him) was raised by his sister Maria. In Smyrna, he attended the Evangelical School and the American College (from which he did not graduate) and worked at the Bank of the Orient (1905-1911), a branch of the Wiener Bank-Verein (1911-1919), and the Credit Foncier d’ Algerie et de Tunisie (1919-1922). In 1917, he married Klara Crespi from Austria-Hungary, with whom he had a daughter, Phoebe. In September 1922, he moved with his family to Marseille and Paris, where he worked at the local Credit Foncier d’ Algerie et de Tunisie, and in 1923, he left for England. He worked at the London branch of the Ionian Bank and returned to Greece in 1924 as deputy director of the Athens branch of the Ionian Bank. In 1934, he requested a transfer to Patras, where he lived until 1942, facing severe financial difficulties due to a loan he had taken to build his house in Paleo Psychiko (which was confiscated by the state in 1945, forcing Politis to pay rent until his death). He also faced health issues and was dismissed from his position in 1942, as the bank's management deemed he had abused sick leave during his daughter's serious illness (she died the same year during childbirth, as did her child; her death was pivotal in Politis's reconciliation with Klara). From 1942 until his death, his primary means of livelihood was translation (from 1945-1946, he worked as a translator for the British Council and the magazine "Hellenic-English Review"). He was a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and a founding member of the United Democratic Left (EDA), with which he ran for election in 1951 in the Patras region, though he was not elected. In 1961, he became an honorary member of the Society of Greek Writers (after the National Society of Greek Writers had previously refused him membership, as he refused to sign a declaration of repentance for his leftist activities). In 1967, his wife passed away, and Politis was arrested by the security forces of the dictatorship. In 1973, he was admitted to Evangelismos Hospital due to respiratory and heart failure, briefly transferred to the "Relax Palace" nursing home in Marousi, and a year later, he was readmitted to Evangelismos, where he died. Kosmas Politis made his literary debut at the age of 42 with the publication of "Lemonodasos" (1930), which was enthusiastically received by the literary world, while he himself declared to be an "amateur writer." During his stay in Patras, he wrote "Eroica," which shared the State Novel Prize in 1939 with Menelaos Lountemis and was adapted into a film in 1960 by Michalis Cacoyannis (winning the Best Director Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 1961 and participating in the Berlin and London Festivals). He was awarded the First State Prize for Short Story (1960 for "Koromilia") and the First State Prize for Novel (1964 for "Stou Hatzifrangou"). Kosmas Politis is considered one of the most important representatives of the prose literature of the '30s generation. His body of work is dominated by the anguished search for the absolute ideal (often tragic due to the awareness of the chimerical nature of such a quest), which is sometimes expressed through an idealistic, aesthetic, and cosmopolitan writing style. This style combines realistic elements with lyrical outbursts and moves within the framework of mythologizing life. At other times, his work takes a more direct ideological turn towards the social and political issues of the era, a shift that became more pronounced in his works after joining the Communist Party of Greece, starting with "To Gyri." His last entirely preserved work, "Stou Hatzifragou," is inspired by his childhood years in Smyrna and, in a way, summarizes his entire creative output. Other works include: "Ekati," a novel from 1933, "Constantine the Great," a play from 1957, "Marco Polo," an original work on his travels from 1967, several short stories, the novel "Terma," which remained unfinished (first published in 1975), and the narrative "Kaïafas" (first published in 1976). For more biographical details on Kosmas Politis, see Nora Anagnostaki, "Kosmas Politis," in "Interwar Prose: From the First to the Second World War (1914-1939)," vol. Z, pp. 252-309, Athens: Sokolis, 1993; Alexis Ziras, "Politis Kosmas," in "World Biographical Dictionary," vol. 8, Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon, 1988; Peter Mackridge, "Chronology of Kosmas Politis (Paris Taveloudis)," magazine "Diavazo" vol. 116, 10/4/1985, pp. 8-12; Peter Mackridge, "Kosmas Politis and His Time Until 1937" and "Additions to the Biography of K. Politis (after 1937)," in Kosmas Politis, "Eroica," ed. Peter Mackridge, pp. vi-xxi, Athens: Hermes/"New Greek Library," 1982; Alexis Ziras, "Politis Kosmas," in "Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature," Athens: Patakis Publishers, 2007, pp. 1841-42. (Source: Archive of Greek Authors, EKEBI).