THanasis Petsalis - Diomidis

Thanasis Petsalis-Diomidis (1904-1995). Thanasis Petsalis was born in Athens. His father, Nikolaos, was a doctor and a professor at the Medical School of the University of Athens. He had an older brother named Alekos. He studied law at the University of Athens and pursued postgraduate studies in Paris, where he also attended the School of Political Sciences. He traveled across Europe for his studies (1920-1924) and then returned to Athens, where he attended the Law School of the University (1924-1928). In 1928, he was appointed to the Bank of Greece, where he worked in the research department and the legal department until 1946. In 1932, he entered politics with the party of G. Kafantaris. In 1941, he married Emilia Georgiou Triliva, with whom he had a son, Nikos, and in 1952, he married for the second time to Elisavet Kostakopoulou, with whom he had his second son, Alexandros. He made his literary debut in 1923 with poetry publications and in 1925 published the short story collection "Some Pictures in a Frame," heavily influenced by French naturalism and aestheticism. He then consciously shifted towards the genre of urban novels, integrated within the framework of the so-called narrative fresco, offering an objective view of social life and its realistic representation, organizing his novels into larger, chronologically successive units. For his literary work, he was honored by the Academy of Athens in 1950 and received the State Novel Award (1956 and 1963). In 1948, he was appointed a member of the Greek Society of Authors (a position he resigned from in 1950), in 1977 a member of the Academy of Athens, and in 1994 an honorary doctor of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Athens. His works have been translated into French and English. He passed away in Athens. For more biographical details on Thanasis Petsalis-Diomidis, see Dimitris Giakos, "Petsalis-Diomidis Thanasis," Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature 11. Athens, Hari Patsi, n.d., Alex. Ziras, "Petsalis-Diomidis Thanasis," World Biographical Dictionary 8. Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1988, Kostas G. Papageorgiou, "Thanasis Petsalis-Diomidis," Interwar Prose; From the First to the Second World War (1914-1939) Z, pp. 156-188. Athens, Sokolis, 1993, and Mitsi Pikramenou, "Biographical Timeline of Thanasis Petsalis-Diomidis, Nea Estia 138, Christmas 1995, year 69, no. 1643, pp. 2-6. (Source: Archive of Greek Authors, EKEBI).