With special satisfaction, we present in the series of Kazantzakis' Answers, the `Letters to Galatea`. These letters were addressed by Nikos Kazantzakis to his first wife, from 1920 to 1923, a time when Europe's atmosphere was electrified, sparking lightning bolts everywhere and causing every truly intellectual person to tremble. With this publication, we not only provide spiritual joy to the numerous readers of the beloved author. These writings, perhaps more than any others, are revealing documents of both the Man and his Work because they show, beyond the personal nature of his daily concerns, his anxious thoughts and his watchful conscience. The publisher also, in a way, fulfills an earlier wish of Nikos Kazantzakis himself: to publish a series of books in the form of letters, titled `Letters to My Wife` (see letter dated May 1, 1923). He had confided to us that within these letters, which now see the light of publication (a year after his death...), there are some of the most beautiful pages he wrote. The reader understands that the hurdles were not few for such an endeavor. It required, as with the other works in the Kazantzakis series, courage and perseverance to overcome hesitations, objections, and difficulties of all kinds. Reading the `Letters to Galatea`, one clearly sees that the man who wrote them has nothing to hide; because within them, he expresses nothing that he couldn't potentially declare publicly if necessary. And when he speaks of well-known persons, in this or that way, or when referring to the Greek audience of that era, he does not scandalize but observes; often upset and disappointed, sometimes enthusiastic, but always responsibly, like a true spiritual person. Since we deemed it necessary to include some explanatory comments for the reader, as is customary with every epistolary work, we entrusted this responsible task to the poet and critic Mr. Aris Diktaios, fellow resident and friend of both Galatea and Nikos Kazantzakis. [Excerpt from the preface]
