Nikos Kavadias

Gail Holst-Warhaft (Cornell University)

Ed. by Vassilis Manoussakis, University of the Peloponnese
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.7.1.02: Greek Writing and Culture: Modern and Contemporary, 1453-present.
Vol. editors: Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus)

Dates

Born 11 Jan 1910
Died 10 Feb 1975
Activity 1933-1975

Places

Born in China
Active in Greece

Activities

Primary

Poet
Story-writer

Resources

Kavadias' Works

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Nikos Kavadias was born in Manchuria, in the town of Nikolski Usuriski, near Harbin, where his father, a native of the island of Cephalonia, was a prosperous merchant. Because of the turbulent events taking place in the area at the time, Kavadias’s father brought his family back to Greece. During the Russian Revolution, Nikos’s father disappeared and the family had no idea of his whereabouts for seven years. Having served time in a Soviet prison, he never regained his health. Kavadias enrolled in medical school in 1928, but because of his father’s incapacity, he was forced to work as a clerk in his uncle’s shipping office. He published his first poems in the Great Greek Encyclopedia under a pseudonym and began to frequent the literary circles of Piraeus.

When his father died in

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1472 words

Citation: Holst-Warhaft, Gail. "Nikos Kavadias". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12307, accessed 24 November 2024.]