In 1963 Greece celebrated the awarding, for the first time, of the Nobel Prize for literature to one of its major poets. The recipient was George Seferis, who was also a high-ranking diplomat. With the award, the Swedish Academy honoured the Greek poet’s “eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture” (see http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1963/).
Seferis was born in 1900 in Anatolia in the cosmopolitan town of Smyrna (now Izmir in Western Turkey), whose population consisted largely of Greeks in those days. The family moved to Athens in 1914, soon after the First World War broke out. In 1918 the young Seferis went to Paris to study law, and the following six years would prove of defining importance in his decision to
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Citation: Tambakaki, Polina. "George Seferis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3999, accessed 22 November 2024.]
