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Ioannis (Nanos) Valaoritis ( el, Ιωάννης (Νάνος) Βαλαωρίτης; 5 July 1921 – 12 September 2019) was a Greek writer, widely published as a poet, novelist and playwright since 1939; his correspondence with
George Seferis
Giorgos or George Seferis (; gr, Γιώργος Σεφέρης ), the pen name of Georgios Seferiades (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης; March 13 – September 20, 1971), was a Greek poet and diplomat. He was one of the most important G ...
(''Allilographia 1945-1968'', Ypsilon, Athens 2004) was a bestseller. Raised within a cosmopolitan family with roots in the
Greek War of Independence but twice driven into exile by events, Valaoritis lived in Greece, the United Kingdom, France and the United States, and as a writer and academic he played a significant role in introducing the literary idioms of each country to the rest. The quality, the international appeal, and the influence of his work led Valaoritis to be described as the most important poet of the Hellenic diaspora since
Constantine Cavafy.
[(22 October 2010]
Αφιέρωμα του «Διαβάζω» στον ποιητή Νάνο Βαλαωρίτη
''Eleftherotypia
''Eleftherotypia'' ( el, Ελευθεροτυπία, lit=freedom of the press) was a daily national newspaper published in Athens, Greece.
Published since 21 July 1975, it was the first newspaper to appear after the fall of the Regime of the ...
'' (in Greek), Retrieved November 1, 2010
Life
Early years
Valaoritis was born to Greek parents in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
in
Switzerland in 1921 but grew up in Greece where he studied classics and law at Athens University. He was also writing poetry, and in 1939 when he was barely eighteen, he saw himself published in the pages of
George Katsimbalis’ review ''Nea Grammata'' alongside contributions from
Odysseas Elytis
Odysseas Elytis ( el, Οδυσσέας Ελύτης , pen name of Odysseas Alepoudellis, el, Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλλης; 2 November 1911 – 18 March 1996) was a Greek poet, man of letters, essayist and translator, regarded as th ...
and
George Seferis
Giorgos or George Seferis (; gr, Γιώργος Σεφέρης ), the pen name of Georgios Seferiades (Γεώργιος Σεφεριάδης; March 13 – September 20, 1971), was a Greek poet and diplomat. He was one of the most important G ...
, and was immediately taken into their literary circle. It was an ominous yet heady time, those early months of the war, during which Valaoritis was witness to the seminal encounter of Seferis and Katsimbalis with
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...
and
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
Born in India to British colonial p ...
, which was to resonate within both Greek and
Anglo-Saxon literature
Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmo ...
for years to come.
Training years
In 1944 Valaoritis escaped from German-occupied Greece across the Aegean to Turkey and from there through the Middle East to Egypt, where he made contact with Seferis who was serving the Greek government in exile as First Secretary of the Greek Legation in Cairo. In 1944, at the instigation of Seferis, Valaoritis went to London to develop literary links between Greece and Britain. He met
T. S. Eliot,
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
,
Dylan Thomas and
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...
, and he worked for Louis MacNeice at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. As well as studying English literature at the University of London, he translated modernist Greek poets, among them Elytis and
Embirikos, and contributed to
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine '' Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which comb ...
's ''
Horizon'' and to John Lehman's ''New Writing''. His own first volume of collected poems, E Timoria ton Magon (Punishment of Wizards), with decorations by John Craxton, was published in London in 1947. He paved the way for Seferis' success in the English-speaking world by editing and translating, along with Durrell and Bernard Spencer, Seferis' ''King of Asine'' which was published in 1948 to enthusiastic reviews.
Then in 1954 he moved to Paris where, as well as studying Mycenaean grammar at the Sorbonne, he was prominent among surrealist poets under
André Breton. Valaoritis met his wife
Marie Wilson, one evening at a large gathering in Paris full of Greek writers and artists. Marie Wilson was an American surrealist artist, Marie is the author of Apparitions: Paintings and Drawings by Marie Wilson. Wilson was embedded in the surrealist movement, and had a very close relationship with Andre Breton and Picasso. Nanos moved in together and lived there for six years, leading to marriage, which has now continued for forty years. They had three children together.
San Francisco, CA USA
Valaoritis was a professor in the World and Comparative Literature and Creative Writing Departments at San Francisco State University from the 1970s until 1993, when he retired.
Back in Greece
In 1960 Valaoritis returned to Greece, and between 1963 and 1967 he was publisher and chief editor of the Greek avant-garde literary review Pali. But when the junta came to power in 1967, he felt he had no choice but to go into voluntary exile, and in 1968 he went to America where he became professor of comparative literature and creative writing at
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
, a position he held for twenty-five years.
A self-described surrealist, Valaoritis sometimes creates a sense of carnival in his work through parody, pastiche and absurdity. But the bracket can be misleading, for surrealism alone fails to convey the depths of his mind and the richness of his work. As in photographs taken of Valaoritis so in his poetry you see at once the mage and the pirate, or the detached Olympian with an outsider's bemusement yet a man who can also be intensely lyrical and sensual.
Once again Nanos Valaoritis lived in Greece, where he co-edited the literary review ''Synteleia'' (End of the World) and, optimistically, its successor ''Nea Synteleia'' (New End of the World) and published a remarkable body of work, including essays, translations, anthologies and books of poetry, short stories, a novella and four novels variously in Greek, English and French. His most latest novel, the bestselling ''Broken Arms of the Venus de Milo'' (Agra, Athens 2002), is a literary and historical romp which has a basis in a true family story, for the arms of the famous Venus were lost at sea when a French naval vessel stole the statue from an ancestor of Valaoritis, a Greek who was the chief
dragoman
A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A ...
of the
Ottoman navy. Valaoritis’ ''Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry'', co-edited with Thanasis Maskaleris (Talisman, New Jersey 2003) is encompassing and commanding, an invaluable contribution to the dissemination of Greek poetry throughout the English-speaking world, while ''Pan Daimonium'', his latest volume of poetry (Philos Press, Lacey, Washington State 2005) showed him as playful, wise and enigmatic as ever.
In 2004 the Athens Academy of Letters and Science awarded Nanos Valaoritis the prestigious prize for poetry in recognition of his life's work, and the President of Greece presented him with the Gold Cross of Honour, given for his services to Greek Letters.
Three of his poems are available on-line at the poetry journal ''Stud
'.
Works
Poetry
*The Punishment of the Mages (''Η Τιμωρία των Μάγων'', 1947)
*Central Arcade (''Κεντρική Στοά'', 1958)
*Terre de Diamant 1958
*Hired Hieroglyrhs 1970
*Diplomatic Relations 1971
*Anonymous Poem of Foteinos Saintjohn (''Ανώνυμνο Ποίημα του Φωτεινού Αηγιάννη'', 1977)
*Εστίες Μικροβίων 1977
*The Hero of Random (''Ο Ήρωας του Τυχαίου'', 1979)
*Flash Bloom 1980
*The Feathery Confession (''Η Πουπουλένια Εξομολόγηση'', 1982)
*Some Women (''Μερικές Γυναίκες'', 1983)
*Ο Διαμαντένιος Γαληνευτής 1981
*Poems 1 (''Ποιήματα 1'', 1983)
*Στο Κάτω Κάτω της Γραφής 1984
*The Color Pen (''Ο Έγχρωμος Στυλογράφος'', 1986)
*Poems 2 (''Ποιήματα 2'' 1987)
*Anideograms (''Ανιδεογράμματα'', 1996)
*Sun, the Executioner of a Green Thought (''Ήλιος, ο δήμιος μιας πράσινης σκέψης'', 1996)
*Allegoric Cassandra (''Αλληγορική Κασσάνδρα'', 1998)
Prose
*The Traitor of the Written Words (''Ο Προδότης του Γραπτού Λόγου'', 1980)
*Rising from the Bones (''Απ' τα Κόκκαλα Βγαλμένη'', 1982)
*Xerxes; Treasure (''Ο Θησαυρός του Ξέρξη'', 1984)
*The Murder (''Η Δολοφονία'', 1984)
*The Talking Ape or Paramythologia (''Ο Ομιλών Πίθηκος ή Παραμυθολογία'', 1986)
*My Afterlife Guaranteed, 1990
*Paramythologia (''Παραμυθολογία'', 1996)
*God's Dog (''Ο Σκύλος του Θεού'', 1998)
Essays
*
Andreas Empeirikos (''Ανδρέας Εμπειρίκος'', 1989)
*To a Theory of Writing (''Για μια Θεωρία της Γραφής'', 1990)
*Modernism, Avant Garde, and ''Pali'' (''Μοντερνισμός, Πρωτοπορία και Πάλι'', 1997)
*Aristotelis Valaoritis, A Romantic (''Αριστοτέλης Βαλαωρίτης, Ένας Ρομαντικός'', 1998)
See also
*
Aristotelis Valaoritis (the great-grandfather of Nanos Valaoritis)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valaoritis, Nanos
1921 births
2019 deaths
Greek surrealist writers
Modern Greek poets
People from Lausanne
20th-century Greek poets
Greek expatriates in Switzerland
Expatriates in Egypt
Greek expatriates in the United Kingdom
Greek expatriates in France
Greek expatriates in the United States