Nikos kazantzakis biography

Nikos Kazantzakis: Nikos Kazantzakis () was one of the most important and talented Greek writers and philosophers of the 20th century. His work includes essays, novels, poems, travelogues and translations of classic works, such as Dante's Divine Comedy and Goethe's Faust. Many of his novels deal with the history and culture of Greece and the mysterious relationship between man and God.

Biography

Nikos Kazantzakis was born on February 18th, , in the town of Heraklion in Crete. His father was Michael Kazantzakis, a farmer and a dealer in animal feed and his mother was Maria Kazantzakis. Nikos left Crete at a young age to attend the Franciscan School of the Holy Cross in Naxos and in he went to study law at the University of Athens for four years. From to , Nikos studied philosophy at the College de France in Paris and he was greatly influenced by the teachings of Henri Bergson.

On returning to Greece, he began translating works of philosophy. Besides writing, Nikos dedicated a lot of time to public service. In , he was appointed Director General at the Greek Ministry of Public Welfare. He was responsible for feeding and eventually rescuing more than , Greek people who were trapped in the Caucasian region of the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in

Since then, Kazantzakis traveled widely around the world, visiting Berlin, Italy, Russia, Spain, Cyprus, Egypt, China, Japan and many other countries. While in Berlin, Kazantzakis discovered communism and became an admirer of Lenin. In , he became the leader of a small party on the noncommunist left and entered the Greek government as Minister without Portfolio. He however resigned the post in the following year. In , he worked for UNESCO. In , he lost the Nobel Prize for Literature to Albert Camus by one vote.

He married twice, one to Galatea Alexiou and another to Eleni Samiou. Nikos Kazantzakis passed away in Freiburg, Germany, suffering from leukemia. He was buried

Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης[ˈnikos kazanˈd͡zacis]; 2 March (OS 18 February) &#;&#; 26 October ) was a Greekwriter, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher. He is considered by many people to be one of the greatest writers of modern Greek literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. He remains the Greek author whose work has been translated in most languages worldwide.

Kazantzakis' works include Zorba the Greek (published in as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified () and The Last Temptation of Christ (). He also wrote theatrical plays, travel books, memoirs, and essays about philosophy. He became famous in the English-speaking world thanks to the movies Zorba the Greek () and The Last Temptation of Christ (), that were based on his books of the same titles.

He also translated a number of famous works into Modern Greek, such as the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and On the Origin of Species. He wrote Modern Greek editions of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

References

Other websites

Greek writer and philosopher (–)

For other uses, see Nikos Kazantzakis (disambiguation).

Nikos Kazantzakis (; Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης[ˈnikoskazanˈd͡zacis]; 2 March (OS 18 February) &#;&#; 26 October ) was a Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years, and remains the most translated Greek author worldwide.

Kazantzakis's novels included Zorba the Greek (published in as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (), Captain Michalis (, translated as Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs, and philosophical essays, such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises. His fame spread in the English-speaking world due to cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek () and The Last Temptation of Christ ().

He also translated a number of notable works into Modern Greek, such as the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Origin of Species, and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Biography

Kazantzakis was born in the town of Kandiye (now Heraklion) in Crete, with origins from the village of Myrtia. Crete h

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS ()

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, when the island was still under Ottoman rule. He studied law in Athens () before moving to Paris to pursue postgraduate studies in philosophy () under Henri Bergson. It was at this time that he developed a strong interest in Nietzsche and seriously took to writing. After returning to Greece, he continued to travel extensively, often as a newspaper correspondent. He was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Social Welfare () and Minister without Portfolio (), and served as a literary advisor to UNESCO (). Among other distinctions, he was president of the Hellenic Literary Society, received the International Peace Award in Vienna in and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Kazantzakis regarded himself as a poet and in completed his magnum opus, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, divided into 24 rhapsodies and consisting of a monumental 33, verses. He distinguished himself as a playwright (The Prometheus Trilogy, Kapodistrias, Kouros, Nicephorus Phocas, Constantine Palaeologus, Christopher Columbus, etc), travel writer (Spain, Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Japan-China, England, Russia, Jerusalem and Cyprus) and thinker (The Saviours of God, Symposium). He is, of course, best known for his novels Zorba the Greek (), The Greek Passion (), Freedom or Death (), The Last Temptation of Christ () and his semi-autobiographical Report to Greco (). His works have been translated and published in over 50 countries and have been adapted for the theatre, the cinema, radio and television.