Kostis palamas biography
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Kostis Palamas is considered one of the most important Greek poets of his generation and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He came from a family of intellectuals and resistance fighters against the Ottoman rule. Orphaned by age six, Palamas and his older brother grew up with his uncle’s family in Mesolongi in Western Greece. In , he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Athens, but was only interested in poetry and literature. He became a journalist and editor of the most important magazines and newspapers in 19th century Greece. In , he published his first poetry collection, Songs of my country. In , Palamas was appointed secretary-general of the University of Athens, a function that he kept for 30 years. When one of his children died of meningitis at age of four, he sublimated his grief in the elegy Tomb, published in
During the next decades his international reputation grew, and in , several readings took place in Paris as a tribute to Kostis Palamas. In the same year, he was admitted to the Academy of Athens, becoming its president in In , he was honored by the University of Athens on his retirement. In , he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government. At the beginning of the German occupation in , Palamas issued a famous messag
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Kostis Palamas
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Kostis Palamas ΚΩΣΤΗΣΠΑΛΑΜΑΣ
Born Died
Athens First Cemetery: Section 14, Number
Others, who wander far in distant lands may seek
On Alpine Mountains high the magic Edelweis;
I am an Element Immovable; each year,
April delights me in my garden, and the May
In my own village.
Kostis Palamas has come to represent the spirit of an entire generation. His poetry is often sublime and always accessible. It has been popular; he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 14 times. Along with Georgos Drossinis and Ioannis Polemis, and other poets of the New Athenian School, he championed the use of demotic Greek over katharevousa, the