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Nikiforos Vrettakos

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[[Image:NikiforosVrettakos-Pitsa.jpg|thumb|220px|Nikiforos with wife Pitsa]][[Nikiforos Vrettakos]], poet, academic, was born in [[Krokees(Laconia)|Krokees]], [[SpartaLaconia]] on [[January 1|January 1st]] [[1912]]. His mother Eugenia, arrived there from "Plumitsa", a near by farming location, to her sister's (Arhondo) home in order to give birth to her first child. Nikiforos grew up in Krokees where he attended grammar school while living his uncle Nikos (his mother's brother) Panteleakis' home who had no children of his own. With the help of his uncle and other relatives Nikiforos continued his education by attending high school in the nearby city of Gythio. Nikiforos' father had been dealing with economic difficulties and was unable to provide for him. In [[1929]] he left to attend the [[University of Athens]]. Unfortunately, he was unable to complete his formal education due to financial difficulties. That year he also published his first book(Cover by Nikos Rozakos) of poetry, "Under Shadows and Lights" . Since then, he rarely visited Krokees and when he visited he came only to see his mother whom he loved very much. Difficult and harsh times followed. His father died and his mother left Plumitsa to settle in Krokees. His sister Sofia and brother Mihali also moved to Krokees and married.
In [[1934]] he married Kalliopi (Pitsa ) Apostolidou and had two children, Kostas and Eugenia (Jenny). He attempted farming for a short while as well as working in a silk factory before entering the Ministry of Works. He fought in the Albanian Campaign of 1940-41 ([[WWII]]) and in [[1942]] joined the Greek National Resistance Movement (EAM). After the war he resumed his civil service career, but due to his political beliefs, was purged in [[1947]] and compelled to leave [[Athens]] for [[Piraeus]]. In [[1949]] the Communist party of Greece revoked his membership primarily because in one of his essays he urged reconciliation between the superpowers. Nikiforos visited the Soviet Union in [[1957]]. The same year he won his second State Prize for Poetry and started working as a journalist, translator and editor.
In [[1967]] he left [[Greece]] (self exile) and during the dictatorship years went to Switzerland and Italy where he fell very ill and almost died from tuberculosis. When he returned to Greece in [[1974]], Nikiforos as if he rediscovered his birthplace, he came back and settled in Krokees, in the always hospitable home of his uncle and the home of his sister's Sofia. In the early [[1980s]] he built a little house next to ruins of Plumitsa. Here he wrote much of his work gazing at his beloved friend, the mountain Taygetus.

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