Kostas Varnalis

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Kostas Varnalis was a Greece writer and poet of the 20th Century.

Varnalis was born on February 14, 1884, in Pyrgos, Eastern Rumelia (now Burgas, Bulgaria). He was educated in Philippoupolis (now Plovdiv) and received a scholarship from the Greek community of Eastern Rumelia to study literature in Athens.

In 1909, Varnalis was appointed to a teaching post in Greece. He received a scholarship in 1919 for post-graduate studies in Paris, France. The two years he spent in France changed him radically as a person: Varnalis was deeply moved by the suffering of common people during World War I and greatly influenced by the October Revolution in Russia. He returned to Greece and acquired the label "leftist" which led to dismissal from his teaching post during the Pangalos dictatorship in 1925.

After 1925, Varnalis worked as a newspaper man and translator of classical works by Aristophanes and Euripides.

In 1959, Varnalis received the Lenin Award.

He died on December 16, 1974.

His Works

  • Το Φως που καίει - The Light that burns
  • Ο Σολωμός χωρίς μεταφυσική - Solomos without metaphysics
  • Σκλάβοι πολιορκημένοι - Slaves under Siege
  • Η αληθινή Απολογία του Σωκράτη - The true apology of Socrates
  • Άπαντα - (a two-volume book of all his works)