Life
Varnalis was born in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 1884. As his name suggests, his family originated from Varna. He completed his elementary studies in the Zariphios Greek high school in Plovdiv and then moved to Athens to study literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. While there, he became involved in the language dispute, taking the side of the demoticists over the supportres of the katharevousa. After his graduation in 1908 he worked for some time as a teacher in Burgas, before returning to Greece and teaching in Amaliada and Athens. During the next years, he worked as a teacher and part-time journalist, also engaging in translation work. In 1913, he took part in the Second Balkan War.
In 1919 he gained a scholarship and travelled to Paris where he studied philosophy, literature and sociology. It was during his Parisian studies that he became a Marxist and reviewed his ideas on poetry in theory and in practice. His political alignment resulted in his being barred dismissed from his teaching position at the Paedagocical Academny in 1926, and to be barred from any state employment. Varnalis thus took to journalism, a profession he practised until the end of his life. In 1929, he married the poetess Dora Moatsou. In 1935, he participated in the Soviet Writers' Conference in Moscow as Greece's representative. Under the 4th of August Regime, he was sent to internal exile in Mytilene and Agios Efstratios. During the German Occupation of Greece, he took part in the resistance movement as a member of the National Liberation Front (EAM). In 1959, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Varnalis died in Athens on 16 December 1974.
Read more about this topic: Kostas Varnalis
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I devoutly believe it is the writer who has matured the film medium more than anyone else in Hollywood. Even when he knew nothing about his work, he brought at least knowledge of life and a more grown-up mind, a maturer feeling about the human being.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“O, reason not the need! our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There are books ... which take rank in your life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary, so authoritative.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)