HENRI MILLER

 

                            HENRI MILLER AND THE LIGHT OF GREECE

 

 

 

Henri Miller (1891-1980) the author of the “Tropic of Cancer” one of the great American writers, was enamoured with Greece and his favourite of all books he ever wrote is a travelogue of Greece.

“The Colossus of Marousi” is an impressionistic travel blog written in 1939 that reads like an ode to Greece, and the time the author spent there.

 

The American writer’s work is full of reflections on society, philosophical inquiry, embellished autobiographical facts, impressionistic meanderings, and graphic descriptions of sex, at that time a taboo topic in US literature.

In 1959, he was invited to Greece by his friend Lawrence Durrell, the former British writer, so he travelled to Greece to rejuvenate himself.

 

The nine months he spent in the “home of the gods” as he described Greece were an inspiration and he considered the book he wrote there to be his greatest work.

 

A restless spirit, Miller moved to Paris in the 1930s.  The French capital was nothing like the conservative US that he had left behind.  There he wrote his first two novels Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) both including sex scenes that made American publishers refuse to publish them.

 

If life in cosmopolitan, carefree pre-war Paris was an inspiration for Miller, rural Greece was his touchstone with nature, a world full of earthly wonders previously unknown to him.

“The Colossus of Maroussi”.  The man that was the inspiration for the title of Henry Miller’s book about Greece, was no other than George Katsimbalis (1899—1978).

 

A larger than life character, Katsimbalis was an intellectual writer and editor of modern Greek literature and bibliography.   

 

The books that were found to be completely obscene in the 1930s, were finally published in 1961.  By then the Miller literary genius had received the recognition it deserved.

 

Durrell was living with his family on the island of Corfu, and he invited Miller to join them.  Miller travelled extensively in Greece.  He visited Athens, Epidaurus, Mycenae and sailed to Crete and Hydra and travelled to other parts of the country feeding his soul.

 

Being a friend of Durrell, the British writer introduced Katsimbalis to Miller and the two men hit it off instantly.

 

“Katsimbalis “could galvanize the dead with his talk”, Miller said about his new friend admiringly.

Very soon a circle of artists, poets and writers focused around Miller, Katsimbalis and Durrell. The intellectual company was joined by Nobel laureate poet George Seferis and the renowned painter, sculptor and writer Nicos Hatsikyriakos Ghikas.   

PLEASE DO BE VACCINATED AGAINST COVID - 19 SO THAT YOUR BELOVED FAMILIES, FRIENDS, THE WORLD AND YOU WILL REMAIN HEALTHY ABD SAFE.