1940. During the first months of the year he writes his new Journeying, England1. In Spring, he tours Crete with Marika Papaioannou, from the western to the eastern districts. During Passion Week, he is in Monastery of Preveli.
Upon his return to Aegina, he revisits his French novel entitled: Mon père2. On September 1st he notes: “I now have the entirety of Akritas in my head”.
However, to provide for himself, he writes (and publishes in newspapers and magazines, anonymously or under a pen-name) the fictional biographies of Chateaubriand and General Bernadotte, the children’s books In the years of Alexander the Great3 and Knossos.4
1941. The nation is at war with the invader. The Publishing House “Pyrsos” publishes the 1st edition of Journeying – England.5 K. toils tirelessly in Aegina. “I have completed a great tragedy, Yang-Tse [the old Buddha], I translated again from the beginning Dante, the final version, with many and great modifications”, he writes to me on August 10. And a week later: “For a few days now, I have begun Zorba’s legend”.
The Publishing House Ercilla publishes in Santiago of Chile, in a Spanish translation The Rock Garden (El Jardín de las Rocas)6.
1942. January 8. “I have resolved to give up writing for a few years and to assist, as much as I can, during this critical time, our race. [...] I will give myself entirely to immediate action as soon as the good opportunity presents itself to me”. (Letter of K. to P. from Aegina.) He is, however, isolated in Aegina. Mid-February he manages to acquire permission from the German forces to come to Athens. He is my houseguest for a few days: there he is reunited with his old co-athlete, Angelos Sikelianos. They are both enthused to reunite after twenty years of separation. Sikelianos departs, after a while, to sojourn in Aegina (May 14 – end of October). They both aspire to each other’s support through the difficult times. During his brief visit to Athens, the winter of ’42, K. meets with I. Th. Kakridis; he asks for the necessary philological aids from him to translate Homer’s Iliad. Later (March 28) he proposes a joint translation. The 1st writing of the translation is effected only by K., from the beginning of August to October 23, 1942. Until he begins to work on the Iliad, he plans a novel: “I have decided to write a book: ‘The Memoirs of Christ’7. (Letter to Prevelakis on May 16, 1942.) (It is The Last Temptation of Christ8 which will be written in 1951.)
The Publishing House “Aetos”9 publishes the 2nd edition of Journeying – Japan-China.10
1943. K. keeps on working incessantly, despite the deprivations brought on by the Nazi occupation. “I have worked a lot during this time: I gave to all that I have written its final form, I rewrote Dante twice, I completed Yangtze11,Zorba12 and a Journeying,13 and finally, the Iliad. When I have completed Prometheus (his known trilogy, which he began on Aug. 6, 1943), I shall start the translation of the Odyssey which I will complete this year.” (Letter to Prevelakis, Aug. 10, 1943.)
1944. March 2. “Now I am placing my entire preparatory work for Akrita in order,” K. writes to me from Aegina. He aspires to write a Byzantine epopee which will become a pair with his Odyssey: thus, he will have embraced the largest part of the history of his race. However, he also wants to focus his gaze on New Hellenism: he writes Kapodistrias14 (May-July 17); and a while afterward, Konstantinos Palaiologos.15
After the withdrawal of the οccupation forces, Κ. returns from Aegina to Athens. He initially resides in 15, Filellinon Str., as guest in a friend’s family home, and then, in 2, Mavromataion Str., at the home of Mrs. Tea Anemogianni. He inadvertently becomes a witness of the Civil War in the capital.
Chronicling in a notebook the products of his hard labor during the War and Occupation, K. notes: “I wrote: England, Yangtze, three Prometheus (he means the trilogy), Zorba, Journeying – Russia, Kapodistrias, Konstantinos Palaiologos, (and the translations) Iliad, Odyssey, again Dante, St. François (by Jœrgensen), Machiavelli (The Prince) 16”.
1945. He resides in Athens, occasionally visiting Aegina.
Starting from the first months of the year, he works for the unification of various socialist groups. This political action culminates in the founding of the Socialist Labor Union. He articulates his political credo in an interview published in the Athenian newspaper Acropolis17 on the 29th and 30th of May, 1945.
The magazine Kallitehniki Ellada,18 of Stratis Myrivilis, publishes (Jan.-Mar.) the tragedy Prometheas Pyrforos,19 dedicated to Ι. Th. Kakridis.
March 5. Κ. submits his candidacy for a position in the Section of Letters of the Academy of Athens. He is rejected by two votes.
July. He goes to Crete with Professors I. Kalitsounakis and I.Th. Kakridis. They are on a government mission to ascertain the atrocities of the conquerors. Upon his return to Athens, he resumes his political action: on August 14, as President of the Socialist Labor Union, he speaks to his “comrades” and defines the shared goals.
November 11. Nikos Kazantzakis marries Eleni Samiou, his loyal companion. Angelos and Anna Sikelianos are best man and bridesmaid.
November 26. He is sworn in as minister without portfolio in the Sophoulis government.
The Athenian Publishing House “O Pinguinos”20 publishes the 1st edition of the tragedy Ioulianos21, dedicated to Ν. Sbarounis-Trikorfos. The Saviors of God22 is published in Athens with wood engravings by Giannis Kefallinos, dedicated to P. Prevelakis.
1946. January 11. He resigns from the post of minister (Official Government Gazette, January 20).
March 25. The Royal Theater, with Giorgos Theotokas as General Director, presents Kapodistrias for the first time.
April 18-end of May. In Aegina. He re-writes Konstantinos Palaiologos, arranges his documents in order: he prepares to travel to England, where he was invited by the British Council. (“I left Aegina for forty days”, he told me in 1953, “and I was never able to return”.)
May 27. The Hellenic Literary Society, of which he is the President, proposes him as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, with Sikelianos.
June 2. He leaves for England by boat: Toulon – Marseilles – Paris (June 6) – London (June 8). He stays in St. James Court hotel. He intends to visit the most eminent personalities of Letters and the Arts and to discuss with them the post-war problems of Civilization: “I decided to write: ‘Post-war conversations with English intellectual personalities’ ”. To this end, he meets with poet Kyle, David Garnett, Stephen Spender, John Lehmann; Professors Sheppard, Trevelyan and Lucas; Herbert Read, Elisabeth Bowen; Professors Jacobsthal, Dunbabin, Myres and Bowra; Walter de la Mare, Charles Morgan, Graham Greene, Rosamond Lehmann; the philosopher Joad, the sculptor Henry Moore and many others (from June 14 until July 26).
On July 30 he settles in Cambridge, in a room rented for him by the British Council (Castle Bray, Chesterton Lane) and begins to write a novel. He entitles the novel he has authored: “O Aniforos”23. (One chapter, “The Death of Grandfather”24 was published in Nea Estia on March 15, 1947, but the work in its entirety remained unpublished; many of its pages later passed into Kapetan Michalis.) During this time he exerts intensive efforts to attract the attention of the Swedish Academy as regards his nomination for the Nobel Prize, yet firmly supporting Sikelianos as a co-candidate. “I wrote to Sikelianos the day before yesterday telling him to consent to the undividable unification of our names.” (Letter to P., July 18)
From magazine Life and Letters (Sept. 1946) he addresses an appeal to the intellectuals of the world to found an “International [Association] of Intellectuals”25. (This appeal is the conclusion of his conversations with the British intellectuals; besides, it is dictated by the fear which overwhelmed humanity about the fate of civilization after the Hiroshima Holocaust.)
September 28. He goes from London to Paris, invited by the French Government. He stays in Hôtel de Nice, 4, rue des Beaux-Arts, VIe, and from October 10 onwards, at 19, Place de la Madeleine, the home of Mme R. Ruaux. His wife joins him there; this is the beginning of their self-exile.
In Paris, Κ. is reunited with many of his old friends: Rahel Lipstein-Minc (after 24 years), Renaud de Jouvenel and others. Mid-November, Prevelakis travels to see him for a few days. K. seems determined to pursue his writing career abroad, since his own country denounced him many times. Yvonne Gauthier-Goumenakis translates Zorba into French, which has just circulated in Greece (Publ. D. Demetrakos).
December. Brief sojourn in Brussels.
The Publishing House of N. Alikiotis publishes the 1st edition of Kapodistrias in Athens.
1947. February. Börje Knös completes the translation of Zorba in Swedish. This loyal friend of K. is destined to be one of the primary advocates for his success abroad. One could say that he was the first to translate all of N’s novels.
May 1. K. is appointed as Literary Advisor in UNESCO, following intensive efforts made by him and his friends. Towards the end of the year, he begins to translate Ioulianos26 in French on his own. He plans to translate the entirety of his theatrical works and to present it to international theater professionals.
Zorbas, translated in French by Yvonne Gauthier, is published by the Parisian Éditions du Chène.
1948. Κ. performs his duties in UNESCO and simultaneously translates his works in French: Melissa, Ioulianos, Odysseas, Prometheas Pyrforos27 Realizing that it is now impossible for him to devote himself entirely to his writing, he resigns from UNESCO on March 25, after eleven months of service. He feels liberated: “Jour de libération 25.3.1821/25.3.1948” he notes in his agenda.
On March 30 he speaks at the Congrès International de Littérature, in Paris, on Modern Greek Literature. A theater group of new actors, under the direction of G. Carmier, selects Ioulianos to instruct in a “new theatrical group contest”. The first reading takes place on April 14. Κ. does not stay for the performance. On May 31 he leaves from Paris alone28 by automobile29 for Southern France. By June 2 he has settled in Antibes: Villa Rose, 6, Allée des Palmiers, Boulevard du Cap. From the 6th until the 19th of June, he writes the tragedy Sodom and Gomorrha.30 Ioulianos is presented in one single performance in Paris, for a contest of new theatrical groups. Eleni arrives from Évian. Zorba is accepted by publishers in England, America, Sweden, Czechoslovakia.
July 7. K. begins to write Christ Recrucified.31 On July 27 he notes: “My lip became swollen while writing how the hero in the novel, who was going to impersonate Christ, was swollen”.
September 7. “I completed the novel Christ Recrucified”.
September 13-20. Prevelakis stays in K.’s home for a week. K. reads to him the first chapters of Christ. Börje Knös is also hosted there for a few days (Sept. 26-30), and then, Bruno Lavagnini (Oct. 2-5).
November-December. K., as it is his habit, rewrites (2nd writing) Christ Recrucified.
1949. January-February. He writes a new novel, The Fratricides32 (or “He wants, he says, to be free: Kill him!”). His unpublished manuscript was found in his belongings.
April. He writes the tragedy Theseus (or Kouros)33. The K. couple moves to Villa Manolita, in Saramartel Park, in Antibes.
May-July. He writes the tragedy To Chryso Milo (or Christophoros Colombos). 34
July-August. He remolds, in a new form, Konstantinos Palaiologos.
End of August-September. He is in Vichy for therapeutic baths, as, from time to time, his face swells. (The cause of his ailment has not been accurately diagnosed yet.)
October. Zorba is published in Stockholm by Ljus Förlag35, translated by Borje Knös. In the summer Nea Estia publishes Sodom and Gomorrah, which also circulates as a reprint.
December. K. launches a new novel: “I am immersed in Kapetan Michalis. I struggle to resurrect the Heraklion of my childhood.” (Letter to P., Dec. 3)