Kostas Varnalis

Kostas Varnalis ( Greek Κώστας Βάρναλης , Bulgarian Костас Варналис * February 14 ^{. Jul} / 26. February  1884 ^greg. In Burgas , Bulgaria ; † 16th December 1974 Athens , Greece ) was a Greek poet, writer and publicist. In 1959 he was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize.

Life

Kostas Varnalis was born on February 14th ^. / February 26, 1884 ^greg. Born in the Black Sea city of Burgas, then part of Eastern Rumelia , now part of Bulgaria . His family probably came from Varna , where the surname is derived from. In 1908 he finished his studies of literature at the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens. After graduating, he worked as a teacher in Athens and in some Bulgarian cities. His first collection of poems Kirithres ( Greek Κηρύθρες ) was published in Athens in 1905.

In 1919 he went to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne to study literature, philosophy and sociology. During his studies in the French capital, he got to know ideas of Marxism, which he implemented not only in his poetry, but also in practice. Because of his leftist attitudes, he was de-registered from the university. In the following time he worked as a journalist and wrote two books about the Greek poet Dionysios Solomos . He is also the author of several collections of poetry, Greek tragedies, plays and essays.

Works

Poetry collections

• Kirithres (1905)
• Free World (1965)
• People's Anger (1975)

stories

• The Diary of Penelope (1947); in German: Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1975

pamphlet

• The True Apology of Socrates (1931)
• The Dictators (1954)

Dramas

• Atal III (1970)

Web links

• Literature by and about Kōstas Barnalēs in the catalog of the German National Library
• Poems by Varnalis (Greek) ( Memento from June 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• More poems (Greek)
• Brief biography of Varnalis (Greek)