Short Biography

He was born on the 30th of October 1896 in Tripoli. His father was a county engineer so at his childhood he had to change homes frequently. He lived in Argostoli, Lefkada, Larisa, Kalamata, Athens and Chania.

Since 1912 he had started to publish poems in various children magazines. After getting his degree from the Law School of Athens, he was appointed clerk at the Prefecture of Salonica. His free nature couldn't accept the bureaucracy of the state, which he sneers any time he can (his prose text Catharsis (= purification) is characteristic). For this reason he was removed from his post and sent elsewhere while "hunted" by his superiors. During these removals he got familiar to the boredom and misery of the country.

In February 1919 he published his first collection: "The pain of man and things", which is ignored or badly criticized by the critics. In the same year he publishes with his friend Agis Levendis a satirical magazine called "The Leg", which despite its success was banned by the police after the sixth issue.

In 1921 he publishes his second collection called "Nepenthe", which means those that have been freed from sorrow and grief. At that time he had an affair with the poet Maria Polydouri who was his colleague at the Prefecture of Attica. In 1924 he traveled abroad, visiting Italy and Germany. In December 1927 he publishes his last poetry collection: "Elegy and satires".

In February Karyotakis is transferred to Patra and in June 1928 to Preveza. From there he sends desperate letters to friends and relatives. In those letters he describes the misery of the town (which is also pictured in the poem called PREVEZA). On the 20th of July he goes to Monolithi and he tries naked - for ten hours - to get drowned in the sea, but in vain because he is a fine swimmer. In the morning of the 21 he returns home, drinks peacefully the glass of milk that his landlady offers to him and he leaves again. He buys a revolver and goes to a little coffee shop. He stays there for three hours, smoking cigarettes, he who never smoke! Near 5 p.m. he pays for his coffee and leaves. He goes to a seashore called Agios Spyridon and there -- under an eucalyptus -- he plants a bullet in his heart. His last note was found in his pocket.