Elias Venezis
Biography
Elias (also Ilias) Venezis was born in 1904 in Aivali. He lived there till World War I when his mother and siblings moved to Mytiline. His father and one of his sisters had been taken hostage by the Turks. The family left Asia Minor in 1922 but Elias was captured and he and others were sent to work in labour battalions, an experience which he recounts in his novel Number 31328 (not translated into English).He was one of only twenty-three who survived. He returned to Mytiline where Stratis Myrvilis was spearheading a new literary movement and he encouraged Venezis to write l Number 31328. which was first serialised in a newspaper. The book had considerable success. Hw worked for the Bank of Greece, first in Mytiline and then in Athens. He even wrote a history of the Bank. He was elected Chair of Literature at the Academy of Athens.
He had outspoken political views for which he was arrested under the dictatorship and nearly executed. He was later invoved in theatre and opera in Athens. His books had considerable success in Greece. Two novels and one play of his have been translated. He died in 1973 after a long illness.
Books about Venezis
Alexander & Helen Karanikas: Elias Venezis
Other links
Bibliography
(Only works published in English)
1939 Γαλήνη (Serenity)
1943 Αιολική Γη Aeolia, later Aiolian Land ; Land of Aeolia)
1946 Μπλοκ C (Block C) (drama)