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Nikos Kazantzakis | |
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Native name | Νίκος Καζαντζάκης |
Born | Kandiye, Crete, Ottoman Empire (now Heraklion, Greece) | 2 March 1883
Died | 26 October 1957 Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany (now Germany) | (aged 74)
Resting place | Martinengo Bastion, Venetian Walls of Heraklion |
Occupation | Poet, novelist, essayist, travel writer, philosopher, playwright, journalist, translator |
Language | Modern Greek |
Nationality | Greek |
Education | University of Athens (1902–1906; J.D., 1906)[1] University of Paris (1907–1909; DrE, 1909)[1] |
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Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης [ˈnikos kazanˈd͡zacis]; 2 March (OS 18 February) 1883[2] – 26 October 1957) was a Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher.[3][4] Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years,[5] and remains the most translated Greek author worldwide.[6]
Kazantzakis's novels included Zorba the Greek (published in 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950, translated Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs, and philosophical essays, such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises. His fame spread in the English-speaking world due to cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
He also translated a number of notable works into Modern Greek, such as the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Origin of Species, and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.[7]