Rescued at the last minute from the dumpster
«An Open Letter to All Intellectuals as a Group and as Individuals» is the title of a letter by Menelaos Loudemis, written from the infirmary of the political exiles’ camp on the island of Aghios Efstratios in 1955. It is also one of the many papers Christina Dounia found scattered among files she salvaged from the House of Arts and Letters. A reseacher and scholar of modern Greek literature, during her career she has spent hours looking among files on dusty shelves. Dounia’s book on Costas Karyotakis won the state essay prize last year. «Much of the material I managed to save belongs to the Association of Greek Writers, founded in 1942 and active for about 20 years. In its first two years, according to its members’ list, it had 85 members.» «From what I could find out, the association originally attracted writers from various areas, including a large group from the provinces and the diaspora. It had branches in Egypt, Cyprus and Thessaloniki and smaller ‘cells’ in London and Ioannina. Some of the writers from outside Athens and abroad included Yangos Pieridis, Cypros Chrysanthis, Costas Montis and Nikos Kranidiotis,» said Dounia. «Another group were the essayists, critics and literature historians who were accepted for the first time as members of a literary association – Vassos Varikas, Yiannis Kordatos, Yiannis Sideris, Panayis Lekatsas, Angeliki Hadzimichali and Julio Kaimis. The more distinguished members from the period between the wars included Dimosthenes Voutyras and Napoleon Lapathiotis, the younger members Nikos Papas and Rita Boubi-Papa, while Nikos Englonopoulos joined in 1943.» Apart from their intrinsic historical value, these archives are interesting for their biographical and other material on a number of writers, both important and of lesser renown, with manuscripts, notes and often photographs. The Association’s correspondence is also of great interest, as it has information on conditions for writers during the occupation and the civil war, descriptions of literary events, competitions and awards and information on writers’ unions and freedom of the press. Dounia also mentioned references to the nomination of Angelos Sikelianos and Nikos Kazantzakis for the 1946 Nobel Prize and of Stratis Myrivilis and Ilias Venezis in 1958, the nomination of Voutyras as a member of the Athens Academy, letters from political exiles in Youra in 1959, Loudemis’s letter from Aghios Efstratios in 1955 and one from Stathis Dromazos from Aegina prison in 1960. The archives of the Association of Greek Musicians, of which only a small part was saved, contain manuscripts by the great composer Manolis Kalomiris, board members Marios Varvoglis, Thodoros Karyotakis and others, minutes of meetings since the 1930s, letters from Pantelis Prevelakis and Costis Bastias in 1938 and 1939, cultural and union activity, contacts with orchestras and organizations abroad as well as a relatively recent file with biographies and lists of works by modern Greek composers such as Giorgos Kouroupos, Pericles Koukos and Kyriakos Sfetsas, among others. «Human activity is not usually responsible for the damage to the soil in these areas, though the use of fertilizers and other chemical preparations may play a part. The soil is generally not fertile.»
