1 P. Prevelakis (ed.), Τετρακόσια γράμματα του Καζαντζάκη στον Πρεβελάκη (Athens 1966) 574–5. (Hereafter abbreviated as 400, followed by page number.) Where not otherwise specified, translations from the Greek originals are my own.

2 N. Kazantzakis, Επιστολές προς την Γαλάτεια (Athens 1984) 191.

3 By ‘America’ (and thus ‘Americanization’) Kazantzakis generally means the United States (his employment of this latter term is comparatively rare). When speaking of other parts of the hemisphere, he typically added a modifier, e.g. ‘South America.’

4 As Kazantzakis wrote of Japan: ‘What Europe started, America has exaggerated to its ultimate consequences.’ N. Kazantzakis, Ταξιδεύοντας. Ιαπωνία-Κίνα (Athens 1964) 48.

5 N. Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα του Καζαντζάκη στον Κακριδή’, Νέα Εστία 102 (1977) 257–300 (283).

6 ‘I continually think about how we might be able to work together for six months in order to finish the Odyssey,’ he wrote to Rae Dalven on 17 November 1947. ‘I'll do what I can to come to America. Not, however, to live in New York; no one can concentrate there.’ And yet, ‘We are preparing for New York!’ he exclaimed to Kakridis on 9 September of the following year. P. Bien (ed.), The Selected Letters of Nikos Kazantzakis (Princeton 2012) 655; Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 284.

7 Bien, Selected Letters, 655. Rae Dalven was a Greek-born translator and playwright with whom Kazantzakis intended to collaborate on a translation of the Odyssey. See now Goldwyn, A.J., Rae Dalven: the life of a Greek Jewish American (Ioannina 2002)Google Scholar.

8 See his letter to Prevelakis, 7 July 1947: 400, 575.

9 Bien, Selected Letters, 109.

10 Ibid., 464–5.

11 Bien, P., Kazantzakis: politics of the spirit II (Princeton 2007) 273Google Scholar.

12 Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 278.

13 400, 650. ‘Since my books are having so much success,’ he writes in the next sentence, ‘imagine what the others would.’

14 Bien, Selected Letters, x.

15 ‘America,’ he wrote in the Japanese account, ‘with her worship of machines, quantity, speed… Time has become money there, and the mind is at the service of matter.’: Kazantzakis, Ταξιδεύοντας. Ιαπωνία-Κίνα, 52.

16 N. Kazantzakis, Toda Raba, tr. A. Mims (New York 1964) 7.

17 Ibid., 181.

18 ‘Today an Eastern civilization does not exist. Whatever is clearly Eastern, is unadaptable to contemporary life, is provincial and backward. The East must, in order to create once again its own civilization, serve an apprenticeship to the West. It must first complete its term of service of Western civilization.’ N. Kazantzakis, Ταξιδέυοντας: Ιταλία – Αίγυπτος – Σινά – Ιερουσαλήμ – Κύπρος – O Μοριάς (Athens 1969) 76.

19 Kazantzakis, H., Nikos Kazantzakis: a biography based on his letters (Berkeley 1983) 568Google Scholar. For the original Greek text, see the letter of 9 May 1930 in 400, 221–31.

20 Kazantzakis, Ταξιδεύοντας: Ιταλία, 15.

21 Ibid., 48.

22 Ibid., 49. The American-as-philistine motif recurs in a letter from 9 May 1930 in which Kazantzakis describes the performance of a Japanese play in Paris, lamenting that the depth of the work was lost on the French, few of whom were present. ‘There were only Russians there,’ he added, ‘because they have soul, and Americans, because they have dollars.’ Prevelakis, Τετρακόσια γράμματα, 197.

23 Kazantzakis, Ταξιδεύοντας. Ιαπωνία-Κίνα, 120.

24 Ibid. For additional context, see A. Vougiouka ‘Ο Νίκος Καζαντζάκης και ο “Τρίτος Κόσμος”’ in I. Spiliopoulou and N. Chrysos (eds.), Ο Νίκος Καζαντζάκης και η πολιτική (Athens 2019), 27–52.

25 See also his observations on Shanghai (‘accursed city’), Ibid., 39.

26 Kazantzakis, Ταξιδέυοντας: 'Ιταλία, 48.

27 Ibid., 41.

28 The exchange began with Kazantzakis reciting the haiku he had composed concerning the act of hara-kiri described above (‘If you open my heart, you will find the three strings of the samisen, broken’). Proud of his little ode to traditional ways and perhaps thinking that it might strike a nationalist nerve, he suddenly found himself subject to attack and ridicule: ‘The modern girl laughs and looks at me with irony: what are you sorry about? Let her commit hara-kiri, for us to escape!… Enough already! She shouted with anger… You don't know what we have endured for so many years!’ (ibid., 121-2).

29 H. Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, 213.

30 Letter of 28 August 1929: 400, 154.

31 Letter of 27 February 1930 (400, 180). The ‘new Russians’ are indeed ‘materialists’ he griped on 12 September 1929. ‘Their ideal is America, the dollar, and later they'll go to Paris and spend it in cabarets.’ (162).

32 As he wrote to Börge Knös on 14 June 1947: ‘Greece is plunging more and more into darkness. The Americans, in their turn, confusing the soul with the dollar, will commit huge mistakes in Greece. The Greek people clearly see the path to salvation and want to follow it, but are not allowed to.’: Bien, Selected Letters, 646.

33 H. Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, 456.

34 N. Kazantzakis and E. Lambridi, Αλληλογραφία με τη Μουντίτα (Athens 2018) 397. Minotis, the Cretan-born actor and friend of Kazantzakis, appeared in several American films, among them Notorious (1946), Siren of Atlantis (1949), and Land of the Pharaohs (1955).

35 In a letter to Kakridis from 8 June 1947 he expressed the hope that the ‘wise men of Stockholm will want to reward a life that has burned entirely for the spirit without turning to ash. My whole life, as you know, is one great pure fire.’: Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 280-1. Speaking again of the Prize on 10 August 1947 (281) he wrote: ‘That would be the great salvation.’

36 See especially the letter to Prevelakis of 25 October 1934 (400, 436).

37 Letter of 8 August 1934 (400, 429).

38 400, 431. Note that by ‘America’ Kazantzakis may also have been alluding here to an interest in visiting South America. This possibility is raised by an earlier letter to Prevelakis of 4 March 1931 (240) in which he had expressed a wish to ‘go far away’ perhaps to ‘India, the islands of the Pacific, South America’.

39 In a letter to Prevelakis on 5 April 1932 (400, 319), he reported on the possibility of producing an ‘American translation’ of Toda Raba.

40 One author suggests that the idea came from Papandreou: N. Psilakis ‘Νίκος Καζαντζάκης: “घω κι εγώ τον καημό ολόκληρου του γένους…” Από την περιπέτεια της Κατοχής στην κυβέρνηση Σοφούλη’, in Ο Νίκος Καζαντζάκης και η πολιτικη, 232–54 (240).

41 For the background to Kazantzakis’ brief entry into post-war Greek politics, see Bien, Kazantzakis: politics of the spirit, II, 250–1.

42 Bien, Selected Letters, 610.

43 Cited in Bien, Kazantzakis: politics of the spirit, II, 256.

44 Ibid., 257.

45 Bien, Selected Letters, 632.

46 H Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, 458. She continues: ‘Prevelakis and Kazantzakis drew up detailed plans for an Institute of Greek Culture in the United States. The Athens government, always blind wherever the future of the race was at stake, refused to renew Kazantzakis’ passport.’

47 This term was used by Benedict Anderson in reference to the populations of ‘migrants’ from the ‘Second and Third Worlds’ who, though uprooted by ‘capitalism's remorseless, accelerating transformation of all human societies’, still seek to play a role in political affairs in their homelands: ‘Exodus’, Critical Inquiry, 20, 2 (1994) 314–27 (326). Such efforts, writes Nina Glick Schiller, encompass actions ‘designed to influence the political situation within a territory’ in which the actor no longer lives but may ‘still call home’. This may include attempts ‘to appeal to larger dispersed populations, urging them to identify with a homeland nation and take action on its behalf.’: ‘Long-Distance Nationalism’, in I. Skoggard, C. R. Ember, M. Ember (eds.), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world (New York 2005) 570–80 (571, 574).

48 Kazantzakis and Lambridi, Αλληλογραφία, 120.

49 In a letter from Vienna in 1922, Kazantzakis spoke of publishing ‘a communist journal, to send to Greece’. He likened the endeavour to the national consciousness raising efforts of Greek intellectuals in the years before the Revolution. ‘Here in Vienna,’ he continued, ‘five or six years before 1821, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Λόγιος began to be published by Anthimos Gazis, and this periodical prepared the national uprising of Greece. How I wish that we could again, from here, start the next one, the human one!’ [μακάρι να μπορούσαμε πάλι απ’ εδώ ν' αρχίσομε το επόμενο ξύπνημα, το ανθρώπινο!]: Kazantzakis, Επιστολές προς την Γαλάτεια, 33–4.

50 For additional background on the venture and the causes of its failure, see Holton, D., ‘Kazantzakis in Cambridge’, in Mackridge, P. and Ricks, D. (eds.) The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945–1955 (London 2018) 215–26Google Scholar.

51 Plans for travel to America are mentioned again in letters of October 15, 22 and 28, 1946 (400, 552–3). In another letter to Prevelakis from 27 November 1946 (555) he refers to their ‘efforts to relocate to the New World’.

52 As he wrote to Prevelakis on 25 January 1947 of his aims, ‘Thus, I will be saved, because I've stopped having great hopes for America.’: Bien, Selected Letters, 635.

53 ‘I'm working terribly hard here,’ he wrote to Prevelakis on 28 June 1947, ‘trying to tolerate the bitterness of wasting my time in non-creative work’. (400, 648).

54 400, 575.

55 400, 574.

56 400, 575.

57 400, 582–3.

58 The savings apparently came afrom the UNESCO position, as indicated in a letter to Prevelakis from 7 August 1947: ‘Lots of work here. My salary has increased to six hundred dollars a month. Most of it I deposit in New York so that I'll have something to live on when I go – if the world is still alive.’: Bien, Selected Letters, 649.

59 400, 584.

60 H Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, 473.

61 See a letter to Prevelakis on 15 October 1946 in which he expressed the hope that his play Melissa would be performed in the United States (400, 551).

62 400, 579.

63 Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 281.

64 Letter of 4 September 1947 (400, 581). The subject was also brought up often with Kakridis; see e.g. Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 283–4. This translation involved a collaboration with Rae Dalven, which Kazantzakis planned to fund out of his own pocket. Correspondence relating to the project (covering the period February to April 1948), including the issues of remuneration, living, and even dining arrangements can be found in Bien, Selected Letters, 661–5. These hopes were frustrated by the refusal of the Greek government to issue him a passport. As he wrote in a letter to Knös in April 1948, ‘Today's fascist government in Greece denied me the visa because, it seems, they're afraid that I might give political lectures.’ (ibid., 665).

65 400, 585.

66 Kazantzakis, ‘84 γράμματα’, 284.

67 400, 650.

68 H. Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis, 515.

69 ‘Life Force à la Grecque’, Time 61, 16 (1953) 122–6 (122).

70 E. Fuller, ‘The Wild and Wily Zorba’, New York Times 19 April 1953, BR 4-5 (5).

71 Zorba was meanwhile a character who ‘makes the heroes of most modern fiction seem like dyspeptic ghosts.’: ‘Life Force à la Grecque’, 124; ‘Recent and Readable, Time 61. 18 (1953) 118. For The Atlantic, likewise, Zorba was ‘a truly epic creation.’: ‘Books: The Editors Like’, The Atlantic, June 1953, 78.

72 ‘The Year in Books’, Time, 62, 25 (1953) 94–6 (94).

73 ‘Lycovrissi Parable’, Time, 63, 2 (1954) 84.

74 ‘Fate of a Hero’ Time, 67, 3 (1956) 100.

75 Ibid.

76 ‘Under the harsh sun of Crete,’ waxed the writer, ‘neither brooding Teutonic mysticisms nor romantic self deceptions can survive. The pages of a Kazantzakis novel reveal the secret of ancient Greek greatness – a ruthless and abiding taste for reality.’ (Ibid).

77 ‘Cretans and Turks’, The Atlantic 197, 3 (1956) 88–89 (89). The novel was panned on similar grounds in Fiedler, L. A., ‘Horse-Opera in Crete’, The New Republic, 134. 9 (1956) 19–20Google Scholar.

78 ‘Cretans and Turks’, 89.

79 400, 671. Schuster appeared at first to favour only an abridged translation of the work; see letters to Kimon Friar in Bien, Selected Letters, 759.

80 A Minotis ‘Πέντε ανέκδοτες επιστολές προς τον Αλέξη Μινωτή’, Η λέξη, 42 (1985) 114–18 (118).

81 E. Alexiou Για να γίνει μεγάλος (Athens 1966), 254.

82 See e.g. E. Alexiou, ‘Ο Καζαντζάκης καί η Γερμανία’, Νέα Εστία 102 (1977) 58–64. A few references to American authors appear in his correspondence: a letter to Prevelakis from 19 October 1932 (400, 336) describes a conversation in Madrid with Jiménez in which they ‘spoke continuously about poetry, about two great American poets, Frost and Masters’. 336. Elsewhere, he expressed interest in various works of Poe and Washington Irving (280–1). In 1929, he requested that Prevelakis contact another acquaintance and ask that she return his copy of a work by Whitman, adding ‘I need it very much.’ (113–14). He also displayed interest in the writings of William James and translated parts of his Principles of Psychology. (520).

83 Bien, Selected Letters, 816. He wrote again on 5 June 1957, ‘We think of you always and wonder when we will see you again. We, too, might come to America. I must not leave this world before seeing you again – before seeing and enjoying the work you have in mind.’ (ibid., 850).