1 Although the book was published in October 1932, the cover gave the year of publication as 1933.

2 See Vitti, M., Όι δυο πρωτοπορίες στην ελληνική ποίηση 1930 με ‘40’, О Πολίτης 1 (1976) 76 Google Scholar.

3 Karandonis, A., Ένας υπερμοντέρνος λόγιος’, Ιδέα 8 (1933) 120-1Google Scholar.

4 Karandonis, ‘Ένας υπερμοντέρνος λόγιος’, 122.

5 Karandonis, ‘Ένας υπερμοντέρνος λόγιος’, 124.

6 Xydis, T., ‘H ποίηση στα 1933’, Ιδέα. 13 (1934) 22 Google Scholar.

7 Parasenos, K., ‘Mia ματιά στο σύγχρονο νέο ελληνικό λυρισμό’, Σήμερα 11-12 (1934) 370 Google Scholar.

8 Parasenos, K., ‘Νικήτα Ράντου: Ποιήματα’, Νέα. Εστία. 146 (1933) 118 Google Scholar.

9 Paraschos, ‘Mia ματιά στο σύγχρονο νέο ελληνικό λυρισμό’, 370.

10 Delios, Y., ‘Νικήτα Ράντου: Ποιήματα’, Μακεδονικές Ημέρες 10-11 (1933) 375 Google Scholar.

11 The enigmatic Theodoras Dorros (1881-1954) had published a small collection of poems entitled Στου γλοτωμον το χάζι in Paris in 1930. His name was long believed to be a pseudonym, as the facts of his life and work was shrouded in mystery. However, documents in the ELIA archive in Athens finally revealed the details of his identity. See M. Haritatos, ‘Νέα στοιχεία για τον Θ. Ντόρρο’, Καθημερινή, 26 February 1981.

12 Karandonis, A., Εισαγωγή στη νεότερη ποίηση (Athens 1958) 162 Google Scholar.

13 Karandonis, Εισαγωγή στη νεότερη ποίηση, 154-5.

14 Vitti uses the term ‘Generation of the Thirties’ to include mainly those young writers and critics, such as Seferis, Theotokas and Karandonis, who collaborated on the influential literary journal Tot Νέα Γράμματα (1935-44). See Ηγενιά του τριάντοι (Athens 1995) 51-2.

15 Tziovas, D., Greek Modernism and Beyond (Lanham 1997) 36-7Google Scholar.

16 Calotychos, V., ‘The art of making claques: politics of tradition in the critical essays of T. S. Eliot and George Seferis’, in Layoun, M. N. (ed.), Modernism in Greece? (New York 1990) 81–136 Google Scholar.

17 Calas has suggested that the critics’ emphasis on Greekness and their search for a new (conservative) national poet led them to Seferis, who enjoyed the support of and help from friends in obtaining this elevated place in Greek literature: ‘O Δημαράς τότε ήταν απολύτως πεπεισμένος ότι ήμουν о νεος ποιητής της νέας γενιάς κτλ. Αλλά άλλαξε γρήγορα γνώμη, παλινδρόμησε δηλαδή, διότι ήταν κοα συγχρόνως φίλος άλλων, οι οποίοι ήθελαν να κάνουν τον Σεφέρη διάδοχον του Παλαμά κοα τότε εμένα αυτό μου έδινε την εντύπωση ότι ήθελαν να βγάλουν εναν νεο καθεστωτικό ποιητή, συντηρητικό σε όλες του τις απόψεις’. From a television interview, edited by G. Gaitanos, Άυτοπαρουσίαση’, Σχολιαστής (February 1989) 13.

18 Karandonis only warmed to surrealism with the publication of Embirikos’ second collection Ενδοχώρα in 1945. We can assume that one of the reasons for his change of mind had to do with the fact that the poems turned away from the linguistically extreme style based on ‘automatic writing’ and were increasingly placed within a recognizable Greek topography.

19 Vitti has argued that the poem ‘To τραγουδι των λιμενικών εργων’ has a non-Greek setting and suggests that Calas’ poetic expression was imported or formulated largely from foreign influences (H γενιά τοο τριάντα, 96). However, even if it is true that Calas’ poetry was influenced by foreign literary movements such as Russian futurism and French surrealism, Vitti seems to have taken the references to gold-diggers, Wall Street and Shell Oil in this poem rather too literally as denoting a topographical placement and thereby fails to realize that Calas more probably meant to criticize foreign involvement in Greek matters apart from the international power of capitalism and its effect on Greece. The poem is included in Calas, Γραφή και φως (Athens 1983) 11-14.

20 Lambropoulos, V., Literature as National Institution: Studies in the Politics of Modern Greek Criticism (Princeton, NJ 1988) 127-8Google Scholar.

21 Bosnakis, P., ‘Nicolas Calas’s poetry and the critique of Greekness’, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora 24 (1998) 26 Google Scholar.

22 Calas, Γραφή кои φως, 32.

23 Calas, Γροκρή και φως, 36.

24 Valaoritis, N. and Maskaleris, T., An Anthology of Modem Greek Poetry (Jersey City, NJ 2003) 169 Google Scholar.

25 Calas, Γραφή кол φως, 33.

26 Giannakopoulou, L., ‘Perceptions of the Parthenon in Modern Greek poetry’, journal of Modern Greek Studies 20 (2002) 241 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Giannakopoulou, ‘Perceptions of the Parthenon’, 261.

28 Calas, Γραφή кса φως, 24.

29 Calas, Γραφή кои φως, 68.

30 Calas, Γραφή кои φως, 80.

31 Calas, Γροιφή кои φως, 81.

32 Calas, Γρα,φή кои φως, 82.

33 Calas, Γραφή кои φως, 83.

34 It is interesting to note that two acquaintances of Calas’ wrote about the island and leper colony around the same time. Themos Kornaros, who was writing for the communist Νεοι Πραηοτιόροι together with Calas, published writings on both Spinalonga and Mount Athos in 1933. See Äyiov Όρος, . Οι άγιοι χωρίς μάσκα,/ Σπιναλόγκα ‘ad Vitam’ (Athens 1974)Google Scholar. The novel Гц кои νερό by William Abbott, a close personal friend of Calas in his youth, was published in 1936 (republished Athens 2003) and also takes place on Spinalonga.

35 Bien, P., Constantine, P., Keeley, E. and Van Dyck, Karen (eds.), A Century of Greek Poetry, 1900-2000 (River Vale 2004) 358-61Google Scholar.

36 Calas, Γραφή кш φως, 61.

37 Calas, Γραφή кш φως, 63.

38 Calas, Γραφή кш φος, 65.

39 Calas, Γραφή кш φως, 64.

40 This was initially just meant to be the title of Calas’ postwar series of poems, but eventually became the title of the 1977 collection Οδός Νικήτα. Ράχτου, which includes the four small poetry collections (1933-6) as well as the poems that date from 1945-77. Calas clarified the choice of title in a letter, dated 14 October 1967, to Kimon Friar, who went on to translate several of these poems: ‘Title indicates that Nicolas Calas still follows the path of his older self when he wrote under the penname of Nikitas Randos. It is the road that takes [him] from New York back to Greece’ (Calas Archives, file 26.19.4).

41 Abrams, M. H., A Glossary of Literary Terms (London 1993) 187 Google Scholar.

42 Friar, K., Modern Greek Poetry — from Cavafis to Elytis (New York 1973) 659 Google Scholar.

43 Pelt, M., ‘The Colonels’ coup of 21 April and the regime issue in Greece 1944–1967’, Scandinavian Journal of Modern Greek Studies 2 (2003) 71 Google Scholar.

44 Bosnakis, ‘Nicolas Calas’s poetry and the critique of Greekness’, 32.

45 Close, D., Greece since 1945 (London 2002) 96 Google Scholar.

46 Calas, , Οδός Νικήτα Ράντου (Athens 1977) 103 Google Scholar.

47 C. Capri-Karka argues that Seferis often used the symbol of a dry or broken jar to mark ‘the lack or waste of love’ and refers to ‘Slowly You Spoke’ (‘An unwritten love rubbed out / and a dry pitcher’) and a poem in Three Secret Poems (‘The land is ceaselessly desiccated: / an earthen jar’) apart from the above-mentioned ‘The King of Asine’. See Love and the Symbolic Journey in the Poetry of Cavafy, Eliot, and Seferis, (New York 1982) 159 Google Scholar, 193.

48 Bosnakis, ‘Nicolas Calas’s poetry and the critique of Greekness’, 33. The poem’s reference to ‘πανβουρλισμός’ most certainly does not mean ‘all rubbish mixed up’, as Bosnakis claims, but transforms the word ‘πανζουρλισμός’ into a reference to Seferis by alluding to Skala Vourlon, the fishing village close to Smyrna where the poet spent his childhood summers, as Dimitra Karadima likewise argues in ‘Ol μεταμορφωσεις της ποιητικής του Νικόλαου Κάλας’, PhD thesis (Cyprus University, May 2006) 317. Other references to Seferis in this poem include ‘σεφερηδες’ who will travel ‘μέσον λεωφόρου Συγκρουσεων’ which is a pun on the poem ‘Λεωφόρος Συγγρού 1930’.

49 Seferis, Yorgos, Ποιήματα. (Athens 1979) 147 Google Scholar.

50 Valaoritis Papers, Princeton University. The typewritten prose poem was attached to a letter from Calas to Nanos Valaoritis, dated 9 October 1964.

51 In a letter to Valaoritis, one of the editors of Πάλι, Calas wrote (29 January 1963): Άσφαλως μη δημοσιευσεις τχ\ μικρή μου σάτυρα για то ζεστό νερό. It’s just a joke’. See Valaoritis, N., Μοντερνισμός, κρωτοπορία. кса Πάλι (Athens 1997) 116 Google Scholar. However, one month later he changed his mind in a letter dated 17 February: ‘If the editor of the magazine wants to publish my satire on Seferis by all means YES. I thought you had objections and advised me not to’ (Valaoritis Papers, Princeton University). Finally, after the announcement of Seferis’ Nobel Prize, Calas wrote to Valaoritis (8 December 1963): ‘I was pleased that a Greek finally received international recognition with the Nobel Prize but actually Seferis receiving it is a recognition of the influence of Eliot on European letters. ... Please do not include my little satire on our Nobel winner, it would be of poor taste. I would rather you destroyed it’ (Valaoritis Papers, Princeton University).

52 Calas, Οδός Νικήτχ Ράντου, 92.

53 Calas, Οδός Νικήτα Ράντοο, 92.

54 Calas, Οδός Νικήτα Ράντου, 92.

55 While this line was initially placed after the line ‘Ladies and gents knee deep in sex’ in the manuscript (sketch form), it clearly makes more sense to place it here as being a direct reference to Greece.

56 Calas Archives, Nordic Library, Athens (file 17.5.3).

57 Seferis, G., Collected Poems, ed. and tr. Keeley, E. and Sherrard, P. (Princeton, NJ 1995) 179 Google Scholar.

58 Seferis, Collected Poems, 46.

59 For an analysis of the Generation of the Thirties and its attempt to ‘Hellenize’ Cavafy through an emphasis on Greekness, see Kazamias, Al., ‘To opto της «ελληνικότητας» στη λογοτεχνία της διασποράς — H περίπτωση του Κοφάφη’, New Greek Vanguard 1 (Autumn 2004) 6–13 Google Scholar.

60 This is a reference to his triune identity in the 1930s as M. Spieros, Nikitas Randos and Nikos Kalamáris — pseudonyms which, among other things, were created to cover his own identity crisis as a socialist critic/ polemicist and avant-garde poet from an (unwanted) bourgeois background. However, his idea of the trinity was, above all, an expression of his need to fuse politics, philosophy, psychology and art in the search for new dialectical patterns in artistic creation: ‘It is my firm belief that one of the principle [sic] tasks of the artists of our day who breathe the air of philosophic (Hegel), political (Marx), and psychological (Freud) triadism is to discover a pictorial expression that corresponds to the need of this world’. See Calas, , Confound the Wise (New York 1942) 197 Google Scholar.

61 Calas, Οδός Νικήτα Ράντου, 109.

62 Calas, Οδός Νικήτοί Ράντον, 118.

63 Calas, Οδός Νικήτα. Ράντου, 118.

64 Calas, Γραφή και φως, 95.

65 This is a reference to the Buddhist Naropa Institute in Colorado, where Calas lectured on modern art during their summer courses 1976-7. However, this collaboration soon came to an end, since Calas found it difficult to reconcile his surrealist and socialist revolutionary viewpoint with Buddhism. In a letter to his Trotskyist friend Michaiis Raptis, he wrote (2 August 1977) that he did not plan to return there the following summer because of ideological differences: ‘Παραδέχομοίΐ την βουδιστική ενατένιση ως λυση για εκείνους που δεν δέχονται την επαναστατική κοα ρομαντική Révolte, αλλά о διάλογος μεταξύ υπερρεαλιστών και βουδιστών, τουλάχιστον Αμερικάνων βουδιστών, δεν καρποφορεί.’ See Hoff, L. (ed.), Νικόλας Κάλας — Μιχάλης Ράπτης: Mia πολιτική αλληλογραφία. (Athens 2002) 114 Google Scholar.

66 Calas, Οδός Νικήτα Ράντου, 147.

67 Bosnakis, ‘Nicolas Calas’s poetry and the critique of Greekness’, 40.