Georgios Drosinis

Georgios Drosinis (1859-1951). Georgios Drosinis hailed from a family of fighters from Messolonghi and was born in Athens. He attended his primary education at the Varvakeio School and the Sourmeli High School. He studied Law and, on the recommendation of Nikolaos Politis, Philosophy at the University of Athens, as well as Art History and Foreign Philology in Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin 1885-1888). He returned to Athens and from 1889 to 1897 he was the director of the magazine Estia, which he himself transformed into a newspaper in 1894. During the same period, he also directed the magazines National Education and Study (which he also founded). In 1899, together with Dimitrios Vikelas, he founded the Society for the Dissemination of Useful Books, where he published literary works, folklore, and other studies. In 1901, he established school libraries and in 1908 the educational museum. He also contributed to the establishment of the House of the Blind and the Sevastopouleios Vocational School, the First Educational Conference of 1907, and the Hellenic Folklore Society (1908). From 1914 to 1923, he served as a department head at the Ministry of Education with a wide range of activities, and he was also a member of the Academy of Athens from its founding year (1926). From 1922, he directed the Calendar of Great Greece. In the field of literature, he made his debut in 1879 with his poems in the magazine Rambagas. In the first phase of his literary production, he published the collections Spider Webs (1880) and Stalactites (1881), with which he joined the modernist poets who distanced themselves from the pompous style of the Athenian romantics of the First Athenian School. With the collections Idylls (1884) and Calm (1902), he joined the Generation of 1880, while he continued to publish poems until 1930 with the collection Evening Falls, as well as short stories and novels. He died in Kifisia in 1951. Georgios Drosinis is considered part of the poets of the New Athenian School, mainly due to the vernacular language and simplicity of expression in his poetry, as well as the influences he received from the Parnassian French poets and the Parnassian poetry of Palamas. In his prose, influenced by Emmanouil Roidis, Nikolaos Politis, and Angelos Vlachos, as well as his studies in Germany (he was a lifelong admirer of Schiller, Wagner, and Goethe), he often chose themes from life in the Greek countryside, presenting an idyllic perspective. Thus, he is placed in the first phase of ethnographic prose in the history of modern Greek literature. For more biographical details on Georgios Drosinis, see Dimitris Angelatos, "Drosinis Georgios," World Biographical Dictionary 3. Athens, Ekdotiki Athinon, 1985, Anna Katsi - Chrysogelou, "Georgios Drosinis," Our Older Prose; From its Beginnings to the First World War Z (1880-1900). Athens, Sokolis, 1997, Sofia Mavroeidi - Papadaki, "Drosinis Georgios," Great Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature 6. Athens, Hari Patsi, n.d., and M.G. Meraklis, "Georgios Drosinis," Greek Poetry; Romantics - Palamas Era - Post-Palamas; Anthology - Grammar, pp. 304-307. Athens, Sokolis, 1977. (Source: Archive of Greek Writers, EKEBI.)