|
Tassos Leivaditis enrolled in Athens University Law School but left to join the resistance when the Germans occupied Greece. He published his first poem, The Song of Hatzidimitris, in Elefthera Grammata magazine. In 1947 he helped publish Themelio periodical. He spent 1948 to 1952 in exile with other leftists in prison camps at Moudro, Ai-Stratis and Makronisos, where he continued to write poems, as he did on his release. In 1961 he took part in concerts by Mikis Theodorakis that toured the Greek provinces, reading from his work and conversing with audiences. He collaborated on the screenplay and wrote the lyrics for the Theodorakis’s songs in Alekos Alexandrakis’s film Dream Neighborhood, which was censored. He contributed to Avgi newspaper (1954-1966 apart from the seven years of the dictatorship), and also to Epitheorisi Technis review (1962-66), for which he wrote political and critical essays. His work won numerous distinctions, including the Greek State Award for Poetry in 1979 for Euthanasia Handbook. His poems and was set to music by several Greek composers. He was a founding member of the Hellenic Society of Authors.
|
