Demetrios Capetanakis

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Demetrios Capetanakis (Kapetanakis, Δημήτριος Καπετανάκης) (Smyrna, 1912–London, 9 March 1944) was a Greek poet, essayist and critic. Resident in the United Kingdom from 1939, he wrote some poetry in English^[1].

He was a graduate of Athens University, where he was taught by Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, whom he would encounter again in the Greek government-in-exile in London, and held a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. In 1939 with a scholarship from the British Council he came to the University of Cambridge, studying under Dadie Rylands.

He became a protégé of Edith Sitwell. In 1941 he met John Lehmann.^[2], who published Capetanakis in New Writing and became a close friend. Through Lehmann he met William Plomer^[3].

He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1942^[4] In Birmingham he was supported by Dame Elizabeth Cadbury^[5]. He died in Westminster Hospital and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

[edit] References

• John Lehmann (1947), Demetrios Capetanakis: A Greek Poet in London

[edit] Notes

1. ^ In The Isles of Greece and Other Poems (1981) 17 were published.
2. ^ Adrian Wright, John Lehmann: A Pagan Adventure (1998), p. 127.
3. ^ Peter F. Alexander, William Plomer (1989), p. 243.
4. ^ Wright, p. 153.
5. ^ Wright, p. 154.