Open Papers: Selected Essays

Part autobiography, part statement of artistic principles, the five essays collected here cover Elytis's journey to poetry, from discovering the works of Sappho at age 16 to winning the Nobel Prize in 1979. Born in Crete in 1911, at 18 Elytis heard ``a secret voice'' that led him to abandon everything for his art. As a student in the 1930s he was totally absorbed in the Surrealists with luard, Breton and Lorca offering new perspectives to a young man already influenced by Freud, Baudelaire and Novalis. He pays tribute to these and other writers in the essay ``For Good Measure,'' which also honors Picasso for his insistence on turning upside down one's view of the natural world. In the most interesting section of the book, ``Chronicle of a Decade,'' Elytis recounts the time spent seeking out writers and periodicals that would be sympathetic to newfound passion for a lyrical and mystical vision of life. Elytis's credo is set forth in the title of the last essay-``Art-Luck-Risk.'' If, through the decades, Elytis did take political and artistic risks, this clear articulation shows that his art was not guided by luck or risk alone but by a real belief in modernism. (Nov.)