Níkos Kazantzakis was born in 1883 on the island of Crete. Kazantzakis—writer, playwright, and well-regarded figure in the world of Greek literature—was known primarily for his novels Zorba the Greek (1946) and Freedom or Death (1950).
Kazantzakis was brought up in Crete during its uprising from the Ottoman Empire and fled with his family to the Greek island of Naxos. Later, he studied law and traveled all over the world—experiences which would inspire and color his later literature. He served as a minister in the Greek government as well as worked for UNESCO in Paris. Kazantzakis' writerly career spanned diverse genres: he wrote dramatic novels, translated famous works like Dante's ...
