Elias H. Papadimitrakopoulos

Elias H. Papadimitrakopoulos (Pyrgos, Ilia, August 23, 1930 – Athens, November 29, 2024) was a Greek novelist, prose writer, and military doctor.

He was born in Pyrgos, Elis, where he spent his childhood and youth. After the death of his father, a lawyer, in 1943, his family faced difficult times. As he later wrote, he studied at the Military Medical Faculty of the University of Thessaloniki from 1949 to 1955 out of necessity.

From 1959 to 1968 he served in Kavala. There he first appeared in mail advertising with the short story “O frakasanes”, which he published under a pseudonym in the Kavala magazine Argo in 1962. He also collaborated with the magazines Skapti Yli (Kavala), Tachydromos (Kavala), Dialogos (Thessaloniki), Dialogos (Lechenia), Anti, Harti, Chroniko and To Tetarto. In addition, he served for many years as editor-in-chief of the journal Medical Review of the Armed Forces. He retired from the army in 1983 with the rank of senior chief surgeon.

His work, considered part of Greek post-war literature, is characterized by linguistic simplicity, subtle irony, and tender nostalgia for the difficult years of youth. He was recognized in 1995 with the short story award from the magazine Diavázo.

He occasionally wrote articles for the newspapers Kathimerini and Eleftherotypia and also edited books by lesser-known authors such as Homer Pellas (1921–1962). [5] He is also responsible for the first critical presentation of the work of Nikos Kachtitsis in Greece, which appeared in a private publication in 1974. His most recent works are the short story collection The Treasure of the Nightingales (2009) and the story Symtopia of a Plane Tree (2010).

In 2007, the documentary film “House by the Sea” was made about him, directed by Lefteris Xanthopoulos.