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IOANNA TSATSOS' AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WORK: LIFE AND HISTORY
Maila Garcia AMOROS
Ioanna Tsatsos was born in Smyrna as Ioanna Seferiadis in 1902 1 . She was the daughter of a great
intellectual called Stelios Seferiadis, an eminent professor of International Law, and poet. She was
also the sister of the Nobel poet George Seferis. In 1914 the family moved to Athens owing to the
pressures of the government of the Young Turks against the Greek population. In 1918, they moved
to Paris and returned to Smyrna after the war in the summer of 1919, except George, who stayed in
Paris because of his studies. However, their stay in Smyrna was only a summer visit, because in
October they went back to Athens where they settled indefinitely. In 1921 she made her last visit to
her homeland.
In 1923 she started her studies at the Faculty of Law, in Athens, probably advised by her father,
although she always felt a special fondness for literature. In 1924, her political consciousness woke
up and she reacted against some injustices perpetrated by the dictator Theodoros Pangalos, whom
she protested against, with some of her colleagues. In this way she overcame the prejudices they had
against her, not only because she was a woman (there were only two women in the Faculty of Law)
but also because she was the daughter of a university professor.
In 1927 she finished her studies and she began her training period at Maridakis – Tsatsos lawyer's
office, where she met her husband, Constantine Tsatsos. At the same time she started her doctoral
thesis with the title «The influence of nationality on the validity of marriage» which she defended in
1930, becoming the first Greek woman in possession of a Ph.D. in Law 2 . A few months later she got
married to Constantine Tsatsos, adopting the surname which she would henceforth sign all her works
with.
She never worked as a lawyer, however, her intellectual and social activity was very intense. In
1933, Seferiadis Tsatsos family moved to their residence at Kidatineon Street, where they lived until
the end of their lives. This address was not unknown to the intellectuals and men of letters, who
used to visit the house, where every night, until the Occupation, interesting gatherings on literature
and philosophy took place. Many important writers used to give to Ioanna their new works to receive
from her the first review of it. Also important political personalities such as Constantine Karamanlis 3 ,
George Kartalis 4 or Archbishop Damaskinos 5 , among many others, were usually invited to
Kidathineon house.
This intense intellectual activity was interrupted by the entry in Greece of the Axis Powers in
1940. Although the Occupation was one of the worst moments in the contemporary history of
Greece and one of the hardest experiences of our author, during that period started her literary
activity 6 , because writing became her refuge from the hard reality of those times. During these years
she wrote one of her top works, the diary The Sword´s Fierce Edge. This work can be considered a
historical document of the Occupation of Greece and it is also fundamental to understand our
author´s literary theory. Throughout the period of the Occupation she worked in the offices of the
Archbishopric, taking over the control of executed people and prisoners. The Archbishopric created
the Service and Support to the Families of the executed with the purpose of giving support to those
families. This fact angered German and Italian forces, who proceeded to interrogate Ioanna at
Commando Piazza 7 . The list she made up was published in 1947 under the title Executed during the
Occupation and served as evidence in the trial of Nuremberg 8 . The diary was published twenty years
later, in 1965. From that moment, her literary production was continuous until 1993 and it is
constituted by autobiographical prose stories, and poetic collections.
Ioanna was always closely linked to the political life of her country. Her father was a close
associate of Elefterios Venizelos, her brother George Seferis was a diplomat and ambassador and her
husband was one of the protagonists of Greek political life after the occupation, being Minister of the
Presidency with Karamanlis government from 1956 to 1964, and President of the Republic between
1975 and 1980. In her diary Moments and Memories, published in 1988, she narrates the last days of
the dictatorship in Greece (1967‐1974) and the invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Day by day, she refers to
the democratic transition, the return of Constantine Karamanlis to Greece and to her husband's