The Dimitris Christodoulou Archive

The Danish Institute at Athens has been entrusted with the complete personal archive of the Greek poet, lyricist, playwright, and author, Dimitris Christodoulou.
The archive and all its contents may be accessed at the Nordic Library.

Dimitris Christodoulou was born in Athens in 1924. He studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theatre and also studied Political Science at Panteion University in Athens. During the occupation he became a member of EAM (The National Liberation Front), and in 1944-45, he was held captured for three months by the English in the camp “El Daba” in Egypt.

His work first appeared in public in 1952 in the magazine Makedonika Grammata (Macedonian Letters), where his poem Nychtofylakas (Nightwatch) was published.

In the period 1967-72, Dimitris Christodoulou lived in Paris. He published 27 collections of poetry, 15 novels, five short stories and wrote 13 theatrical plays.

He also made a vast contribution to the Greek treasury of song as a lyricist, as he wrote some of the most important songs put to music by great and important composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarchakos, Manos Loisos, Christos Leontis, Nikos Mamangakis, Notis Mavroeidis, and also Linos Kokkotos, Mimis Plessas, Giorgos Zampetas and Kostas Chatzis.

Dimitris Christodoulou passed away on 4 March 1991.

(Source: ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΗΣ)

The Dimitris Christodoulou archive contains personal letters, manuscripts, photographs, all published and unpublished material, LPs, shorter and longer videos, and much more.

D. Christodoulou Archive catalogue

The catalogue, which is in Greek, is divided into 13 categories:

• Poetry (ΠΟΙΗΣΗ) (Page 1 in the downloadable .pdf catalogue - see below)
• Prose (ΠΕΖΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ) (Page 3)
• Theatre (ΘΕΑΤΡΟ) (Page 5)
• Press (written and AV material) (ΑΡΧΕΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ) (Page 8)
• LPs (ΗΧΗΤΙΚΟ ΥΛΙΚΟ) (Page 9)
• Prof. correspondence (ΕΠΑΓΓΕΛΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΑΛΛΗΛΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ) (Page 10)
• Private correspondence (ΑΛΛΗΛΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ) (Page 42)
• Songs (ΤΡΑΓΟΥΔΙΑ) (Page 47)
• Chronicles (ΕΠΙΦΥΛΛΙΔΕΣ) (Page 93)
• Published and unpublished articles
  (ΚΕΙΜΕΝΑ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΜΕΝΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΗ) (Page 100)
• Scores (ΠΑΡΤΙΤΟΥΡΕΣ) (Page 101)
• Musical events with songs or participation of Dimitris Christodoulou
  (ΜΟΥΣΙΚΕΣ ΕΚΔΗΛΩΣΕΙΣ ΜΕ ΤΡΑΓΟΥΔΙΑ Η ΣΥΜΜΕΤΟΧΗ
  ΤΟΥ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΗ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΔΟΥΛΟΥ) (Page 101)
• Theatrical activities – staged performances
  (ΘΕΑΤΡΙΚΗ ΔΡΑΣΤΗΡΙΟΤΗΤΑ-ΑΝΕΒΑΣΜΑΤΑ ΠΑΡΑΣΤΑΣΕΩΝ) (Page 103)

The archive covers the years 1954-91, and is organized chronologically within each category. It consists of both typed (ΔΦ) and handwritten (ΧΦ) material (in bound books), photographs, LPs and electronic AV material.

The archive is catalogued by Antonis Petratos.

Download the full Archive Catalogue (pdf)