In the three score years since Mykonos emerged as a tourist Mecca of the Mediterranean countless stars and world-renowned figures have landed on the “island of the winds.” A year after the historic visit of USA’s first lady Jackie Kennedy, another distinguished American experienced its austere Cycladic beauty.
May 1962 was a “Greek” month for author John Steinbeck (1902–1968). In the twilight of his career and with his health rapidly declining, he had embarked on a family tour across Europe the previous Fall.
Despite a heart attack he suffered in Milan, followed by several weeks of recuperation, he resolved to continue his tour. Taking the ship from Bari, Italy, he crossed the Ioanian sea and reached Athens. There he lectured at the American College, met old friends, including legendary actors Katina Paxinou (Oscar and Golden Globe Award winner, 1943) and Alexis Minotis, and got a promise from the King and Queen of Greece that, should he work again with director Elia Kazan, an entire Greek island would be at their disposal for shooting the film!
His stay in Athens reached an emotional peak atop the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis. The spectacle of his two sons trying to imaginarily fill in the Parthenon’s hollow pediment with the sculptures they had formerly studied at the British Museum brought tears to his eyes.
Steinbeck’s Greek sojourn ended with a cruise to the Aegean islands, including Mykonos. His encounter with locals, not excepting the island’s mascot Peter the pelican, seems to have brought him luck. Only months later, in October 1962, he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
*Dr. Ilias Chrissochoidis is a researcher at Stanford University and the editor of Spyros P. Skouras, Memoirs (1893–1953).
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