Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion in 1883, when Crete was still part of the Ottoman Empire. He became one of modern Greece’s most prolific and internationally recognized writers, producing novels, poetry, plays, travel writing and philosophical work.
Zorba the Greek became his best-known novel internationally and later inspired the 1964 film. Other major works include Captain Michalis, published in English as Freedom or Death; The Last Temptation of Christ; and Christ Recrucified.
His religious and political ideas made him controversial during his lifetime. The Last Temptation of Christ was placed on the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books, while debate also surrounded his standing within the Greek Orthodox Church. He was never excommunicated.
Kazantzakis died in Germany in 1957 and was buried in Heraklion. His grave carries the words for which he is perhaps most remembered: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
The 1954 first English edition of Christ Recrucified listed by Pappas Market is a vintage copy and should be understood as an individual collectible object, not a newly manufactured book.
View the vintage first English edition of Christ Recrucified.
Source and further reading: Adapted from Gregory Pappas’s profile of Nikos Kazantzakis in The Pappas Post. Product-edition information is taken from the current Pappas Market listing.