Literary and Artistic Archives: the blog of the Section on Literary and Artistic Archives of the International Council on Archives

The collecting of literary archives in Greece introduces a rich and diverse range of institutions, with major roles for archives, libraries, foundations and museums, including museums dedicated to a single author (Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, Georgios Drosinis Museum, etc.)

A major development in the recent history of Greek literary archives was the acquisition in 2012 of the archive of C. P. Cavafy, comprimising over 4600 manuscripts and personal items, by the Onassis Foundation – which also supports the famous Cavafy Summer School in Athens.

As in many other countries, notably in South America, France and the countries of the British isles, the national library plays an important part. The National Library of Greece holds literary archives from the past three centuries, including papers of Dionysios Solomos, Dionysios Romas, Demetrios Vikelas, Aggelos Sikelianos and Katina Pappa.

Also in Athens, the Gennadius Library, founded in 1926, holds the papers of a number of the most celebrated modern Greek authors, including Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elytis, George Seferis, Georgios Theotokas and Elias Venezis. In an example of a “split collection” the Gennadius Library also holds some papers of Demetrios Vikelas.

The Academy of Athens should be mentioned, as it holds papers dating back to those of Ioannis Vilaras (1771-1823) and some papers of Dionysios Solomos and Georgios Tertsetis.

The General State Archives of Greece holds the papers of several important literary organisations as well as the literary papers of Georgios Vizyinos, Ioannis Dambergis and others.

Some universities hold literary papers, notably the archive of Georgios Giannaris in the University of Crete; and it is interesting to note that (as in France) there are a number of examples of local libraries building collections of papers of literary authors associated with their town or island – good examples being the archives of Nikiforos Vrettakos in Sparta, of Dinos Konomos in Zante, of Costas Krystallis in Zosimaia, and of Adamantios Korais in Chios.

For more information about this rich panoply of literary collecting, see: Marietta Minotos and Anna Koulikourdi: ‘Management of archival literary sources: the Greek approach’. Comma, 2017-1, pp. 121-130.

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This text is taken from the Caribbean Literary Heritage website:

Why literary archives matter

In many ways, the archive shapes what is seen to constitute Caribbean literature, authorship and literary history. In a context where the colonial past forced exclusions and erasures, the need to think critically and creatively about the archive is especially significant. Identifying and preserving existing archives, mapping losses as well as finds, encouraging new acquisitions and bringing all possible sources into visibility will help create a more democratic and pluralising version of the literary past and thereby of the Caribbean’s cultural, national and regional heritage. 

As researchers on this project, we have not only been reading and writing about literary archives but we have also been keen to raise awareness around the value of authors’ papers among living writers – who, after all, are the future of the region’s literary past. Any authors who are currently building their archive can access advice. Marta Fernández Campa has worked closely with the writers Karen Lord, Sharon Millar, and NourbeSe Philip to explore their ideas and approaches to record-keeping and you can learn more about this LINK It is still relevant to note that far less has been archived in relation to women writers from the region more generally.

In the Anglophone region, it was Prof Kenneth Ramchand’s successful request for funds to found a collection of authors’ manuscripts at UWI in 1968 that laid the foundations for what is now the West Indiana Collection at the UWI Library at St Augustine, Trinidad. This remains a flagship literary collection and actively acquires the papers of living writers. UWI and especially Lorraine Nero, Senior Librarian, have been a key partner in this project. In the digital age, both literary creation and reception takes place in an online environment and this also has a profound impact on what we understand by an author’s archive. While it would be mistaken to assume that electronic material is more readily retrievable, more open and accessible, and easier to preserve than paper, the Digital Library of the Caribbean, launched in 2004, has transformed access to rare and hard to reach primary materials across the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanaphone, and Dutch Caribbean. dLOC’s digital archiving helps overcome information biases against small islands and the organization has also modelled strong ethical principles in terms of cooperative working. dLOC, especially Laurie Taylor and Perry Collins, have been active partners on our digital outputs and have offered us a permanent home for our research.