Sea of Many Returns is a work of fiction that has drawn on many personal and historical sources. I owe much to the people of Ithaca for sharing their stories. I am grateful to Andreas Anagnostatis, generous keeper of Ithacan lore, and Dennis Sikiotis, for his knowledge of Ithaca. I thank my partner Dora’s extended family in Athens and on the island: Efthimios and Aleka, Yiannis and Dionysia, Makis and Kalliopi, Sevasti and Athanassios, Aunt Agelo, cousin Rigo, Aunt Georghia and the late Dimitri Varvarigos.
I thank Lula Black, Loula Coutsouvelis, Konstandina Dounis, Tony Knight and Helen Nickas for reading the manuscript, and Jim and Melita Vlassopoulos, Tasia Couvara, and Spyridoula Maroulis, generous hosts of many Ithacan gatherings in Melbourne. For their support, I thank George Coutsouvelis, Olga Black, Peter Paxinos, Eustratia and Demetri Pimenides, Effie Detsimas, the late Stathis Raftopoulos, the Ithacan Philanthropic Society, and the editorial board of Odysseus.
Michael Heyward is a publisher and editor with an uncanny ability to see the big picture. Jane Pearson edited the book with great skill, care and enthusiasm.
I owe much to Dora: for our many journeys to Ithaca over the past two decades, for family stories, interpreting conversations, advice on the text, and ongoing discussions of its themes. In many ways, it is Dora’s book, and Alexander’s, our son and travel companion.
While this is a work of fiction, historical events have been carefully researched. In reconstructing the Black Sea voyages, I drew on resources at the Maritime Museum in Vathy, travellers’ accounts, and conversations with descendents of Ithacans who traded along the Danube River.
The anti-Greek riots in Perth and Kalgoorlie are based on contemporary reports in The Kalgoorlie Miner. I also drew on Reginald Appleyard and John N. Yiannakis, Greek Pioneers in Western Australia, University of WA Press, 2002; and Hugh Gilchrist Australians and Greeks, Vols I & II, Halstead Press, Rushcutter’s Bay, 1992 & 1997. The lyrics for If I die on the boat are from Gail Holst’s book, Road to Rembetika, Anglo-Hellenic Publishing, Athens, 1975. The Gambler is a fictional character inspired by Nikos Kallinikos whose brief biography appears in George Kanarakis, Greek Voices in Australia, Australian National University Press, Sydney, 1987.
A State Library of Victoria fellowship provided time and access to the W. G. Alma Conjuring Collection, and to Marion Mahoney Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin’s original drawings for the Capitol Theatre. Historian, Donald Leslie Johnson asserts, ‘it would be safe to say that modern architecture in Australia began with the Cafe Australia.’ I am grateful to Dianne Reilly who administered the fellowship, and to the library staff.
Other books I drew on include: Neal Ascherson’s seminal work, Black Sea, Hill and Wang, New York, 1995; Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1995; Bill Bunbury, Timber for Gold, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1997; Donald Leslie Johnson, The Architecture of Walter Burley Griffin, MacMillan, South Melbourne, 1977; Clive Turnbull, Frontier, the Story of Paddy Hannan, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1949; Jeff Turnbull and Peter Y. Navaretti, editors, The Griffins in Australia and India, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1998; and Melbourne-based Owl Publishing’s Greek Diaspora Literature series.