In a previous post I presented the interview with Kostas Tsagkarakis, a marathon runner and organiser, with whom I have forged a strong friendship link over the past years. I have already told the story of how we met, thanks to the book he had written on G. Papavasileiou. In fact, that was the second book Kostas had written on a sports' personality. At the end of out marathon-length interview I asked him to talk about the books and how they came to be.
The first book on marathon runner Chr. Vartzakis.
KT When I was training for the marathon there was Chr. Vartzakis. He was 35 older than myself, born in 1911. When we were running 20 km, Vartzakis was always beating me. And he was not running alone. He was always accompanied by a dozen younger runners and he was the one setting the pace. He always started slowly, warming up progressively. In the 20 km races I was clearly ahead of him at mid distance, however upon reaching the final 2-3 kms I was hearing Vartzakis and company approaching and finally beating me. I was hearing various things about him. He himself was also regularly complaining. He was a man born in the wrong period. He was an athlete of Peiraikos, a club not among the major influential ones. Moreover the coach of Peiraikos was not on good terms with the coach of the national team.
One day I had the idea of writing a book with his story. I submitted the idea to Vartzakis, making clear that I was no writer and he would have a veto on everything I wrote. Moreover the book would cost him nothing and I was not going to make any profit from it. So we started. I visited regularly his house with a tape recorder. It was a difficult task since Vartzakis did not have a linear narrative. I was taking down everything and had to put some order to all that. I tried to write everything respecting the style of Vartzakis. He showed me all the memorabilia he had collected in his career, cups, medals, diplomas etc. When Vartzakis passed away the family, upon my advice, offered the collection to the Marathon Museum. In the collection of the Marathon Museum one can find the donation of Vartzakis along with the one of Kyriakidis (the Boston marathon winner) and of more recent marathon runners. Vartzakis has never been the best greek marathoner. His best time was just over 3 hours. He could not compare to Kyriakidis who had a record of 2 and half hours.
Once the book was written the real difficulty was how to edit it. I started by contacting the main publishers in Athens. They were discouraging, a book with this subject would not sell. They suggested that I pay for the publication, what was practically impossible. All this was just before the 2004 Athens Olympics. I decided to go and meet the Secretary General of the organisation. I had heard about the cultural olympics and that publications were among their activities. I obtained an appointment with him and I presented my project. His first question was whether there was any political views or critiques in the book. Of course, there were none. I left one copy with his secretariat and he promised a prompt answer. A few days later the edition was approved. Then I had to present a budget and so I found a professional printer. He was very well paid but I think that he ripped me off: the edition was too expensive. Also there were many misprints. I had to make several rounds of corrections and some misprints still remain. For the distribution I decided to give a number of copies to each of the clubs of runners for health. I kept a few copies for myself and Vartzakis. We made an official presentation of the book which was attended by many important personalities of the world of sports.
A yearly running competition in honour of Vartzakis
The book was distributed gratis. I did not like this because I know that people would not read a book given out free. I would have preferred to put a nominal price and use the money collected for some special purpose. That was what I decided for my second book.
The second book on the flying steeple-chaser, G. Papavasileiou.
I had always been an admirer of G. Papavasileiou. I was meeting him regularly at various competitions. One day I asked him whether anybody has written anything on him, his story. Since nobody had done it I suggested that I do it myself. I would write a first draft that he could then amend, and I would need photos, press clippings etc. He knew about the book on Vartzakis and the plan was to make something similar. We agreed and we started recording in the stadium of Nea Ionia. Again I had to work in order to give a structure to these discussions. The problem of the publication arose again. This time I found some other editor who gave me a price half of what I had paid for the first book. By setting a small price for the book we could cover the editing expenses, provided we sold a reasonable number of copies. I contacted the Greek Athletics federation, where Papavasileiou was well known, having occupied several positions in the board, as member of the judges group etc. They agreed to buy 500 copies.
The announcement of the presentation of the book
The presentation was programmed on the day where the great riots in Athens took place. For the presentation I had obtained the auditorium of the Hall of Commerce of Athens and moreover gratis, something really exceptional. We decided not to adjourn but we feared that nobody would show up a second time. Fortunately people came, more than 100 people showed up. At the reception my wife was selling copies of the book. She knew that, once we reached a number of copies sold, the publishing expenses were covered. While I was giving the presentation talk she made me a sign that we had got there and I could announce that the publication expenses were covered and from now all profits from the selling of the book would go to the Kivotos tou Kosmou, a greek non-profit organisation for the protection of mothers and children. We made a second presentation in Piraeus and we managed to push a few more books. My real disappointment was with AEK, the club of Papavasileiou. They did not show even the smallest interest in supporting the book. But I had also had pleasant surprises. One day a young lady called and ordered two copies of the book. When she gave me her name I realised that she was the daughter of one of my young athletes from Zakynthos, where I had served during my first years in the National Bank, the one who later became champion in steeple-chase.
So, what's next?
I have more plans for books but most probably the next one will not be a sports-themed one. I am currently working on the history of the suburb where I live. It was populated by people who came as refugees from Asia Minor (hence the name Nea Ionia) in 1922.
