In spite of his accomplishments, Philip Ramp notes that Anagnostakis "is the least known, to an English speaking audience, of the major Greek poets of his generation.
Anagnostakis' first book of poetry, Epoches (Seasons) was published in 1945, at which point, according to Ramp, the poet's Marxist "dream had already failed him".
[1] His left-wing sympathies had inspired him to join the Resistance, which would lead to his being sentenced to death by a military court during the Civil War.
Arrested for his involvement with the Student Movement at the University of Thessaloniki in 1948, Anagnostakis spent several years in Heptapyrgion, a state prison.
Although Anagnostakis' 1971 collection represented the end of the published works he was best known for, his existentialism-influenced verse left its mark on a younger generation of Greek poets.
[5] Other characteristics of the early poems are its "bold, conversational tone",[6] sometimes in the form of an epistle, and at others culminating in direct advice to the reader.
Beaton also notes "a deep distrust of the poet's very medium, which runs through almost all the poetry of his generation",[6] as, for instance, in the poem "Now He Is A Simple Spectator".
[1] In the Synecheia series, written between the Civil War and the Regime of the Colonels, Vangelis Hadjivassiliou notes that Anagnostakis extends that ambivalence to his politics, as well.