[2] Myrivilis was born in the village of Sykaminea (Συκαμινέα), also known as Sykamia (Συκαμιά), on the north coast of the island of Lesbos (then part of the Ottoman Empire), in 1890.

In 1910 he completed his secondary education and took a post as a village schoolmaster, but gave that up after one year and enrolled at Athens University to study law.

From April 1923 to January 1924, Myrivilis published, in serialised form, the first version of his First World War novel Life in the Tomb in the weekly newspaper Kambana.

In 1936, he was made General Programme Director for the Greek National Broadcasting Institute—a post which he held until 1951, excluding the period of German occupation when he resigned after a final broadcast in which he reminded the Greek people of their noble resistance to the Italian invasion of Greece and called on them to continue resisting with dignity and unity.

In 1958, after having been nominated unsuccessfully six times, he was finally made a member of the Academy of Athens, a belated recognition of his important contribution to Greek literature.