First Impressions of Greece

Miller reached Greece in 1939 after leaving Paris to visit Lawrence Durrell. First Impressions catches the trip before memory and structure transformed it. Its original inscription called the pages “Little thoughts en route” on Greece, the Greeks, and other things; the manuscript began at the painter Nikos Ghika’s house on Hydra and ended at Delphi.

The book is inseparable from George Seferis. Miller dedicated the notebook to him and later gave him the entire handwritten manuscript rather than keeping a copy for his own projected book. Princeton’s Seferis papers preserve that manuscript, along with Miller’s later letters and working material from The Colossus of Maroussi.

Capra Press finally issued the journal in 1973, more than thirty years after it was written; Village Press published a London edition the same year. It is only forty-seven pages, best read beside Colossus rather than instead of it: field notes beside the composed score.

A compact run of impressions written as Miller moved through Greece: the light and landscape of Hydra, encounters with Greek writers and artists, the movement toward Delphi, and recurring thoughts about Seferis and friendship. The notebook preserves first responses, including unvarnished judgments that the later travel book reshapes or leaves behind.

There is no continuous plot. Its interest lies in seeing observation before revision — how a place, a host, or a passing annoyance begins turning into the mythology of The Colossus of Maroussi.