Psichari, Jean (1854–1929)

Ukrainian-born Greek author. He wrote in the popular (demotic) language, successfully claiming for it the status of a national literary language in place of archaic Greek. His To taxidhi mou/My Journey 1888 on this subject was used as a handbook by Greek poets. Other works include the semi-autobiographical T'oneiro tou Gianniris/The Dream of Gianniris 1897 and Le Voyage du centurion/The Centurion's Voyage 1914. Though his work is often sentimental, he contributed much to the development of Greek fiction.

He was born in Odessa, lived and studied in France and Germany, and first went to Greece 1886.