Henry Miller, who was living in Paris at the time, defying the bad omens - when the messages of World War II were looming on the horizon - decided to come to Greece in 1939, having secured the hospitality of the English writer Lawrence Durrell, who was living in Corfu. Initially, he moved without a plan, going here and there. He would be impressed by his meetings with Katsimbalis, Seferis, Antoniou, Hatzikyriakos-Ghikas, Tsatsos, and because of them, he would extend his stay. He would leave Greece pressured by the American embassy that wanted its citizens to leave the country, due to the war that had now begun.

His impressions from his trip would take the title "The Colossus of Maroussi" and constitute a unique exploration of Greek human geography.

The book also includes the notes that Henry Miller left with George Seferis before leaving Greece, which bear the title "First Impressions of Greece," and in the past had been published as a separate book.