Menelaos Lountemis (1906-1977) was born in the village of Agia Paraskevi in the Anatolian city of Yalova. His real name was Dimitris Valasiadis and he came from a wealthy family that went bankrupt after settling in the Greek state. At a very young age, he experienced the drama of displacement. Uprooted from his Anatolian homeland, he settled with his family in Exaplatanos, where he spent his childhood years. From 1925, he attended the prestigious gymnasium in Edessa until January 1929, when he withdrew as a student of the fourth grade, as noted in the school's General Report. As a young student, he worked summers in the Vlach villages of Upper Almopia, acting as a teacher. 

To survive, he took on various other jobs (porter, shoeshiner, cantor, worker on the French river projects). He participated in the National Resistance and joined the EAM, where he served as secretary of the intellectuals' organization. During the civil war, he was exiled to Makronisos and Aghios Stratis, and in 1958 he stood trial for his book "Buried Days". 

From 1958 until the restoration of democracy in 1974, he lived in self-exile in Romania, while during the dictatorship of Papadopoulos, his Greek citizenship was revoked. He died in Athens while driving, from a heart attack. His first appearance in literature was around 1930 with publications of poems and short stories in the magazine Nea Estia.

In 1938, he published the collection of short stories "The Ships Did Not Anchor", for which he was honored with the Grand State Prize for Prose. He was also honored with the Golden Laurel of Pan-Europe (Paris, 1951). His body of work covers almost all genres of written language (prose, poetry, essays, theater, children's literature, translation, etc.).