Volume 51, Number 13 · August 12, 2004
He Was Published
By Manuel Savidis
To the Editors:
In your capsule bio of Constantine Cavafy [NYR, July 15] you mention that "his poems, which he wrote while employed by the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation, were not collected or published until after his death." This is far from the case. Cavafy published 180 poems during his lifetime (though not in book form) and he himself collected 153 of these poems as his poetic Canon. Furthermore, at least 48 poems of the Canon were written after Cavafy resigned from his position at the Third Circle of Irrigation of the Ministry of Public Works of Egypt, in 1922.
Manuel Savidis
Curator, Cavafy Archive
Athens, Greece
