One of the great Greek poets of the 20th century never published a book.
Konstantinos Kavafis (Cavafy in English) was born in Alexandria in 1863 and died there on his 70th birthday, in 1933. For thirty years he worked as a clerk in the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works; when he quit, in 1922, he called it liberation. His poems he printed himself, on loose sheets for friends, or in local papers and magazines. The first collection came out two years after his death. His canon: 154 poems.
His themes: history, especially the Hellenistic world and its decline; love between men, said more openly than almost anyone of his time; and a quiet philosophy of dignity. His friend E. M. Forster brought him to English readers in 1923.
His most famous poem: Ithaka. Set to music in Catalan by Lluís Llach in Viatge a Ítaca.