A last-minute decision by a court on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos allowed the the local prefecture to release on Saturday a book containing 12 previously unpublished letters by the late Nobel Laureate Odysseus Elytis.

The beneficiary of the poet’s intellectual rights, Ioulita Iliopoulo, lodged an appeal asking for the book “My Dear Teriade” not to be released, but the court said the publication of the book was protected by the freedom of the press law.

Elytis had written the letters to his friend Stratis Eleftheriadis-Teriade and Teriade’s widow gave them to the poet, who compiled the book on behalf of the Lesvos Prefecture, the Athens News Agency reported. Local prefect Pavlos Voyiatzis said all 5,000 copies of the book were being given away to libraries and book lovers to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Elytis, whose family was from Lesvos.