The elderly Abdorrahim Jafari was once the managing director of one of the nation’s largest publishing houses. Who could have predicted that the boy who quit school at the age of 12 due to family problems would become a major private publisher?
“My mother took me to the Elmi Printing House at that time. She was angry then because I had left school. ‘You will at least not become illiterate’, she had said when taking me to the printing house, and I became the errand boy of the printing house, where everything began,” Jafari explained.
He gradually became interested in reading books. Before the school year began, he and others working at the printing house would study copies of the schoolbooks behind the printing machines.
“There was a publisher named Hossein Baryani Shabestari who published detective story books. I used to buy them every week. The publishers used to print old books.”
Jafari spoke about the first generation of Iranian publishers who had shops in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.
“They used to import old books from Bombay to republish, and then the second generation arose, Elmi, Islamieh, and Mehdizadeh publications, which published schoolbooks,” he added.
The old man later established his own publication house, called Amir Kabir. He sought modern writers at a time when other publishers were interested in old books.
“I wanted to be innovative in my work and publish good books. I was tired of Rustamnameh and Hossein Kord. I didn’t have much start-up money, but I was seeking fame. I was searching to find modern writers and poets like Forugh Farrokhzad, Simin Behbahani, Rahi Moayyeri, and Mina Asadi.
“There were not many female writers in those days. I used to find their names in magazines and newspapers, and then asked them to publish their writings. But now it is quite different. There are thousands of publishers but only a few works these days.”
Jafari said that he tried hard to get permission to print Sadeq Hedayat’s books after his death.
“I used to pay a 20 percent royalty to Hedayat’s family. This was not observed (in Iran at the time), and the publishers objected to what I did in those years. The book ‘Her Eyes’ by Bozorg Alavi was also first published by Amir Kabir.”
His career was full of innovation, such as publishing works by young writers.
“I grew up in poverty and I wanted to escape from it. I often watched films in cinemas and learned many things there. I learned innovation there. I also sought foreign books. For example, one day I saw the Larousse Dictionary and the idea of the Moin Dictionary occurred to me there, and it was ten years later when the Moin Dictionary was published in ten volumes.”
After many years, family problems led to his replacement as managing director of Amir Kabir Publications. However, Jafari is looking forward to the day when he can get the publishing house back again.
The old man said, “Amir Kabir Publications is dead, but I would like to revive it.”
RM/HG
END
MNA