Memoirs of Davoud Mussaee from market of book and publication

I wanted to work for myself; a secret that should not be disclosed

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2017-8-29

According to the website of Iranian Oral History, the 18^th meeting out of the second round of the meetings “Oral History of Book” was held in the Institute of Book House on Tuesday 15^th of August 2017. It has been organized by Nasrollah Haddadi, the presented and expert of the program and attended by Davoud Mussaee, the Head of Farhang-e Moaser (contemporary culture) Publications.

Khorsand Printing House and Azar Publications

In the beginning, Mussaee said, “I was born on 26^th of November 1954. We lived in Tehran but due to an accident happened for my father that led to his death, we had to come back to my birthplace for four and a half years. I studied from the second to sixth grades of elementary school in the town of Ardestan and then moved to Tehran with the family, because my mother was an thoughtful woman and knew well that her children could not grow up in a small town.

When we entered in Tehran, I was some 12 years old. I started working in May 1966 in Bein al-Haramein bazar in Khorsand Printing House which was a pioneer in printing industry at that time. I worked there for some five or six months. I found out that it was not suitable with my spirit over there. The atmosphere of the printing house and offset at that time was the atmosphere of master and apprentice. The apprentice had no right to protest. I felt that the printing house was as a torture place for me. I contented my mother under various pretexts not to go to the printing house.

Since I was the bread-winner, I had to find another job. Of course my mother worked in the house. I remember exactly on Friday evening of a spring day, I along with my mother came to the late Morteza Azimi to find a job for me. The late Morteza Azimi came from Zavareh to Ardestan around the years 1962 and 1963 when he wanted to get his diploma, because there was no high school in Zavareh. The distance between Ardestan to Zavareh was some 15 kilometers and he could not come and go. Thus he lived in the house of my grandfather. My grandfather did not have a good financial situation but had a high spirit and the door of his house was always open for all. When Mr. Azimi agreed that I worked before him, it was one of the most unforgettable days of my life, because I was not supposed to come back to the printing house again. I started my job before Mr. Azimi the next morning. Mr. Mohammad Nik Dast had started his job there a few months earlier. Ali Rasouli and a person named Mehdi were also working there. After a while, Mehdi left there. I worked from 8 AM to 21:30 PM. The last bus arrived at 22 and sometime, I was sent for purchase and got late, and order to get the bus, I had to run fast. There, I found out that if a man is intending to do something, he or she can do it.   

I do not claim that I am very clever but I know that I am clever to some extent. I worked in Azar Publications for three years, but I recognized all of the books within three weeks. I knew how many books we had and where they had been placed in the shop. When the rest of the workers went out for lunch, I stayed alone in the shop. Sometimes, a customer came and since I was some 13 or 14 years old, he or she immediately asked for the shop’s owner. When I wanted to ask what they wanted, some of them left the shop and some trusted and said the book’s name they wanted to buy. For instance, they wanted the book “Money and Banking” authored by Dr. Manouchehr Zandi Haqiqi. I immediate fetched the book, and then said whether you liked to read also the book “Economic Balance or Non-Balance”. I in the bookshop had read all the golden books published by Amir Kabir Publications like “Round the World in Eighty Days”, Huckleberry Finn”, The Prince and the Pauper” and so on. When I always passed over the bookshops in Shah Abad (the current Islamic Republic Street), I saw the book “I am the Timur Jahangosha” and asked Mr. Azimi to bring at least two volumes of the book so that I could read it, but he said that the book could not be sold in this publications.”   

He continued, “I have never sold illicit books.” When I worked before Mr. Azimi and was 14 years old, a man came to the shop, asking for Maxim Gorki’s Mother. Mr. Nik Dast took a look at him and said we had this book. That person bough the book and wrapped it inside a newspaper. Some 15 minutes later, a 180 Mercedes Benz parked in front of the shop and two persons got off. They came inside and asked whether you three were inside the shop? I along with Mr. Nik Dast and Mr. Sadri who was a retired old man and Mr. Azimi’s cashier were in the shop. We were thrown inside the car and taken to Qezel Qaleh Prison. I and Mr. Sadri were not interrogated while I knew that we bought such books from Mr. Jarchi. Mohammad Nik Dast was kept in the detention center and I and Mr. Sadri were released two hours later.

Seasonal work

This publisher added, “There were people who had worked in Dehkhoda or Chehr bookshops for some eight to ten years. I asked myself whether my future was going to be like this?! When I came for working in front of Tehran University in 1966, there were eight bookshops over there, Tahouri, Azar, Chehr, Aboureihan, Dehkhoda, Daneshjoo, Amir Kabir and Book House publications. My own feeling was that all of these publications liked me to work with them. One day, I took a look at Mr. Azimi and said that I did not work for you from the beginning of the month. He took a meaningful look at me and said what I wanted to do. I scared him a lot and in response, I said that I wanted to work for myself and sell books. He asked to tell my mother to come here and I agreed. I scared my mother very much too. Several days passed and I told her nothing and Mr. Azimi thought that I had forgotten the issue and asked me nothing. After a few days, I said the issue to my mother. She got upset very much and came to see Mr. Azimi. She contented him that I stayed in Azar Publications by according to the decision I had already made, I did not go the shop since the beginning of the month. During the three years, I had gotten familiar with many people such as Parviz Bastan, Morteza Salehi and others. I went before the bookshops in front of Tehran University and said that I was going to work for myself. Each of them gave me some 10 to 20 books in trust. I could fit some one hundred books. I spread a nylon cloth on the ground and started selling the books. My mother still did not know that I did not work before Azimi anymore. If Mr. Azimi paid me 50 tomans a week, I could earn 80 tomans a week and gave it to my mother. My mother had surprised that I receiver higher salary. Since she was always worried about her children to become ramblers, I told her that I was working for myself. My revenue increased in the second and third months and the months ahead.

When the autumn and winter seasons came, I just found out that my work was seasonal. I was ashamed of coming back before Mr. Azimi. Thus, I went to Aboureihan Publications. Mr. Kazem Mortezavi was there. I asked him to work there and he agreed. I spent the autumn and winter seasons there. I again started my own work in the spring. Some two years passed in this way and I still had not found my own way. I did not know what to do. I did not want to continue such job for years like some people. In the winter of the year 1970, when I was still working in Aboureihan Publications, I visited Mr. Hossein Khamenei, the head of Amir Kabir bookshop in Mehrabad Airport. He asked me what I was doing and I told him that I sold books beside the street in spring and summer seasons and worked in this shop in autumn and winter. Then he told me that he rented a pavilion in Super Store in front of Jam-e Jam. He had rented a pavilion for foreign books, and Iranian and foreign journals. When I saw the place, I accepted to work there. Houshang Kavoosi and Masoud Ansari were among the customers of the Super Store. The first shop of Khamenei was here, the second one in Jordan (current Nelson Mandela) Boulevard which belonged to Ali Abbasi (film producer) and the third one to the army. I had become so skilled in my job after about one and a half years that Khamenei told me you are not my employee but my manager. Whenever he rented a new shop, I went there and launched it.I trained a person for some two weeks to one month and then went to another shop. The third store was the 115 Army store in the current Shariati Street. I worked for some two years over there. The story was completely different there. Some 95 percent of our customers were military cadres. We sold books for children as well as stationery in this shop. The store had two entrances; the common people entered from one entrance and the other one which was located in the parking was for the officials. Our pavilion was in front of the parking door. We had been informed that Brigadier General Abdolkarim Ayadi was going to visit the store the next Monday. The general was the special physician of the Shah and had a great influence. When the general arrived, first he came to visit our pavilion, asking me the price of a consignor, a box of colored pencils and other things. For a moment, it came to my mind that I told him the lower prices that what we really sold. He ordered his adjutant to pay the price of three items. The name of head of the store was Colonel Shah Bodaqlou and had a deputy named Ramin. One day, the colonel came and asked with Azeri accent where Hossein Khamenei was. I answered I did not know. He asked me to tell him to come here immediately. I scared and said to myself that certainly I had done something wrong. Mr. Khamenei had an office in the bazar. I contacted with his office and told him the story. He said why you did not tell me that general Ayadi had come for a visit. He asked whether the general bought anything from out shop. I answered yes he bought a few items. He said whether you know that prices of our goods had been ten percent cheaper that the other shops outside here. I said yes, adding that I said the prices of the goods cheaper than their real prices. He hugged, kissed and persuaded me”.              

Launching a more modern place for exposing books

Mussaee continued, “one day, Mr. Khamenei came and told me that I found a person to replace you for working, because I wanted to work for myself. He tried a lot to content me to stay but I did not agree and said that I was going to expose books for sale again. Jafar Heidari offered me to expose goods jointly together and I agreed. One of our customers at that time was Kamran Fani.”

Mussaee said, “I visited a person named Akbar who worked in Daneshjoo Bookshop before Mr. Melamed by chance. I knew that Mr. Melamed bought Hayem Dictionary in simple form, then indexed and sold them. At that time, the Hayem Dictionary was the most updated English dictionary. I asked Akbar whether he was doing this. He said no, Melamed did this in the room. I encouraged him to learn this work at any possible means from Melamed in order to do for himself. Some one month later, he came to me and said you hurt me, I did whatever you asked me, Melamed understood and fired me. Akbar had seen the device. It was a very simple manual press machine and might worth some 150 to 200 tomans at that time. Akbar had built the machine and prepared its words, but did not know where the blade. The available blade did not work well. I paid the cost for building the machine and told Akbar to go to Melamed and excuse him and come back to work. I took and brought the device to my house I had to find who built such blades which acted like cutting machines. In those days, in addition to Melamed, another person did this. I could find the address of that person by giving ten tomans to his apprentice. I went there and bought blades. A new page opened in my life with this. Since the next day, I came in front of the university and got books form different publications. My financial situation improved a little. My brothers came to help me gradually. I did this in my house for about one year. One day, it came to my mind that there might be the electrical type of such machines. I received one thousand dictionaries from Mr. Yahuda Brokhim and indexed them with a suitable price. Little by little, I went before other publishers including Abdolrahim Jafari and Amir Kabir Publications and increase one machine to two and more. I signed a contract with Mr. Brokhim and indexed all of his dictionaries. Then I bought a 120-meter basement for myself and launched some 15 machines there. I was some 20 years old at that time and 40 persons worked here. I know that the secret of my job should not be disclosed for the rest, so I hid the place of my work from all.”          

At the end of the meeting, Davoud Mussaee donated to kahrizak Charity Institute the gift received from Institute for Book House.

The new round of the meetings "Oral History of Book" has been held in the Book House Institute; the first meeting on 12^th of April 2017 attended by Haj Beitollah Radkhah (Mashma’ Chi), the Head of Tehran-Tabriz Publications, the second meeting on 19^th of April 2017, attended by Jamshid Esmaeeliyan, the head of Parto Publications, the third meeting on 26^th of April 2017 attended by Abolqassem Ashraf-al Ketabi, the head of Ashrafi Publications, the fourth meeting on 17^th of May 2017 attended by Hojjat-al Eslam Biok Chitchian, the head of Mortezavi Publications, the fifth meeting on 23^rd of May 2017 attended by Seyed Jalal Ketabchi, the head of Islamiyah Publications, and Seyed Fardi Ketabchi and Seyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, the heads of Elmiyah Islamiya Publications, the sixth meeting on 30^th of May 2017 again attended by Seyed Jalal Ketabchi, the head of Islamiyah Publications, and Seyed Fardi Ketabchi and Seyed Mohammad Baqer Ketabchi, the heads of Elmiyah Islamiya Publications, the 7^th meeting on 6^th of June 2017 attended by Morteza Akhundi, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications, the 8^th meeting on Tuesday 13^th of June 2017 again attended by Morteza Akhundi, the Head of Dar al-Kotob al-Islamiyah Publications, the ninth meeting on 20^th of June 2017 attended by Mahdieh Mostaqni Yazdi, the owner of Karnameh Publications, Makan and Roozbeh Zahraee, the sons of the late Mohammad Zahraee, the former head of Karnameh Publications, the tenth meeting on Wednesday 28^th of June 2017 re-attended by Mahdieh Mostaqni Yazdi, the owner of Karnameh Publications and Roozbeh Zahraee, the son of the late Mohammad Zahraee, the late head of Karnameh Publications, the eleventh meeting on Tuesday 11^th of July 2017 attended by Mohammad Reza Najian Asl, the Head of Rasa Publications, the twelfth meeting on Sunday 16^th of July 2017 attended by Mohammad Reza Jafari, the Head of Nashr-e No (new publication), the thirteenth meeting on Tuesday 18^th of July 2017 attended by attended by Mohammad Reza Najian Asl, the Head of Rasa Publications, the fourteenth meeting on Tuesday 25^th of July 2017 attended by Mohammad Reza Jafari, the Head of Nashr-e No (new publication), the fifteenth meeting on Saturday 29^th of July 2017 attended by Mohammad Nik Sirat the head of Payam Publications, the sixteenth meeting on Tuesday 8^th of August 2017 attended by Saeed Eqbal Ketabchi, the head of Eqbal Publications and the seventeenth meeting on Saturday 12^th of August 2017 againt attended by Saeed Eqbal Ketabchi, the head of Eqbal Publications.  

Also, the first round of the meetings of “Oral History of Book” was held with the attempt of Nasrollah Haddadi in the Book House Institute since 2014 to summer 2015. The result of the meetings has been published in a book entitled “Oral History of Book” in 560 pages by the Book House Institute.