The manager of Ataie Publication made speech in the meeting of “Oral History of Book”:

There are lots of publishers, but a few vitrines (Part I)

Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Fazel Shirzad

2017-10-17

Note: As Iranian oral history website reported, the twenty-fifth and last meeting of second course of oral history book was held by effort of Nasrollah Haddadi, writer and researcher, and in the presence of Behrouz Ataie Fard, Manager of Ataie Publication in House of Writers and House of Book's  institution on 4 Mehr 1396 (2017-September-26).

Revolution and Passion of people for reading book

 I was born in the street of Lurzadeh in the south of Tehran on 8 Mordad 1331(1952-july-29). I have two older sisters and two younger brothers. My mother, Akram Razavi, like other women of those days, was a housewife, and as my father was holding lots of literacy meeting, she was responsible for hosting gusts, my mother had passed the elementary courses; she was also in good humor for poem and interested in Ferdowsi’s poems, and she used to murmur them."

He added:" we were living in the street of Air Force and I educated in Falah Elementary School. Then, I educated in Marvi high school where I become familiar with the publication of book because my father had an office in Naser Khosrow St., and Marvi School was near to the office. I used to go the office of father whenever I left the school; I become familiar with the work of writer and translators. In 1350(1971), I got my diploma and went to do military service, I went to study at the university in 1352(1973), and I graduated from the University of Science and Technology in the field of mechanic in 1356(1977). In the second half of year 1356, the revolution was going to be started gradually; the universities of Iran were undergoing many changes. In those days, books were being published by white covers. The books were published in Hajj Naib's alley where it was our area. In those situations of Iran, the publication of book was increased suddenly. When I graduated from the university, as my father asked for working at his office, I worked there when I graduated from the university; I found that people had a strong passion for reading book, and we tried to fulfill the needs of the people as much as possible."

Ataie, the manager of publication, told:" the first child of family, Farrukh Legha, is my sister who has BA degree in the field of English language and literature. Farahnaz, my second sister, has also BA degree in the field of English and Literature. She has a good humor in poem; some of her poems were performed as chanson. Majid was the fourth son of family, and we were living and working together until our father was alive, and we started to work separately in 1386 (2007). He took responsibility for publication" Ashianeh-e-Ketab[1]", and I was also responsible for Ataie Publication, the fifth child of family looked like my father in term of intelligence, perception and experience in literature. His name was omid, and he wrote some books in the fields of studying on Iran and comprehensive researches. The published books are "Aryan prophet", " Aryan theosophy", " the fight of Gods"," creation of Gods" and some books about Ferdowsi that some of them are prosed, and they are welcomed a lot."  

The publication of book, an old desire

Behrouz Ataie-Fard told about the life of his father, Ahmad Ataie, and the experience of publication and book in his family:" my father was born in one of southern area of Tehran, around Molvi square, in 1298. He formally started to work in a bookstore at the age of seventeen years old. Of course, he was previously working in a small grocery store of my father in that area. someday, the uncle of my father, Gholaomhossein Mozafari who was the manager of Mozafri bookstore, as it was a famous publication, came  in my grandfather's store and asked him not to waste the ability and capacity of my father and let him to work with Gholaomhossein Mozafari. As my grandfather tried to consider the future of my father and he was sure about the words of Gholamhossein, he accepted my father to work in Mozafri bookstore. The bookstore was in Naser Khusrow St. in those days, Naser Khusrow St. was a place for selling book, and some of writers usually came in this street, such as Sadegh Hedayat, Mohammad-Taghi Bahar(Malek o-sho’ara) and said Nafisi.

My father stayed and worked with Gholamhossein Mozafari; and he learned the technicality of publication and bookselling with lots of effort. My father wasn't able to read and write well; my grandfather sent him to an academy, and he learned to read and write over one year. Then, he began to study at new schools of Reza Khan[2], and it was his elementary course, later, he improved his knowledge, and the climate of his work, society and kinds of work became a basis for his education and teachers. After working in the bookstore, for 2 years and half, he saved 30 Toman[3], and he wanted to run a bookstore alone. When he consulted with Gholamhossein Mozadri, he accepted. After searching a lot, my father found and bought a small store, and he bought some bestseller books from Mozafari bookstore. In the Mawlawi street such as the cycle of Iraj Mirza's poems, mathematic, geometry and canon laws. Also, he bought some books from other bookstores and began to sell them, such as Amir Arsalan Namdar, Rostan Nameh, Hossein Kurd Shabestari, forty Parrots and Mullah Nasreddin, etc.

When my father was twenty years old, Dr. Mohammad Hossein Naser al-din Sahib Zamani came in his store and he was pleased for my father had a bookstore in that area. Dr. Sahib Zamani helped my father to establish Ataie Publication a lot. He got the agency of Ettela’at[4] and Keyhan[5] newpaper by the praise and guide from Dr. Sahib Zamani. He suggested my father to publish book; my father became worry at first, but he coped his fear and worry as he interested in publishing book for ages. The first book of my father named "Religious Teachings" and second one was "logic" which were published in 1316(1937), and whereas Dr. Zamani have selected a simple and fluent style to write complex contents, and an the other hand, logical issue was a new interesting one for everybody; it was welcome by many of people. After that, my father published a magazine named "Readable Abstract" in cooperation with Dr. Sahib Zamani and Kazem Massoumi who was their common friend. The magazine has published in 3000 volumes. The contents of this magazine were derived from the newspapers and books of those days. The presence of Dr. Sahib Zamani and the wealth of my father caused their work to be burgeoned; so, they moved to Rey St. and established Ataie bookstore. The students of Pahlavi[6], Anoshirvan, Mohammadi, Sanai and Danesh School were the customer of Ataie bookstore. In those years, in addition to publish again the books" Religious Teachings" and "Logic", that also published others book. My uncle, Mahmoud Ataie who was working with my father for ages, parted himself from my father and established a publication named Asia. Of course, he was died in an accident in 1344(1965). Experts believed that if he was alive, he could be genius in his work. Another my uncle established a separated publication named Kourosh Kabir (Great Cyrus) in market Bein al-Haramein (Mesopotamia); he closed his store for economical failure and he chose another job.  My father, in those days, did a new work according a suggestion from Dr.Sahab Zamani: renting book that was taken place in Iran for first time. many of boys and girls came the store and rented some famous novel such as " the Nest of Eagle" and " Pardians" in 1325(1946) or 1326 (1947), my father bought a store in Naser Khusrow St. where he, in addition to a variety of publishing books, was publishing a newspaper of Dr Seyed Hossein Fatemi named " Bakhtar Imroz[7]" in 1332(1953), my father moved his store, Ataie Publication, to the alley of Khorasanians. My father continued publishing works by publishing different textbooks such as " Paint Guide of Arzhang" which was welcomed by teachers and student; this book was published in millions volumes. After publishing the books of Dr. Sahib Zamani, he began to publish some serious and important books that first one was "Woman in Sasanian rights". My father never published unmoral and absence books. He published different books from different writers. The last published book of my father named "contemporary history of Iran" in three volumes, written by peter Avery[8]. My father believed if a job was without love and belief, it wouldn’t be successful; he lived and worked lovely and faithfully for ages.

The manager of Ataie Publication told about last days of his father's life as follows:" my father began to edit the book carefully and accurately a lot that was why the writers were surprised for the precision of my father as he was an aged man. He was good at history and literature; he corrected the unintentional inaccurate words of writer."

The manager of Ataie Publication told:" I have never published books with white covers, but there were some persons who published such books. Of course, after revolution, we began to publish some books with white covers such as memoirs of Ayatollah Talleghani around the year 1350, we published the book "Red Yellows", written by Henry Markant and translated by Houshang Montazeri, which was about the revolution of china and Mao. Some ones came from mayoralty and banned us to publishing the books; they captured all the stores of book. Houshang Montazeri, in those day, was the governor of Hamadan; we informed this event to him. After a few days, some ones came from mayoralty and returned the books. My father was never struggled with SAVAK[9] because, as I can remember, we didn’t need to have a permit to publish our books, we needed to notice three factors to be able to publish the books as follows: first, there shouldn’t be any insulting and contrary words against Islam. Third, the leftist and communist books should not be published."

Behrouz Ataie Fard told about his uncle, Mahmoud Ataie:" Naser Khusrow St., three brothers were working together, they were separated later. As my uncle had a good intelligence and ability, he employed some writers and translators. For instance, he published the book of Jalal Al-e Ahmad"

Our published books

He added:" my father was publishing books in different fields such as Persian Grammar by Parvin Gonabadi, some selections from book Kashf ol-Ayat Quren[10], Rasm ol-khat[11], and the Book of Music, General Knowledge, the book of Happy and Hope by Azizollah Hatami. My father never rejected young writers; he tried to help and support them. One those young writers was Dr. Pyruz Mojtahedi Zadeh who was a student in those years, and we published this book named" Persian Gulf’s Sheikdom" in 1349(1970). We had a variety in our work; we published books from historical and scientific fields to a book named "Hypnotism" in the supernatural subject matter."

Behrouz Ataie Fard told:" one of our bestseller and most updating book was" six-days fighting between Arabians and Israel", written by Colonel Gholamreza Nejati. He took effort a lot to write it. This book was published for several times over one year.  With the encouragement from Dr. Saheb Zamani who was an originator of Esperanto language; such as a advanced grammar book named" second language", Esperanto to Persian dictionary, Persian to Esperanto dictionary, Esperanto to Esperanto dictionary, and, even, we published Quern in Arabic to Esperanto. Also, we published textbooks for beginners. In those days, mass media was not prevalent in Iran, Institution disagreed with some new works; that was why Esperanto language wasn’t risen in Iran, and it caused disappointment for us.

He added about his father since he stayed in the street of Naser Khusrow and he didn’t transferred his Ataie Publication to the front of Tehran University:" my father wasn’t man of risk and he never worried about financial affairs; he was always consent for his economic condition. I think if my father moved his store to the front of the Tehran University (Enghelab St.), he would have better condition. On the other hand, Naser Khusrow St. was a place and station for some famous persons such as Bijan Tarraqui, Dr. Bastani Parizi, Traj Negahban, Ahmad Soroush, Rahi Mo’ayyeri, and Dr. Saheb Zamani etc. that was why my father took interest in there a lot.

To be continued…