Pathfinder, present at the book fair for the 14th year, was exhibiting its range of revolutionary literature in one of three halls for overseas publishers. One of these halls carried books sold to university students and academics at government-subsidized discounts of 60 percent to make them affordable. Another hall carried books at prices subsidized by the exhibitors, in Pathfinder’s case at around 50 percent of the cover price. There was also a hall for Arabic publishers. Book fair officials reported that 950 international publishers from 66 countries sold books this year.

In addition, visitors jammed the halls carrying books by more than 1,800 publishers in Farsi—the official language in Iran.

More than 200 books and pamphlets published or distributed by Pathfinder were sold at the fair. This included all 15 copies at the booth of issue No. 12 of New International—a magazine of Marxist politics and theory—with the lead article, “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun.” One person who purchased this title was a politics student at a local university, who asked for material on the 2003 war against Iraq. Like a few others who visited the Pathfinder stand, he wanted to know: “Will the U.S. invade Iran?”

Other issues of New International magazine also sold well, as did books on the Cuban Revolution, women’s rights, and the speeches of Malcolm X. Also in demand were various titles on Marxism by authors such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Evelyn Reed, George Novack, and leaders of the Russian Revolution Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

Three young men came looking specifically for books by Jack Barnes and Mary-Alice Waters—authors of several Pathfinder titles—apparently having read some of their writings in translation. Over the last decade more than 20 Pathfinder titles have been published in Farsi.

Iranian publishers this year announced plans to translate and publish Woman’s Evolution by Evelyn Reed; the articles “Their Transformation and Ours” and “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun” by Jack Barnes, both published in New International No. 12; and Art and Revolution by Leon Trotsky.  
 
 
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