Vol. 71/No. 24 June 18, 2007
He was talking about Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women. The students took his advice.
The London distributorship notched up 15 years of participation in this annual fair, among the largest cultural events in the world. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians from around the country packed the fair grounds during its 11 days.
People purchased about 100 books and pamphlets from the Pathfinder stand. The best sellers were The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Is Biology Woman’s Destiny? by Evelyn Reed, The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: the Fraud of Education Reform under Capitalism by Jack Barnes, and The First and Second Declarations of Havana.
A national radio channel run by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting interviewed one of the volunteers from the Pathfinder booth at its live show in the center of the fairgrounds.
The event took place at a new venue this year, moving from trade fairgrounds in northern Tehran to the Mossalla Grand Prayer Grounds in the city’s center.
Publishers from 66 countries participated, along with more than 1,800 Iranian publishers and distributors displaying a range of books in Farsi. Titles included novels, poetry, children’s books, and books on scientific and technical subjects. An exhibition of costumes of different nationalities in the country was also held alongside displays of photographs and paintings.
The fair’s new venue is near a Metro underground station and is more accessible by public transportation than the previous location. Large posters around the center of the city advertised the event, which was regularly covered on TV and by newspapers. The exhibition halls were housed in three imposing buildings in the prayer grounds, which also has a large mosque still under construction.
Overseas publishers exhibited their books in two separate sections of the fair. One displayed first-edition humanities titles published since 2003 and other books on sale to academics, students, librarians, and others at reduced prices through a government subsidy.
The larger hall, where the Pathfinder stand was located, was unsubsidized and housed books published or printed since 2001. These books were on sale to all book fair visitors at prices set by each publisher.
Several Iranian publishers have produced Farsi translations of Pathfinder’s titles, which were available at this year’s fair.
One such publisher, Azadmehr, brought out new translations this year of two books by George Novack, Origins of Materialism and Empiricism and its Evolution. Other translations recently published include Art and Revolution by Leon Trotsky.
A translation of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs has recently been published by Talayeh Porsoo. This company said they sold 21 copies of that title at the fair out of a total 1,000 copies of Farsi-language translations of Pathfinder titles. Its sales included around 200 copies of Socialism and Man by Ernesto Che Guevara and 160 Feminism and the Marxist Movement by Mary-Alice Waters.
Golāzin, another publisher, reported high interest in its Farsi translations of Pathfinder books by Evelyn Reed, such as Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women and Problems of Women’s Liberation. Golāzin’s translation of Che Guevara Speaks also had brisk sales and is going into its third printing. Golāzin featured three translations of Pathfinder titles on a promotional bookmark it was distributing at its stand.
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