The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.23           June 10, 1996 
 
 
Pathfinder A Big Seller At Tehran Fair  

BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD

TEHRAN, Iran - "These are fighting books." The comment was made by a visitor to the Pathfinder stand at the 9th Tehran International Bookfair held here May 7-17. More than 2.3 million people from all over Iran visited the bookfair, making it one of the largest cultural and educational events held anywhere in the world.

In Iran publishers are subsidized by having access to cheap paper and other measures, while foreign publishers are subsidized at the fair by the government covering more than 50 percent of the cost of all the books purchased. Publishers from Lebanon and from India were honored at the fair, with prizes for the quality and quantity of the books they brought. The Lebanese international bookfair, scheduled for April, was canceled due to the Israeli bombing.

Pathfinder's titles were once again welcomed by visitors to the foreign publishers' hall. "Seeing these political books makes me hopeful about life," said one visitor. Some 550 books and pamphlets were sold, for a total of 111 different titles, including the collected works of Marx and Engels.

The best selling title was Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara. All 20 copies were sold before the last day. Some visitors explained to each other who Guevara was.

One person who bought a copy was a young soldier who said he was 100 percent for Guevara because he was an internationalist and a fighter. Another copy was bought by a visitor who bought New International 10, featuring the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War," last year and was looking for the next issue.

Several book buyers were interested in the titles on war; another asked for books on the foreign policy of revolutionary governments. Theological students bought copies of Pragmatism versus Marxism by George Novack and books by Malcolm X.

Interest in the titles on the Middle East was greater than in previous years, with several people expressing strong solidarity with the Lebanese people in face of Israeli aggression.

In the final few minutes before the bookfair was over someone purchased a set of the Collected Works of V.I. Lenin.

Sales of an Iranian publisher's Farsi translation of the article "Washington's Assault on Iraq: Opening Guns of World War III" by Jack Barnes - originally printed in New International -sold briskly from five different stands in the Local Publishers Hall. One stand sold out its 30 copies of the book in two days. The stall holder said he could have sold 200 copies if he had them.

Mina Saleh contributed to this article.  
 
 
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