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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
The recent inauguration of the Supreme Council for Culture's new headquarters brought back memories of its forerunner, the High Council of Arts, Literature and Social Sciences. It was in 1956, on my return from London, that I first joined the council. It had just been established by Youssef El-Seba'i, one of our leading novelists, short-story writers and essayists. The idea was his brainchild, and it was the first demonstration of the state's interest in art and literature. The name of the newly formed organisation was the High Council for the Patronage of the Arts and Literature. Social sciences were added later.
The word patronage was removed from the title after the socialist laws of the early '60s were issued, furthering the impression that the state's role would surpass mere encouragement.
When the council was established, there was no Ministry of Culture; its task was simply to draw up policies, encourage production and discover new talents. A number of committees were formed on fiction, poetry, children's culture, folklore, theatre and cinema. Plastic arts were added later and, with the introduction of the social sciences to the council's agenda of concerns, new committees were formed.
A number of interesting projects were initiated by the council upon the recommendation of the different committees. For example, the committee on cinema recommended the creation of an organisation to subsidise the film industry. The aim of such an organisation was to subsidise serious directors for the production of high-quality films. One such a film was Salaheddin, produced by Asia. It was a great success.
I was the secretary of the committee on translation and cultural exchange, which was headed by Taha Hussein. The committee was responsible for translation policy, including the Thousand Book Scheme. We would select the books, choose the translators and revisers, then commission a publisher to produce the translation.
Another project, which was my idea, was the translation of Egyptian classics into English and French. We selected twelve novels by such leading writers as Taha Hussein, Tawfiq El-Hakim, Abbas El-Aqqad, Abdel-Qader El-Mazni, Hussein Fawzi, Soheir El-Qalamawi and others. A number of leading linguists/translators were chosen to undertake the job, including academicians like Magdi Wahba, Nour Sherif, Rashad Rushdi, Louis Awad and others.
Because of my relations with England, I was singled out to try the English publishing market. I took the translations to London, where I met with a number of publishers I had known during my 12-year sojourn there. They all showed interest in the scheme, but asked for time to show the books to their readers. Publishers are always looking for bestsellers, and translations very rarely fit the bill.
It was during that time that I had my first lesson in publishing. We offered to purchase a certain number of copies when the translations were published, enough to cover if not all, at least a good part of the production cost. I remember one publisher telling me as a friend that if they were convinced of the value of the book, then they would not need us to buy any copies. With Heinemann I managed to include Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley in the African Series. That was, in fact, the first English translation of Mahfouz ever to appear.
