Books, bookshops and booksellers

I remember somebody saying that when a bookshop is closed there opens a new wine shop. I am not sure if this is true. It is good to hear of the opening of new bookshops. One of the delightful events happened to be the opening up of a new bookshop by our good friend, the artiste and journalist Prem Dissanayaka, who runs a publishing house named ‘Fast and Fast’.

He is well known as a designer and printer of good quality publications. In the first instance he acquired a derelict in Devenampiyatissa road (formerly known as Forbes Avenue in Deans Road) in Maradana soon the place became a hub of activities mainly due to the skillful artistry of Prem Disanayaka. We wait for his beautiful and historically remarkable calendars and diaries.

Beyond control

As a publisher he has made an indelible mark by winning several state awards for his publications. The chance had come fortunately for him to find a place to run a bookshop of a special type. Though I could not attend the auspicious opening moment of the Surasa bookshop, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was informed of the large gathering of writers, scholars of varying type sand other well wishers.

With opening of a new bookshop I went down the memory land some fifty years ago.

From Borella tram terminus to Maradana railway station, one could see at least fifty small and big bookshops of varying types. As students we use to frequent a bookshop named as ‘Wick’s bookshop’ where second handbooks were sold and bought. The name of the owner, if I remember correct, was Wickramaratne.

Wick’s was one place where comics were sold. All types of comics were ready for us. They included Tarzan, Captain Marvel, the cowboys, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers etc. Comics were not allowed to be real in the classrooms. Perhaps teacher disliked the American English in them. But we used to read them on the sly and exchange them. Brand new and second hand comics were piled up in the bookshop. The maximum price happened to be 50 cents per copy. Side by side grew another tradition of Sinhala comics known as picture books or chitra katha.

The two Sunday newspapers, Lankadipa and Silumina carried picture stories of the type we used to read as comics. This trend reached a culmination with the publication of ‘picture story’ papers or ‘chitra katha pattara’. Then came a time when this was no longer printed. Films based on Tarzan stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs came to e known and became popular. Tarzan films were widely known at all levels of viewing. Films too were made on cowboy stores with the popular character ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ and ‘Lone Ranger’.

Popular culture

Then came the trend of films based on superman and superwoman followed by spider man. They moulded a popular culture in visuals. With the advent of the television, they were taken over the small screen. The impact was wider and intensive. In his autobiography, Martin Wickramasinghe says that he had the habit of seeing a Tarzan film just for the sake of relaxation. Back to bookshop culture, it could be said that the street known as Maligakanda Road, was more known for religious books. The publishing venture of the still existing Samayawardhana triggered off from the place. In keeping with the pulse beat of the Mahabodhi, the books came to be published several other bookshops namely Vidhyadara and Wijesena were not only popular for religious books and popular ballads or Kovilkatha but also for the religious gifts called ‘atapirikara’.

As a schoolboy I was known to two publishers of the day. One was K A Ariyadasa, who ran a bookshop at the edge of the Paranawadiya Road, just adjacent to the well known publishing house of S Godage. As students we used to buy books of Munidasa Cumaratunga from the bookshop owned by K A Ariyadasa known as Ariyadasa Poth Hala.

The other person is P K D Siriwardhana, whose bookshop was named in the same manner and situated just adjacent to S Mahinda Road (then known as Avondale Avenue). Siriwardhana was a queer bookseller cum publisher. Once I wanted to buy a number of poetry collections of Colombo Poems for a study. I went on collecting them from the bookshop. Siriwardhana came closer to me and raised several questions.

“Where do you study?”
“At Ananda College.”
“Why do you buy all these books?”
“Because I want to collect them for a study.’
“What type of study is that?”
“A literary study of Colombo poets.”
“Are there any poetry books that you have not read?”
“I am not sure.”

“Have you read this?” Having said that he gave me a poetry collection of the poet priest from Tibet a Sinhala scholar, Ven S Mahinda Thera.

I said I haven’t read it.
“Then read this first and come again.

Book publishers

He didn’t want to accept money. But he insisted that I read it. This paved the way for me to meet Siriwardhana more often. Though I have not met S Godage, the flourishing book publisher, he said that he started his career as a book binder. There have been quite a number of book publishers who have undergone a strenuous period in the publishing industry.

Thus the opening of a new bookshop brings a delightful series of memories.

The book publishing house well known at the time was W M A Wahid which was situated right opposite Ananda College. Apart from the publishing of school text books on various subjects, the firm too brought out a monthly Sinhala journal titled ‘Pathakaya’.

This monthly journal was edited by one of our favourite teachers S P Perera (father of Tarzie Vittachchi). He initiated the Reader’s Digest kind of journal for the first time, which became a popular trend later on.