Prince of publishing

Among the luminaries who lit up the stages at the Bangalore Literature Festival 2013 was a remarkable man from the world of publishing, David Davidar.

Born in Nagercoil, in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, he studied in Madras before getting a diploma in publishing from the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University. In 1985, he was hired by Peter Mayer, the then chairman of Penguin, as one of the founder members of Penguin India. He went on to edit and publish a distinguished line-up of authors including Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and Vikram Seth.

In 2004, he moved to Toronto, Canada, as Publisher, Penguin Canada, rising to the position of CEO, Penguin International, a division of Penguin Books that comprised Penguin companies in Canada, India, South Africa and the Middle East. In August 2010, he moved back to India from Toronto to co-found Aleph Book Company in partnership with Rupa Publications, India.

He has also written three critically-acclaimed books, The House of Blue Mangoes in 2002, The Solitude of Emperors in 2007, and Ithaca in 2011.

Interviewing him gave a lot of insight into the field of publishing and Indian publishing in particular.

Talking about how his interest in publishing evolved, Davidar remarked that a career in literary field was a given since he’d been a bookworm from his childhood. His career was shaped by three charismatic people: Rajmohan Gandhi, who employed him in his magazine Himmat at 19 years of age, Dom Moraes, who fostered his literary inclinations at the age of 22, and Peter Mayer, who employed him in Penguin India when he was 25.

With his immense experience in both Indian and international publishing, Davidar explained the current situation in publishing in India succinctly. “Thirty years ago, when Penguin came to India, there were only a couple of companies distributing international and British books. There was very little general publishing.

Peter Mayer set up Penguin India in 1985, and in 1987, started publishing books by Indians written in English,” he said. “Today, the publishing scene is run by Indians (with international collaborators) and is comparable to anywhere in the world. It is very vibrant, both in literary and commercial areas of fiction and non-fiction.”

However, he felt that publishing in India is yet to mature. “Novelists in India are world-class. But there are other areas that are still undeveloped, like history and science. We need anywhere between 300 and 3,000 more writers. Our history and science writers are hopeless. We have miles to go before non-fiction writers get on par with our novelists. Therefore, it will take about 15 to 20 years for publishing in India to mature.”

What kind of writers does he see coming up these days? All kinds, according to Davidar. “Earlier, publishers were publishing only literary books. Today, the field is more open to everyone, not just literary writers. It is growing to accept all kinds of writing.”

When asked if it is hard for Indian books to be accepted internationally, Davidar gave an unequivocal ‘yes’. But this was the norm, he explained. “Only one per cent of the books published in the US get to India — like books by John Grisham, Stephen King and Dan Brown. The rest never make it. The same happens in the reverse too,” he said.

India has its own brand of English — Indian English. Asked if the standards in publication were affected by Indian English used by authors, he didn’t appear concerned. “As long as Indian English is confined to speech patterns, there isn’t any problem,” he said.

Among the books that he has published, does he have a favourite? “I like all of them,” he answered. “It stands to reason that I would.” As a reader, he ranked One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy as his favourites.

Davidar is quick to answer if he is happy to be back in India. “I am very happy,” he emphasises. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me back. In India, there is a sense of hope, especially among the young, a possibility that things can happen. And most importantly, it is my own country,” he ends.

With such a man on the scene, Indian publishing can only go one way — up!