Iranian Burnt Books Foundation begins unveiling its unrivalled collection of Ahmad Shamlou’s works

STOCKHOLM - May 25, 2015 - PRLog -- Today, The Iranian Burnt Books Foundation, an imprint of Wisehouse Publishing, opened the first section of Ahmad Shamlou’s works from its Electronic Archives to the public domain. Speaking on this historic occasion, IBBF founder Sam Vaseghi states, “we have observed, over a long period of time, how the literary estate of Ahmad Shamlou has been vandalised by governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as audacious individuals, who have no regard for international law.” Iranian born, Ahmad Shamlou’s achievements stretched from poetry to writing and translation. In 1984, Shamlou was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. IBBF has aggregated and collated Shamlou’s works over many years in electronic form, conserving these works in its archives, without claiming yet completeness. The archives were not opened to the public initially, in order to ensure the international legal framework for the disclosure of Shamlou’s works was upheld. “The legal framework is now firmly established in accordance with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works,” affirms Vaseghi, “and our organisation is permitted, with non-exclusive rights, to publish the works within the public domain. The publication project is firmly registered in all legal respects and will be processed by Wisehouse Publishing.”

The first part of the archive published today by IBBF contains the electronic copy of the 12 volumes (over 12000 pages) of Ahmad Shamlou’s monumental urban dictionary ‘Ketâbe Koucheh’. “We hope this first step sends a bold signal to the international literary community to pay attention to these works and their cultural heritage value, having been put in jeopardy for years by self-serving organisations and the literary grave desecrators of modern times who have spread their wings and expanded their networks from Iran to Europe, the Americas and all the way down to Mexico.” IBBF aims to open the entirety of its Ahmad Shamlou archives to the public domain within the next years. “The agenda of IBBF,” says Vaseghi, “should be understood at this stage as motivational, and we hope that serious literary organisations and professionals will gain synergistic momentum for broad disclosure and dissemination of Shamlou’s works.”

Access to the archive via: http://www.iranian-burnt-books-foundation.se/?project=769

The Iranian Burnt Books Foundation (http://iranian-burnt-books-foundation.se/) (http://iranian-burnt-books-foundation.se/) was established in 2004 as a worldwide collaborative network, funded privately by the German/Iranian author, poet and publisher Sam Vaseghi. IBBF is committed to post-mortem projects for the investigation, collection, publication and archiving of works and vitae of prosecuted, banned or executed writers originating from Iran and Afghanistan. Every few years, IBBF focuses on a unique project associated with the collation of completely authentic uncensored work and vitae from Iranian or Afghan author personalities.