The fifth volume of Kathaikovai , a collection of 117 short stories, has an interesting story behind it.
To be released on January 11 at the Chennai Book Fair by the Alliance Company, the stories were originally meant to be published in 1950, the golden jubilee year of the company.
But the founder V. Kuppuswami Iyer died in 1949 and they remained as manuscripts for 74 years.
“I decided to bring out a collection of 117 short stories in two volumes, and 14 long stories as a separate volume to mark the 117th anniversary of our publishing company,” said V. Srinivasan, the grandson of Kuppuswami Iyer, who published four volumes during his life-time.
The previously published four volumes had stories written by the best Tamil writers.
The first volume featured stories of U.Ve. Saminatha Iyer, Na. Pitchamoorthy, Ku.Pa.Rajagoplan, P.S. Ramaiah, Kothamongalam Subbu and many others.
“He (Kuppuswami) advertised in newspapers in 1946, inviting writers to send their stories for the fifth volume. He wanted to bring out the volume in 1950, but died a year before. Fortunately, the manuscripts remained with us and we are bringing out the stories,” said Mr Srinivasan.
Kuppuswami Iyer’s team of five writers — T.N. Kumarasamy, T.N. Senapathy, Ki.Va. Jagannathan. Ti.Ja. Ranganathan and Ka.Sree.Sree — had shortlisted the 117 stories.
He decided that the fifth volume should have stories by budding writers. The collection has stories written by Vikraman, Mu. Varadharajan (Mu.Va), Poornam Viswanathan, cartoonist Gopulu, Kousikarn and Athreyan.
“I wanted to bring out the volume in 2020 to mark the centenary celebration of our company. But I was not able to find a suitable person who will go through the manuscripts. An acquaintance, Mr. Sathya, helped me in this task,” Mr. Srinivasan said.
