David Philip Publishers are celebrating their 25th anniversary, writes RACHELLE GREEFF
IF Paarl Mountain has a Taal Monument, the Werdmuller Centre next to Claremont station should consider a monument to David Philip Publishers – it can only beautify the amazingly unsightly building.
DPP survived the old South Africa with its draconian censorship laws, book raids by security police and exclusion by the Nationalist Party government from the lucrative schoolbook market. But today, a quarter of a century later, they are still a formidable presence in the new South Africa.
Last week a they won yet another prize, the CNALiterary Award, for Margaret McCord’s The Calling of Katie Makanya, which also got the Sunday Times’s Alan Paton Award earlier this year. (Two other DPPtitles were runners-up in that award.) That makes it their third CNAAward and their fourth Alan Paton.
In fact, titles published by DPP have won every award on offer in South Africa, as well as Africa’s most prestigious book prize, the Noma Award, which went to Wally Serote in 1993.
Authors often encounter a condescending attitude from publishers – as if they were doing you a favour. Not so with David (69) and Marie Philip (66). “The writer is the publisher’s lifeblood,” says David with a touch of old-worldly reverence. “Writing is a lonely occupation.”
Over the years many of their authors became close friends. They recall an incident when their daughter Kate was 12: in the lounge of the Philips’ Arderne Cottage in Claremont, Paton and Uys Krige were deep in animated conversation. Kate had to leave the room and jumped up, interrupting the literary minds mid-sentence: “Don’t say anything until I come back!”
The first five years of DPP happened in Arderne Cottage. Their own garage, as well as those of understanding neighbours, were packed with books. “Until I discovered 17 people busy in the house,” remembers David Philip.
This resulted in the move to the Werdmuller Centre beside Claremont’s colourful taxi- rank, shared by fruit vendors – far from stylish Cavendish Square.
The Philips bravely produced books, despite the odds – which increased as political repression grew, and their publications kept open debate on the left. And then the prizes began to roll in. For instance, Nadine Gordimer won a CNAAward for her novel My Son’s Story, published in South Africa by DPP, in 1991 – and then got the Nobel Prize for Literature, too. Ivan Vladislavic won the Olive Schreiner Prize that year for his debut collection of stories, Missing Persons, and the 1994 CNA Award for his novel The Folly. Last year David and Marie Philip themselves were honoured by the English Academy of Southern Africa.
And the debates continue too. Kader Asmal’s Reconciliation Through Truth was published last month – and was denounced by Hermann Giliomee in The Cape Times. Reaction to that, say the Philips, has produced enough copy for another book!
The Asmal book, they say, “is an appropriate book for us to have published in our 25th year – as is Zapiro’s cartoons, The Madiba Years, which looks irreverently at the main players.”
The “compulsion to make books is a bug”, and fortunately both Marie and David Philip suffer from this affliction. Their marriage, they admit, would not have withstood the stress of their work if they were not both involved. “Our minds move along the same paths.”
During the early years enormous risks were taken with slender resources – David Philip’s retrenchment package from his 17 years at Oxford University Press. This is a couple who literally take their work to bed. It also wakes them up at night. Do they regret anything?
“We went into publishing because we love reading and then we found we were increasingly unable to read other publishers.”
Unlike many others of their age, there is no talk of retirement, but they welcome the increasing involvement of their executive directors Russel Martin and Bridget Impey in day-to-day administration.
With changes taking place in education, they are positive about a potentially strong market in that sphere. Several DPPtitles have received print-runs of 25 000 copies.
In a gentle but passionate plea, the Philips call for a campaign to make books part of the everyday lives of ordinary people, and particularly to encourage local writers. Local English-language books have to compete with imported books from the entire anglophone world.
Non-prescriptive government support, as in Australia, can also make a significant contribution to help writers. “Quality fiction is flourishing in Australia. Let’s make it happen here.”
* Other winners in the CNAAwards were Sarah Ruden, in the creative writing category, for her poetry volume, Other Places; and AHMScholtz, in the debut creative literature category, for his novel Vatmaar. Special mentions were made in other categories, such as that of children’s books, but no awards were given in those areas.
— Rachelle Greeff’s novel, Al die Windrigtings van My Wreld, is published by Queillerie
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