I had been concerned for some time by the lack of any group action among writers to raise funds for the battle against HIV/Aids. The disease is rampant on the African continent, yes, but it is pandemic in varying degrees of infection worldwide. We know that no country, no individual and no lifestyle is finally safe.
Musicians have for some years arranged and performed jazz and pop events and classical concerts to raise money and promote awareness of the millennial version of the medieval plague. Individual writers, of course, have contributed money to the various HIV/Aids organisations; as a group, it seemed to me we have failed to do anything collectively. Quite rightly, our traditional first concern has been to take action against restriction of freedom of expression — an issue in our professional home, so to speak, though with enormous importance globally.
But the tragedy of incapacitation, suffering and death by Aids has taken its toll in our own world of the arts as well as in all others.
It’s not in the nature of our work as writers to “perform” huge popular events. Poetry and prose readings are hardly in that category. With a few writer friends, I discussed the idea of our doing something on a scale within our abilities and the level of attention writers can expect to be associated with their work. As a consequence I decided to take the initiative to compile an anthology of short stories by well-known writers, permission for publication to be without a fee, and to be published in a number of countries, without any profit to the publisher. All royalties are to go to HIV/Aids agencies assisting victims of the disease.
To mix my metaphors — I took the pen, the typewriter, the word processor by the horns and wrote to 20 writers asking from each a story of their own selection from their work on these terms; I received an enthusiastic response. Approaching publishers seemed more dicey. But there was the same generous response.
The 21 stories (one of my own added) are written in different “voices” — vividly individual styles — capturing the marvellous possibilities of the use of words by living writers. They include five Nobel Prize-winners in literature. All have come together to bring the joy of reading to whomever takes up this unusual and remarkable collection of creative talent. The subjects are not HIV/Aids. But the price of the pleasure of reading the stories will help succour and support those affected by the virus. The contributing writers and the 11 publishers worldwide of Telling Tales have agreed that all proceeds of sales of the anthology will go to the Treatment Action Campaign for distribution by the campaign in their programmes of support in South Africa and Southern Africa in every way, medical, social, psychological for people living with HIV/Aids, and for education in prevention of infection.
The launch of English language editions, published in England and the United States, begins in our own country today, with translated editions following soon in countries as diverse as Brazil, Germany, Italy, China, Greece, Russia, 11 countries to date, and more publishers signing up every week. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will launch Telling Tales in New York at a reception at the UN on November 30, a day before World Aids Day.
Telling Tales includes: Bulldog by Arthur Miller; Down the Quiet Street by Es’kia Mphahlele; The Firebird’s Nest by Salman Rushdie; Death Constant Beyond Love by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Age Of Lead by Margaret Atwood; Sugar Baby by Chinua Achebe; Death of a Son by Njabulo Ndebele; The Letter Scene by Susan Sontag; and The Rejection by Woody Allen.
Rarely have world writers of such variety and distinction appeared together on a contents list in an anthology. Their stories capture the range of emotions and situations of our human universe: tragedy, comedy, fantasy, satire, the drama of sexual love and of war, in different continents and cultures. The reader will learn about others — and about oneself, revealed as only fiction, the ancient art of storytelling can do and always has done. Along with making music, the art is the oldest form of enchantment and entertainment. So when you buy, as a Christmas gift or for your own reading pleasure, this unique anthology of renowned storytellers, you are also making a gift of the money you paid for the book, to combat the plague of our new millennium.
This is an edited version of Nadine Gordimer’s address at the launch of Exclusive Books’s Publishers’ Choice Christmas promotion. Telling Tales is one of the books included in the selection