Shelvy (1960 – 21 August 2003) was an Indian publisher, poet, novelist and short story writer in Malayalam–language. He owned the

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

-based Mulberry Publications, a renowned publication house that promoted many new Malayalam authors and also introduced several great writers of foreign languages to

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

readers.

Early life

Shelvy Raj was born in 1960 as the son of Devassi and Clara in Orumanayur village in Trichur district in the state of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India. He completed his education in Orumanayur,

Pavaratty Pavaratty is a census town in Thrissur district in the Indian state of Kerala. Pavaratty is situated in the coastal area of Chavakkad taluk in Thrissur District. The town is about 23 km north-west of Thrissur town and 5 km south of G ...

and

Palghat Palakkad (), Renaming of cities in India, also known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery, is a city and a municipality in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of P ...

. He was interested in reading from childhood and was a regular visitor at the Township Library and the Devaswom Board Library in

Guruvayur Guruvayur ) is a municipal temple town in Thrissur district, of Kerala State in India. It is a suburban town of Thrissur city, located from Thrissur towards the north-west. It houses the Guruvayur Shri Krishna Temple. It is located at ...

. As a child, he won awards for story, painting, drama directing, essay and speech. However, he did not receive much encouragement from his parents or relatives. During adolescence, he wrote a few stories, inspired by the stories of

Kakkanadan George Varghese Kakkanadan (23 April 1935 – 19 October 2011), commonly known as Kakkanadan, was an Indian short-story writer and novelist in the Malayalam language. His works broke away from the Neorealism (art), neo-realism that dominated Mal ...

and others. He was dissatisfied with the writings and soon ventured into poetry. He considered poetry as an escape from loneliness, depression and suicidal tendencies of his youth. He published them in periodicals such as ''Prerana'' and ''Samkramanam''. He was also the editor of campus magazine ''Kerala Samskaram''. In the early eighties, Shelvy along with his friend Mohandas (Shikha Mohandas) started Shikha Books in

, which mainly published Malayalam translations of foreign titles. Shikha was the first to translate

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

's works in Malayalam.

Mulberry Publications

Shelvy started Mulberry Publications in 1985 with the help of his friend Daisy whom he later married. Mulberry's first publication was ''Moonnam Loka Katha'' which was an anthology of 12 shortstories from the

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

. Mulberry was based in Calicut and its headquarters at 25 Arya Bhavan, S. M. Street was a hub for several literary and cultural icons of Malayalam during the 1990s. Mulberry promoted many new authors and published a number of good quality Malayalam books. Shelvy took the initiative through Mulberry to promote reading through various club memberships and other subscription schemes. Mulberry also frequently published translations of foreign titles, introducing several great writers to

readers. Mulberry translated the works of

Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis (; ; 2 March (Old Style and New Style dates, OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greeks, Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominate ...

Kahlil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and Visual arts, visual artist; he was also considered a philosopher, although he himself reject ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she ...

Irving Stone Irving Stone (born Tennenbaum; July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989) was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are '' Lust for Life'' (1934), about the ...

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his p ...

and

Osho Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 11 December 193119 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho (), was an Indian godman, philosopher, mystic and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed ...

among others. They also published works of several prominent Malayalam writers such as

Satchidanandan K. Satchidanandan (born 28 May 1946) is an Indian poet and critic, writing in Malayalam and English. A pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual literary critic, playwright, editor, columnist and translator, he is the former editor of ...

, Nitya Chaitanya Yati, M. N. Vijayan,

M. T. Vasudevan Nair Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Narayanan Nair (15 July 1933 – 25 December 2024) was an Indian author, lecturer, Screenwriter, screenplay writer and film director. He was a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and was o ...

, T. Padmanabhan, V. K. N., Punathil Kunjabdulla, C. V. Balakrishnan, P. Surendran,

T. V. Kochubava T. V. Kochubava (1955–1999) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature, known for his novels and short stories. He published twenty three books covering the genres of novels, short stories, translations and plays and was a recipient of a nu ...

, N. Prabhakaran,

P. K. Parakkadavu P. K. Parakkadavu (Pi. Ke Pār̲akkaṭav) is an Indian writer from Kerala. He was one of the recipients of the 2016 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards for overall contribution. Early life He was born on October 15, 1952, to Ponnankodu Hassan and ...

Kalpatta Narayanan Kalpatta Narayanan (born January 1952) is an Indian novelist, short story writer, essayist, columnist, and a poet of Malayalam literature. He is known for his novel, ''Ithramathram'' and a number of poetry anthologies and other literary contribu ...

, V. R. Sudheesh and Asha Menon. Some of the titles Mulberry published are ''Mrigasikshakan'' by Vijayalakshmi, ''Kochiyile Vrikshangal'' by

K. G. Sankara Pillai K. G. Sankara Pillai (born 1948) is an Indian poet. He came into prominence in the 1970s with the publication of the poem "Bengal" and is now one of the most popular among the modernist poets of Kerala. A recipient of the state and central Sahit ...

, ''Christmas Marathinte Veru'' by Aymanam John and ''Euthanasia'' by Benyamin. Mulberry won the International Darsana Award for High Quality Production three times. It also received the Akshara Puraskaram and Federation of Indian Publishers' Excellence in Book Production Award in 1998.

Death

Shelvy committed suicide on 21 August 2003. It was reported that he was having financial problems. He was survived by his wife Daisy and only daughter Sulamitha. Daisy has written her reminiscences about him in her book ''Shelvi Enna Pusthakam'' (A book titled Shelvy)."What’s inside"
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2020.

List of works

; Poetry * ''Nostalgia'' (1994) * ''Alaukikam'' (1998) * ''Shelviyude Kavithakal'' (2004) ; Editor * ''Bhoomiyude Manassil'' * ''Orma''

References

1960 births 2003 suicides 2003 deaths Indian publishers (people) Indian male short story writers Indian male poets 20th-century publishers (people) 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian poets Writers from Kerala Malayali people Writers from Thrissur district Writers from Kozhikode Malayalam poets Malayalam short story writers Indian book publishers (people) Translators of Friedrich Nietzsche Suicides in India