Sheba Prokashoni () is a publishing house in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. It was founded by

Qazi Anwar Hussain Qazi Anwar Hussain (19 July 1936 – 19 January 2022) was a Bangladeshi writer of spy thrillers, detective novels, and adventure-based literature, many of which were adaptations or heavily influenced by foreign works. Early life and education ...

. Its books are aimed at young Bangladeshi readers, and include translations of Western literary

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

into the

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

History

Sheba Prokashoni was founded in May, 1963 by

. Its name may have derived from the first syllables of Shegun Bagan, now renamed as Shegun Bagicha, the neighbourhood of Dhaka city where its offices are located. The literal meaning of the Bengali word "Sheba" is "service." Sheba's focus, from its inception, has been to produce mass-market popular Bengali

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

s that are both attractively-written and affordably priced. Its first successful product was ''Kuasha'' (Kuasha-1, first edition published in June 1964), a short-lived modern-Robin Hood style adventure series. This was closely followed by the

Masud Rana Masud Rana is a fictional character created in 1966 by the writer Qazi Anwar Hussain, who featured him in 472 books (325 novels and 6 short stories). Qazi Anwar Hussain created the adult spy-thriller series Masud Rana, at first modeled after J ...

, a spy-thriller series, one of Sheba's most enduring and popular imprints.

Masud Rana Series

These books described the adventures of its eponymous hero

, an international

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

of Bangladeshi origin, closely resembling

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

in his expertise with weapons and women. Although the publisher of the series was

, Hossain liberally borrowed plot lines from popular Western

spy thrillers Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...

. Nonetheless, the series was a boon for young people in post-war Bangladesh, who had few entertainment alternatives in an era pre-dating video games, cable TV and the internet. The books caused concern among some middle-class parents because of their occasional racy content, and reading Masud Rana was an activity often frowned upon. The series eventually ran to well over a hundred individual titles. There was even a Bengali action thriller movie based on Masud Rana's character. The title was also ''Masud Rana''. It came out in 1974 with famous actor Sohel Rana (real name: Masud Parvez) in the lead role of Masud Rana. It was the first film for Sohel Rana as a lead actor.

Kishore Classic Series

This series introduced the finest works of world literature to a young Bangladeshi audience. The Hossain brothers and their staff were adept at producing translations that were brisk and taut, contemporary and well written. Through their mediation, the ''kishore'' or teenagers of Bangladesh made their first (and in most cases, only) acquaintance with the works of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

Alexandre Dumas, père Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

and many others. The translations were usually condensed forms of the original titles and ran to 200-300 pages. While Sheba played a vital role in encouraging reading among young people, making such translations available is arguably its most important contributions.

Translators of Sheba

The books from Kishore Classic series are translated by Neaz Morshed (original name: Neaz Morshed Quaderi), Rakib Hasan, Asaduzzaman, Kazi Shahnoor Hussain, Babul Alam etc.

Tin Goyenda

The Tin Goyenda series was written by Rakib Hasan, and described the adventures of Kishore Pasha, a Bangladeshi-American

teen detective Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...

, and his two friends Musa Aman and Robin Milford. The cerebral Kishore lives with his aunt and uncle Rashed in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and is much given to pinching his lower lip while pondering some knotty problem from his latest case. Robin, his white Irish American friend, is the bespectacled geek, and the irrepressible Musa, a black American Muslim boy, provides comic relief. The series is a remake of

Robert Arthur, Jr. Robert Arthur Jr. (November 10, 1909 – May 2, 1969) was an American writer and editor of crime fiction and speculative fiction known for his work with '' The Mysterious Traveler'' radio series and for writing ''The Three Investigators'', a s ...

Three Investigators The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "''Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators''". It was created by Robert Arthur Jr., who believed involving a famous person such as movie director Alfr ...

. Rakib Hasan also adopted plot lines from

The Famous Five ''The Famous Five'' is a series of children's Adventure fiction, adventure novels and short stories written by English author Enid Blyton. The first book, ''Five on a Treasure Island'', was published in 1942. The novels feature the adventure ...

as well as

The Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in a series of mystery novels for young readers. The series revolves around teenage amateur sleuths, solving cases that often stumped their adult counterparts. ...

and similar teen-detective titles, but his readers, unaware of such issues, consumed the Tin Goyenda books avidly.

Adaptations of Western series

These were adaptations of pulp cowboy Westerns by authors such as

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known West ...

. The series introduced the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

to the Bengali language. ''Aleyar Pichche'' (Behind the Light) was the first ''Western'' adapted book in Bangla, written by Qazi Mahbub Hossain. The series was also quite successful and ran to several dozen titles. Other popular contributors in this series include Saokot Hossain and Rowshan Jamil.

Other publications

Other popular titles by Sheba include books on self-help such as ''Atto-Shommohon'' (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

:- আত্ত-সমহন) or ''Self-Hypnosis''; sports trivia; horror (''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...

'' and ''

The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Sp ...

'', published in 3 volumes ''Oshuvo Shongket'' (The Omen), ''Abar Oshuvo Songket'' (Omen Again) and ''Shesh Oshuvo Songket'' (The Last Omen) ); and real-world mysteries like

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

and the

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly bounded by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Since the mid-20th century, it has been the focus of an urban legend sug ...

. For many years, it also published a monthly magazine called '' Rahashya Potrika'' or ''Mystery Magazine'', featuring stories and articles of general interest. A juvenile magazine in the name of Kishore Potrika is also published from Sheba Prokashoni.Sheba titles are characterized by their distinctive red-and-yellow butterfly logo. Rahasya Patrika (In English: Mystery Magazine) is one of the most popular monthly magazines in

. Rahasya Patrika was first published in 1970. Since 1984 from Sheba Prokashoni this magazine was edited by Kazi Anwar Hossain. Sheikh Abdul Hakim, Rakib Hasan, etc regularly wrote in this magazine. Artist Hashem Khan was the first art editor of the magazine.

History

In the first phase, four issues were published in 1970. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1984 from Seba Prakashani, this magazine was edited by Kazi Anwar Hossain and it started to be published regularly. He was the founding editor of this magazine. The Executive Editor of this magazine is Qazi Shahnur Husain and Qazi Maimur Husain. It is a mystery and adventure monthly literary magazine and the magazine features various types of literary works with reader participation. Around 1969-70, under the inspiration of

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Rahat Khan, it was thought to publish a mystery magazine. Accordingly, the first issue was published in November 1970. However, after the release of four issues, the magazine's publication was suspended due to the Bangladesh War of Independence outbreak. After independence, the publication of the magazine could not be started due to various reasons, but in 1984, the magazine was re-published which continues till date. The magazine is always printed in black and white on paperback paper. Color printing is used for covers. The magazine has various regular sections.

External links

official address
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References

{{Reflist Publishing companies of Bangladesh 1963 establishments in East Pakistan