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 in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

-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 also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. ...

readers.

Early life

Shelvy Raj was born in 1960 as the son of Devassi and Clara in

Orumanayur Orumanayur is a village in Thrissur district in the state of Kerala, India. Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. T ...

village in Trichur district in the state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, 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 Gu ...

and

Palghat Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

. 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 neo-realism that dominated Malayalam literature ...

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 de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

'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, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

. Mulberry was based in Calicut and its headquarters at 25 Arya Bhavan,

S. M. Street S.M. Street, abbreviation for Sweetmeat Street, also known as Mittai Theruvu, is a shopping street located in Kozhikode, Kerala, India. The street is a pedestrian zone. It also has a 160 year old Fire temple amidst shopping places. History The ...

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 ( el, ; 2 March ( OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. Kazantzakis's no ...

Kahlil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

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

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, and even th ...

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 l ...

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

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, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti (; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was a philosopher, speaker and writer. In his early life, he was groomed to be the new World Teacher, an advanced spiritual position in the theosophical tradition, but later rejected thi ...

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

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, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed as a controv ...

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

Satchidanandan K. Satchidanandan (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 ''Indian L ...

Nitya Chaitanya Yati Nitya Chaitanya Yati (2 November 1924 – 14 May 1999) was an Indian philosopher, psychologist, author and poet, best known for his commentaries on Advaita Vedanta as well as his literary criticisms. He was a disciple of Nataraja Guru, the succe ...

M. N. Vijayan Moolayil Narayana Menon Vijayan, popularly known as Vijayan Mash (8 June 1930 – 3 October 2007) was an Indian academic, orator, columnist and writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his leftist ideals and oratorical skills, Vijayan was the ...

M. T. Vasudevan Nair Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair (born 1933 July 15 ), popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-I ...

T. Padmanabhan Thinakkal Padmanabhan (born 5 February 1931), popularly known as T. Padmanabhan, is an Indian short story writer of Malayalam literature. He is a recipient of several awards including the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary award of t ...

V. K. N. Vadakkke Koottala Narayanankutty Nair, commonly known as V.K.N. (7 April 1929 – 25 January 2004), was a prominent Malayalam writer, noted mainly for his highbrow satire. He wrote novels, short stories and political commentaries. His works are ...

Punathil Kunjabdulla Punathil Kunjabdulla (3 April 1940 – 27 October 2017) was an Indian writer from Kerala. A medical doctor by profession, Kunjabdulla was a practitioner of the avant-garde in Malayalam literature. His work includes more than 45 books, including ...

C. V. Balakrishnan C. V. Balakrishnan ( ml, സി. വി. ബാലകൃഷ്ണൻ; born 24 September 1952) is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. His novels and short stories encompass the emotional issues related to mass culture, sexual politics, fate ...

, P. Surendran, T. V. Kochubava, N. Prabhakaran, P. K. Parakkadavu,

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 V. R. Sudheesh is an Indian writer, screenwriter, translator and academic, who writes in Malayalam. He is a two-time recipient of the Kerala Sahithya Akademi Award. Life Sudheesh was born in Vadakara near Kozhikode in the south Indian state o ...

and Asha Menon. Some of the titles Mulberry published are ''Mrigasikshakan'' by

Vijayalakshmi Vijaya lakshmi is a Hindu Indian feminine given name or surname, which means "goddess of victory". The name may refer to: People First name * Vijayalakshmi Atluri, Indian computer scientist *Vijayalakshmi (Kannada actress), Indian actress *Vijaya ...

, ''Kochiyile Vrikshangal'' by K. G. Sankara Pillai, ''Christmas Marathinte Veru'' by

Aymanam John Aymanam John (born 10 April 1953) is a Malayalam–language short-story writer. He hails from Aymanam, a small village in Kerala's Kottayam district which was made famous by Arundhati Roy through her 1997 novel ''The God of Small Things''. Writi ...

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 began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

''. 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 People from Thrissur district Writers from Kozhikode Malayalam-language writers Malayalam poets Malayalam short story writers Indian book publishers (people) Translators of Friedrich Nietzsche Suicides in India