Key document: Eight books, seven poets, one Clearing House

Abstract

The introduction traces the history of the influential Bombay poetry publishing house Clearing House in the 1970s, and in particular the part played in its history by Adil Jussawalla, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Gieve Patel and Arun Kolatkar. It draws upon an archive of correspondence relating to Clearing House, maintained by Adil Jussawalla and entrusted to Jerry Pinto in 2011, parts of which are unpublished. The archive contains letters between Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Adil Jussawalla and other members of the publishing house that combine the quirkily personal with discussion of the financing, publishing and dissemination of poetry, as well as other correspondence related to Clearing House’s activities. The introduction also draws upon Pinto’s personal conversations with Adil Jussawalla, Gieve Patel and other Bombay poets. It is followed by a selection of material from the archive itself.

Keywords:

• Bombay/Mumbai
• Clearing House
• small press
• Indian poetry in English
• Adil Jussawalla
• Arun Kolatkar
• Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
• Gieve Patel

Notes

1. Suchmuch in Hindi would be “really” or “truly”’, or even “really and truly”, but in English it would have the nonsense sound-sense of “such a much of a muchness press”.

2. Dr J.M. Jussawalla (1907–97), naturopath, Dhanvantari award winner, and author of several books on nature cure.

3. The Pras Prakashan edition of Jejuri is about an eighth of an inch smaller and narrower than the Clearing House books. It was printed this way with Kolatkar’s permission.

4. Mala Sen, author, and Farrukh Dhondy, columnist and author, were married at the time.

5. Navroz Mody was an editor with Oxford University Press; Susan was his American wife.

6. Dr J.Birje Patil was head of the Department of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and also a poet in his own right.

7. Also then married.

8. Arun Khopkar was teaching at the Film and Television Institute of India.

9. Anil Dharker, journalist, and Imtiaz Dharker, artist and poet, were married at the time.

10. For those who don’t know their Indian astrological signs, the name means Scorpion. Symbolic value in Indian aesthetics: lust.

11. As well as hosting the discussion group Nalanda, Hilla and Dossan Vakeel were involved in the Three Arts Circle (see Jussawalla 2014).

12. R. Parthasarathy.

13. Ravi Dayal, General Manager of Oxford University Press.