Bibliography
Samad Behrangi
1939 - 1968
An Azerbaijani teacher and short-story writer.
Samad Behrangi was born in Tabriz, capital of South Azerbaijan, in 1939. He
attended schools in the city and completed the two-year teachers' training
program for elementary school teachers in 1957. He spent the next eleven years
teaching in village schools in the Azar Shahr district, about 30 miles (50
kilometers) south west of Tabriz. He early developed a fascination with
Azerbaijani Turkish folk tales. His first book, published in 1965, was a
collection of several such stories that he had translated into Persian. That
work brought him to the attention of literary circles in Tehran. The subsequent
publication of an essay on educational problems, several original children's
stories dealing realistically with social issues, and a second volume of Azeri
folktales established his reputation as a rising star among a new generation of
writers.
Behrangi was drowned by Iranian secret
police in a swimming accident in September 1968; he was only twenty-nine. At the
time, his most famous children's stories, including "The Little Black Fish,"
were at the press; they were published posthumously.
The Little Black Fish , translated by Eric Hooglund and Mary.
The popularity of Behrangi's work continued
even after the 1979 revolution, with numerous editions of single stories, often
illustrated by noted artists, appearing regularly throughout the 1980s and
1990s. His stories and folktales also were translated into Azerbaijani Turkish.