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Stafeto

© David Poulson

Although these years were difficult and, indeed, at times very dangerous for Regulo, the financial hardship to which he was condemned had a very positive result for Esperanto. Unable to make ends meet on the reduced salary he was paid by the University as an "unofficial" tutor, Regulo, in 1950, set up a small printing and publishing house from which he issued (in Spanish) books about the history of the Canary Islands.http://www.canary-guide.com/visual/html/...

In the same year, he came to a decision which had momentous results. In his opinion, "Esperanto-land" was a speech-community, a linguistic community, but not truly a cultural community.

In order to encourage original writers in the language he established the publishers' imprint "Stafeto" and, with little hope of financial gain and with great energy and self-sacrifice, published, between 1952 and 1975 a total of 93 books of (mainly) original poetry and prose, popular science, and works about the Esperanto movement and language.

A quick glance through my latest catalogue of the book service of the Australian Esperanto Association http://www2.nextcentury.com.au/tmelt/ shows that 9 works published by Stafeto are still available at very low prices ranging from $3.00 to $8.50.

However, despite the low price, the quality of book production is high. I am fortunate to have many books published by Regulo on my own shelves and I am looking at one now which, although paper-covered has a sewn binding and is printed on good quality paper.

The book in question is La Infana Raso by the outstanding Esperanto poet William Auld, and it is fitting that I should have chosen this title as an exemplar. You will learn why and more about Auld and Perez in the next Esperanto Topic article.