At the Hands of Master Tanious of "Dar al-Ahad," "The Woman's Voice" Has Come Out for Seven Years

... Since its birth in 1945, "The Woman's Voice" has made the acquaintance of a number of printing houses. It began modestly, watching its economy, printing wherever could be managed. No permanent office and no settled home, as its first editor-in-chief, Mr. Rushdi Ma'alouf, relates.

In 1946 "The Woman's Voice" came out in fresh new dress from the Catholic Press; its editing was in the charge of Mr. Youssef al-Khal, and it was distinguished, artistically, by the stamp of Radwan al-Shahhal, and by a touch of extravagance before which it could not long hold out...

And it moved to the presses of "Dar al-Ahad" in 1948, and it still prides itself on the elegant production and the classic simplicity for which the Buhayri brothers, owners of the house, are famous. They are connoisseurs in the art of fine printing. It is a hobby to which they give themselves utterly; their concern is quality and perfection before all else.

At Dar al-Ahad "The Woman's Voice" settled into its married home, and it no longer cares to move anywhere else!! And throughout the last seven years it has come out at the hands of Master Tanious, head of the Arabic crew; and it pleased our correspondent to draw Master Tanious out about his impressions of those who have supervised the magazine during his term of responsibility. She surprised him at his work and opened with:

— How have you grown used to this work, silent with the silence of letters and figures?

He loosed a broad smile and answered:

— It is like any work: it seems hard and complicated at its beginning, but once a man grows familiar with it, it becomes part of his very being. And so I find myself in the letters — or rather I make living souls of them — and I do not weary; I forget the monotony of the work and the pull of the road.

— Since when have you accompanied "The Woman's Voice," Master Tanious?

— Since the days of its childhood, in 1948 — that is, since it began to be printed at the presses of Dar al-Ahad, when it was two years old, issued by Dar al-Kitab, whose owner is Mr. Fuad Badr.

— Who was the first editor-in-chief you worked with? And what are your impressions of him?

— I worked first with Mr. Fouad Suleiman, in the years '48 and '49. And what I remember most of his writing is his love of the land and of the village, its paths and its nightingales. God rest his soul.

— And who came after Mr. Fouad Suleiman?

— After him the responsibility of the magazine was carried by Mr. Tawfiq Sayigh — poet of imagination and meditations, as though he were of some other world than ours; he brushed the "Voice" with a new color which, I won't hide it from you, was sometimes closed to me!

— So until that time the magazine was "The Woman's Voice" in name only?!

— That is the fact, unfortunately. But the late Mrs. Salma Sayegh carried its banner for a time, and behold, the magazine was a sweet song — a woman's song — but our departed friend's health did not permit her to carry on the work...

... And another page of history is turned — the magazine's history — and behold, it sits enthroned upon two capable hands, which secure for the magazine its balance of material, both as to its soundness and as to woman's true need of it... And around it a bouquet of young ladies... the fair and the dark, women of letters and beginners; and I do not know whether it is chance or... the fates that have gathered such comeliness beside letters, in Mrs. Shayboub's young companions??!

— And do you find any special difficulty in setting the type?

— I see you want to carry me back to my serious working atmosphere! Very well! First, I do not work alone at composing the type; there are other workmen who help me, and that keeps the work from monotony. And printing is marching along the course of progress, and our house is among the choicest houses in the elegance and quality of its printing, thanks to the renewal and the artistic care its owners lavish upon it.

— Then may I reassure the readers that The Woman's Voice is printed at the finest of printing houses?

— Can there be any doubt of it? And could it be other than what it is, so long as it is "The Woman's Voice"?!...