Few, if any, publishers of books in Maltese have made a stronger impact on the local publishing scene than Paul Mizzi, who passed away on August 5 at the age of 89. 

When he first expressed the wish to start publishing works in Maltese in the late 1960s, he was advised to think twice before plunging into the venture. 

He was not altogether unaware of the financial risks involved, but he believed so strongly in the need for Malta to cultivate further the reading of books in Maltese that he went ahead and set up his Klabb Kotba Maltin in 1969.  

He did not stop there. Promoting the national language at a time when it was being butchered in both writing and speaking was important, but he also wanted to encourage interest in, and love for, the local heritage. He did this through the publication of his popular encyclopaedia of Malteseheritage, culture and civilisation, called Heritage. 

It was so avidly read over the years that Archbishop Charles Scicluna singled out this contribution in his personal tribute to the man. 

Mizzi, said the Archbishop, taught generations to love and cherish the Maltese heritage. 

With the rapid expansion of the social media, many thought the book was set to die a natural death. 

It did not, and even in Malta the number of books being published today is amazing considering the minuscule size of the market.  

More novels in Maltese are being published today than ever before, although the market for Maltese academic work has remained small as ever. Yet, despite this, authors of well-researched work are still finding publishers willing to publish their work. 

As publishers facing increasing financial pressures have bowed out of the market, others are taking their place, showing determination to fight on in the hope of seeing better times ahead. They deserve great merit.

But will there be better times for book publishing in Malta? It all depends on the educators’ aptitude to inculcate in their charges a love of their national language, and of local history and heritage. 

It is greatly distressing that in times when computer technology has made it so much easier to tap information, so many are growing up disinterested in their own history and heritage. 

Many of the young people today do not have the faintest idea of their country’s social and constitutional development. 

They hardly even know who most of the past prominent leaders were, let alone the role they played in their country’s history. As to the use of the Maltese language, the situation is worse than in the time when Paul Mizzi thought of launching his Klabb Kotba Maltin. 

As an educator and publisher, Mizzi must have cringed at the drop in the standard of the written and spoken language. 

Mizzi had a direct link with Allied Newspapers as he was its newspapers’ correspondent at the time when he still lived in Gozo, that is, before he set up Klabb Kotba Maltin. 

Mizzi’s legacy in book publishing and the promotion of the country’s heritage can well be kept alive through greater determination on the part of the State to support efforts aimed at infusing greater pride in the national language, which is after all an important part of the national identity.