Ludu U Hla - Ludu Books and Kyipwa Yay Press

Ludu Books and Kyipwa Yay Press

The printing machines in 84th street had no time to gather dust as U Hla concentrated his efforts in bringing out volume after volume of books, his own and others' including Daw Amar's translations and analyses in international politics and her treatises on traditional Burmese theatre, dance and music now that they could no longer write about domestic politics. He began interviewing people from all walks of life so he could retell their stories to his reading public and the result was a series of kyundaw books:

• 1. Kyundaw byu-ro karat (ကျွန်တော်ဗျူရိုကရတ်) - I the Bureaucrat 1970
  2. Kyundaw sa-tee pwèza (ကျွန်တော်စတီးပွဲစား) - I the Steele Broker 1970
  3. Kyundaw thadindauk (ကျွန်တော်သတင်းထောက်) - I the Reporter 1971
  4. Kyundaw hlei tha-gyi (ကျွန်တော်လှေသားကြီး) - I the Boatmaster 1972
  5. Kyundaw myinthama (ကျွန်တော်မြင်းသမား) - I the Gambler on Horses 1972
  6. Kyundaw thanlwin hpaungzee (ကျွန်တော်သံလွင်ဖောင်စီး) - I the Salween Rafter, translated into Japanese
  7. Kyundaw hsin oozi (ကျွန်တော်ဆင်ဦးစီး) - I the Elephant Driver
  8. Kyundaw hsa-chet thama (ကျွန်တော်ဆားချက်သမား) - I the Saltmaker, published posthumously in 1986

U Hla also published the letters he had received from Theippan Maung Wa, about 500 of them, in a book titled Thu sa mya ga pyaw dè Theippan Maung Wa - Theippan Maung Wa as Profiled by His Letters. He himself wrote about 700 letters to the older writer from 1933 to 1942 until the latter's untimely death soon after the Japanese invasion. Theippan Maung Wa's plays that had appeared in the Kyipwa Yay magazine under the pen name of a woman, Tin Tint, were the next to be re-introduced by U Hla to the reading public in another book titled Tint Tint Pyazat (Plays by Tint Tint). U Hla was again instrumental in the search for and eventual publication of Theippan Maung Wa's War Diary (Sit atwin neizin hmattaan).

Travelogues were another genre among U Hla's prolific writings:

• 1. Indonesia anauk hma ashei tho - Indonesia West to East
  2. Japan pyi ta-hkauk - A Sojourn in Japan
  3. Naga taungdaan dazi dazaung - A Glimpse of the Naga Hills

Children's books besides his massive collection of folk tales include:

• 1. Su htoo pan yaukkya - A Man of Supreme Wish, written for his oldest son Soe Win, aged 3, during the war in 1944
  2. Ko Pyu nè Ma Pyone - Ko Pyu and Ma Pyone Cartoons by U Ba Gyan, the first book to be published by the Kyipwa Yay Press in Mandalay

U Hla was forever concerned about the youth of Burma and his endeavours in their education include:

• 1. Lu ta lone - A Person of Substance 1977
  2. Ayet-thama a-hma ta htaung - One Thousand Errant Ways of an Alcoholic
  3. Ayet-thama a-hma hna htaung - Two Thousand Errant Ways of an Alcoholic
  4. Beinbyu thama a-hma gaba - A World of Errant Ways of a Heroin Addict 1974
  5. Sayleik nè lutha - Tobacco and Man, co-authored with Daw Amar who smoked from age 8 till her 40s and whose family business was tobacco

It has been said that, in the history of Burmese literature, no other writer has been as prolific as U Hla. He appeared to have an all consuming passion for the world of letters, and an inexhaustible amount of energy in not only writing, publishing and travelling for research and to give talks but in corresponding with all his friends and his readers. He remained active in civic and communal life; the Ludu couple was invited by the authorities to give talks to students from both Rangoon and Mandalay Universities taking part in a campaign for the reconstruction of the damaged temples of Bagan in the great earthquake of 1975.