The Little Sugar Beet Vendor

Samad Behrangi, Iranian teacher, social critic, folklorist, translator, and short story writer. 

He was only twenty-nine when drowned in a swimming accident in Aras River in September 1968. At the time, his most famous children's stories, including "Ma’hi-e Sia’he Kochoulou" (The Little Black Fish), his most famous work, were at the press; they were published posthumously. Later in 1969, "24 Sa'at Dar Khab Va Bidary" (24 Restless Hours) and "Yek Hulou, Yek Hezar Hulou" (One Peach, A Thousand Peaches), two of his other works were published. 

During the 1970s, Behrangi became a hero and martyr figure for anti-Pahlavi groups, and during the 1979 Revolution he received considerable attention. A dedicated and indefatigable advocate of radical reforms, Behrangi is said to have been a model teacher. His anti patriarchal and anticlerical encouragement of the youth of Azerbaijan to educate themselves into equality with Persian-speaking Iranians, his passionate criticism of the wholesale adoption of American educational ideas and values, and his courageous willingness to confront the governmental power structure through his writing and teaching guarantee Behrangi a place in Iranian intellectual and social history.