Poet and writer (b. 2
February 1907, İstanbul – d. 10 July 1991). His surname was Solok but wrote
under the pen name Cevdet Kudret. He attended Nümune-i İrfan Primary School,
Davutpaşa Secondary School and graduated from İstiklâl High School (1930) and
İstanbul University, Faculty of Law (1933). He worked as a literature teacher
at various high schools in Ankara and at Ankara State Conservatoire (1934-45).
He also worked as a secretary at The Conservatoire 1948 and 1950. During the
period of the Democratic Party, he was appointed as a Turkish teacher at Bitlis
Secondary School. He was then commissioned to work on the Encyclopedia of
Turkey (1945-50).
After leaving this job, he
worked as a private lawyer in Ankara and İstanbul, as an editor at the Turkish
Language Association and as an advisor at Bilgi Publishing House (1967-70). He
retired when he was working as a lecturer at the Political Science Press and
Publishing College (1973) and moved to Bodrum. He lived there for a while. He
lived in İstanbul after 1986. He worked on the preparation of Grand Larousse
Encyclopedia published by Gelişim Publications. In
1995, his family established the Cevdet Kudret Literature Award, which is given
to a different literary genre every year.
The poems of Kudret, who was
one of the poets of the “Seven Torches Movement”, were published for the first
time in the reviews Servet-i Fünun
and Meşale. After 1950, he started to
work on research, essays and reviews on the history of literature. His books
evaluating Turkish literature in various aspects are regarded as significant
studies in this field. After 1952, he wrote course books and supplementary
books for secondary education. For some of his work, he wrote under the pen
names Abdurrahman Nisari, Nevzat Yesirgil, Cevdet Baykara and Suat Hizarcı. He
also wrote course books under the name A. Nisari. He won the Turkish Language
Association’s 1974 Science Award with his monograph called Ortaoyunu*. In 1989, he was awarded the Language Society Language
Honor Award. In 1992, he was awarded the Turkish Authors Association Honor
Award.
WORKS:
POETRY: Yedi Meşale (Seven Torches, together with his six friends, 1928), Birinci Perde (First Act, 1929).
NOVEL: Sınıf Arkadaşları (Classmates, 1943), Havada Bulut Yok (There are No Clouds in the Sky, 1958), Karıncayı Tanırsınız (You Know the Ant,
his first two novels with this one were published under the general title Süleymanın Dünyası (Süleyman’s World),
1976).
PLAY: Tersine Akan Nehir (The River Flowing in Reverse, 1929), Rüya İçinde Rüya (A Dream within a
Dream, 1930), Danyal ve Sara (Danyal
and Sara, 1931), Kurtlar (Wolves,
1933), Hamle Et, Yaşayan Ölüler
(Attack!, the Living Dead, these plays, performed at İstanbul City Theatres,
were serialized in Varlık, Gündüz and Ağaç magazines and
were compiled after his death, 1994)
SHORT
STORY: Sokak (Street, 1974)
ESSAY: Dilleri Var Bizim Dile Benzemez (They Have a Language that Does Not
Resemble Ours, 1966), Bir Bakıma (In
One Respect, 1977), Benim Oğlum Bina Okur
(My Son Reads Buildings, 1983), Kalemin
Ucu (The Point of the Pen, 1991), Edebiyat
Kapısı (The Door of Literature, 1997).
RESEARCH-COLLECTION-ANTHOLOGY:
Türk Hikâye ve Roman Antolojisi
(Anthology of Turkish Stories and Novels, 1945, published under the name of Türk
Edebiyatında Hikâye ve Roman - The Story and Novel in Turkish Literature,
1859-
He also translated works.
REFERENCE: Ahmet Haşim (Politika, 21.1.1930), Nurullah Ataç (Milliyet, 2.3.1934), Oktay Akbal (Cumhuriyet, 26.2.1977), Hilmi Yavuz (Gösteri, Nisan 1983), Atilla Özkırımlı (söyleşi / Cumhuriyet, 19.4.1988), Yusuf Çotuksöken (Varlık, Temmuz 1988), Vedat Günyol (Varlık, Temmuz 1988), Fahir İz (Varlık, Temmuz 1988), Vecihi Timuroğlu (Varlık, Temmuz 1988), Tuncer Uçarol / 1930’lu Yıllarda Cevdet Kudret, (Varlık, Temmuz 1988), İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), İhsan Kudret - Alpay Kabacalı / Cevdet Kudret’e Saygı (1993).