Yaşar Kemal

Novelist (b. 1923, Hermite (Gökçedam) village / Adana). Gökçedam, which was a village of the district of Kadirli, is now a village in the district of Osmaniye. Turkmen settled here in 1895 and Yaşar Kemal’s family came to this area in 1915. His original name was Kemal Sadık Göğceli. He also wrote under the pen names of Alageyik and Yusuf Karataylı. He lost his right eye in an accident when he was three and a half years old and his father was killed by one of those who raised him. He attended Kadirli Cumhuriyet Primary School (1938). He left school when he was in his last year of study at Adana 1^st. Elementary School (1941). He worked as a foreman, clerk, building inspector, public letter-writer and shoemaker in Adana and the surrounding areas. He was imprisoned in Kozan for a time because of his political ideas in the last months of the Republican People’s Party government.

His first article was published in Görüşler, the official journal of the Public House of Adana in the year 1939. He worked for the newspaper Cumhuriyet in İstanbul where he had come in 1951. With his friends, he was among the founders of the weekly review Ant (1967-71). His literary life started with a poem published in the review of the Public House of Adana, Görüşler (1939). His works on folklore on which he worked for many years were published in the same review. He published his poems in reviews such as Ülkü, Kovan, Millet and Başpınar under his own name (1942-43). Pis Hikâye (Dirty Story) was his first story, which he wrote when he was twenty-three years old.

Gradually he turned more to writing stories and novels. He became a widely known writer with the success of his first novel İnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk), which was translated into twenty-three languages. He wrote the second, (first printed in 1969), third (1984) and fourth (1987), part of İnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk) with which he won the Varlık Novel Award in 1950, the jury of which included Yakup Kadri, Ataç, Tanpınar, Reşat Nuri and Suut Kemal Yetkin . The book, which was printed in its 18^th edition in 1983, was filmed in the same year in the United Kingdom by Peter Ustinov. It made it onto the International PEN Club’s list as one of the six best novels and it was published in Bulgarian in 1957 and in Russian in 1959. It has also been published in Braille.

Yaşar Kemal who won the 1974 Madaralı Novel Award with Demirciler Çarşısı Cinayeti (Murder at the Blacksmith’s Market) was also given the International Del Duca Prize of France in 1982 and the Legion d’Honneur by the president of France, Francois Mitterand. He won the 1986 Orhan Kemal Novel Award with his novel Kale Kapısı (Castle Gates). Some other awards he won were: the Commandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres given by the French Minister of Culture (1988), the Tüyap Book Fair People’s Award (for the second time, 1988), the Ministry of Culture Grand Prize (1993) and the Mulkiye Alumni Rüştü Koray Prize (1994). He is a member of the Journalists Association of Turkey, the PEN Association of Writers, the Turkish Writers Syndicate and the Akademie Universalle Des Cultures. He is one of the internationally renowned Turkish writers in the 20^th century and his works have been translated into many languages.

WORKS:

COLLECTION: Ağıtlar I (Ballads I, under the name of Kemal Sadık Göğçeli, 1943), Gökyüzü Mavi Kaldı (The Sky Remained Blue, a selection of folklore, with Sabahattin Eyuboğlu, 1978), Ağıtlar (Ballads, 1992).

SHORT STORY: Sarı Sıcak (Yellow Heat, 1952), Teneke (Tinplate, a long story, 1955), Bütün Hikâyeler (Collected Short Stories, 1962).

NOVEL: İnce Memed I (Memed, My Hawk, 1955), Ortadirek (Middle Class, The Wind from the Plain: Volume I, 1955), Yer Demir Gök Bakır (Iron Earth, Copper Sky, The Wind from the Plain: Volume II, 1963), Üç Anadolu Efsanesi (Three Anatolian Legends, 1967), Ölmez Otu (The Undying Grass, The Wind from the Plain: Volume III, 1968), İnce Memed II (Memed, My Hawk II, 1969), Ağrıdağı Efsanesi (The Legend of Mount Ararat, 1970), Binboğalar Efsanesi (The Legend of the Thousand Bulls, 1971), Çakırcalı Efe (The Life Stories of the Famous Bandit Çakırcalı, 1972), Demirciler Çarşısı Cinayeti (Murder in the Blacksmith’s Market, The Lords of Akçasaz : Part I, 1973), Yusufçuk Yusuf (Yusuf, Little Yusuf, The Lords of Akçasaz : Volume II, 1975), Al Gözlüm Seyreyle Salih (The Saga of a Seagull, 1976), Yılanı Öldürseler (To Crush the Serpent, 1976), Kuşlar da Gitti (The Birds Have Also Gone: Long Stories, 1978), Deniz Küstü (The Sea Was Offended, 1978), Yağmurcuk Kuşu (The Rain Bird, Little Nobody : Volume I, 1980), Hüyükteki Nar Ağacı (The Pomegranate on the Knoll, 1982), İnce Memed III (Memed , My Hawk III, 1984), Kale Kapısı (The Castle Gates, Little Nobody: Volume II, 1985), İnce Memed IV (Memed, My Hawk IV, 1987), Kanın Sesi (The Voice of Blood, Little Nobody : Volume III, 1991), Karıncanın Su İçtiği – Bir Ada Hikâyesi 2 (Ant Drinking Water, An Island Story 2, 2002), Tanyeri Horozları – Bir Ada Hikâyesi 3 (Roosters of the Dawn, An Island Story 3, 2002).

INTERVIEW: Yanan Ormanlarda 50 Gün (Fifty Days in the Burning Forests, 1955), Çukurova Yana Yana (While Çukurova Burns, 1955), Peri Bacaları (The Fairy Chimneys, 1957), Bu Diyar Baştan Başa (Collected Interviews, 1971), Bir Bulut Kaynıyor (Collected Interviews, 1974), Allah’ın Askerleri (The Soldiers of God, 1978), Alain Bosquet ile Konuşmalar (Speeches with Alain Bosquet, translated by Altan Gökalp, 1992).

ESSAY: Taş Çatlasa (At Most, 1961), Baldaki Tuz (The Salt in the Honey, 1974), Ağacın Çürüğü (The Rotting Tree, 1980), Sarı Defterdekiler – Folklor Denemeleri (Contents of the Yellow Notebook, folkloric essays, ed. Alpay Kabacalı, 2002).

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: Filler Sultanı ile Kırmızı Sakallı Topal Karınca (The Sultan of the Elephants and the Red-Bearded Crippled Ant, 1977).