Storywriter and novelist (b. 12 December 1928, Bishkek / Frunze / Kyrgyzstan - d.
10 June 2008). His real name is Cengiz Törekuloviç Aytmatov. It is known that his
father Törekul Aytmatov was one of the victims of the terror of Stalin in 1937.
His childhood passed in the years that the Second World War destroyed Soviet
Socialist Republican Unity and he lived the pain of the war deeply. After the
war, he entered Cambul Technical School in Kazakhstan (1946). After this school
he attended Kyrgyzstan Institute of Agriculture. During his studentship, one of
his stories, that he wrote in Kyrgyz Turkish was translated into Russian and
was published in Pravda in 1952. One year later he graduated from Institute of
Agriculture and began working as an animal specialist. Therefore, he had the
chance to get acquainted with his country and his people. The clues about the
nature-human relationship, which he became aware of during the childhood
years he spent shepherding, were enriched at the time of this mission and
took their place in his works in time in a lively manner.
Cengiz Aymatov, who had the opportunity to be a trainee in Gorky
Institute of Literature between years of
1956-58 continued his rise in spite of the fact that he carried the label of
“son of the traitor”. The same year he started Gorky Institute he also entered
Moscow University Faculty of Literature. At the time of Khrushchev's
anti-Stalinist propaganda period he was accepted to Soviet Writers Association
and Soviet Communist Party (1959).This writer whose success was admired by
everyone successively won the Lenin Prize of Literature with his works “İlk Öğretmen” (First Teacher), Cemile, “Deve Gözü” (Eye of the Camel), Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım (My Tall
Darling with Red Scarf). Aytmatov, who was deemed worthy of the Big Soviet
Award in 1968 and who was to win this award for a second time in 1983, had a
worldwide fame starting fromthe end of 1950s. Complete Works of Aytmatov series
were published by Ötüken Publications.
WORKS:
NOVEL - SHORT STORY: Yüzyüze
(Face to Face, 1957), Cemile (1958), Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım (My Tall
Darling with Red Scarf, 1960), İlk
Öğretmen (First Teacher, 1961), Deve Gözü (Eye of the Camel,1961), Toprak Ana (Mother Earth, 1962), Al Elma (Red Apple, 1964), Gülsarı (Roseyellow,1962), Beyaz Gemi (The White Ship,1970), Askerin Oğlu (Son of the Soldier, 1971),
Erken Gelen Turnalar (Early Coming
Cranes, 1975), Deniz Kıyısında Koşan Ala
Köpek (The Speckled Dog Running Along the Coast, 1977), Gün Uzar Yüzyıl Olur (The Day Grows into
a Century, 1980), Öğretmen Duyşen (Teacher
Duyşen, 2005).
MEMOIR:
Çocukluğum (My Childhood, 2005).
INTERVIEW:
Şafak Sancısı (Pain of Dawn, with Muhtar Şahanov, 2005).
New editions of his books have begun to be published by Da Publications since 2005.
