Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil

Novelist (b. 1866, İstanbul - d. 27 March 1945, İstanbul). He started his education at the district school in Mercan in İstanbul, and then attended Fatih Military High School (1873-78). He moved to İzmir with his family, when his father, who managed a store, went bankrupt. He attended İzmir Military High School and took private French lessons from a lawyer named Auguste de Jaba. Later, he attended the Mechitariste Missionary School, administrated by Austrian Catholic priests. In the last grade he left school and began to work for his father (1883). During those years, he published the newspapers Nevruz (1884) and Hizmet (1886) in collaboration with his friends. He worked at the İzmir Military High School and the Ottoman Bank, while teaching French and literature at İzmir High School. He was appointed the first-secretary to the Tobacco Monopoly Office (1893) in İstanbul and here he joined the Scientific Wealth group. After the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy, he was promoted to superintendent of the Tobacco Monopoly Office. He gave lectures on Western literature at İstanbul University. A year later he was appointed as the palace Head Secretary to Sultan Reşat (Mehmet V.), upon the recommendation of the Progress and Union Party (1909-12). Upon being elected a member of the Senate, he left his office and resumed his duty at İstanbul University. He was sent to France, Germany and Romania on official duty by the government. During the years of armistice, he worked as the chairman of the assembly of the Tobacco Monopoly Office. After the declaration of the Republic, he concentrated on his literary works at his villa in Yeşilköy. He is buried in Kartaltepe Graveyard.

He is regarded as the greatest novelist of Scientific Wealth literature and the pre-republican period. In his novels, he depicted in a realistic style and with psychological analyses the intellectuals and upper-class people of his time, whom he had the opportunity to observe, while he portrayed people from the general public in his short stories. He translated some of his works into modern Turkish himself. After his death, his novels and short stories were simplified and re-published by various literature writers and researchers.

WORKS:

NOVEL: Sefile (Desperate, not completed, serialized in a newspaper, 1886), Nedime (Lady-in-Waiting, 1889), Bir Ölünün Defteri (Notebook of a Dead Man, 1889), Ferdi ve Şürekâsı (Ferdi and His Accomplices, 1894), Mai ve Siyah (Blue and Black, 1897), Aşkı Memnu (Forbidden Love, 1900), Kırık Hayatlar (Shattered Lives, 1924).

SHORT STORY: Bir Muhtıranın Son Yaprakları (The Last Pages of a Memorandum, 1888), Bir İzdivacın Tarih-i Muaşakası (History of Flirtation in a Marriage, 1888), Nakil (Narration, 4 volumes, 1894-96), Küçük Fıkralar (Little Anecdotes, 3 volumes, 1898), Bu mu İdi? (Was it This?, 1898), Heyhat (Alas!, long story, 1898), Bir Yazın Tarihi (History of a Summer, 1900), Solgun Demet (A Faded Bunch of Flowers, 1901), Bir Şi'ri Hayal (A Poetry Dream, 1914), Sepet'te Bulunmuş (Found in a Basket, 1920), Bir Hikâyei Sevda (The Story of a Love, 1922), Hepsinden Acı (More Bitter than All of Them, 1934), Onu Beklerken (Waiting for Her, 1935), Aşka Dair (About Love, 1935), İhtiyar Dost (Old Company, 1937), Kadın Pençesi (Woman’s Claw, 1939), İzmir Hikâyeleri (Stories from İzmir, 1950).

MEMOIR: Kırk Yıl (Forty Years, 5 volumes, 1936), Saray ve Ötesi (The Palace and Beyond, 1942), Bir Acı Hikâye (A Tragic Story, 1942).

PLAY: Kâbus (Nightmare, 1915; staged at the State Theater, 1959), Fürûzan (Fürûzan, adapted from the novel by A. Dumas Fils, 1918), Fave (Ways to Help the Life of a Student, adapted from the novel by Edouard Pailleron, 1919).

OTHER WORKS: Fransız Edebiyatının Numune ve Tarihi (French Literature and Examples, anthology, 1885), Hikâyeye Temâşa (Contacting a Story, 1889), Mensur Şiirler (Poems in Prose, 1889), Alman Tarihi Edebiyatı (German Literature in History, 1912), İspanya Tarihi Edebiyatı (Spanish Literature in History, 1912), Sanata Dair (On Art, 3 volumes, 1938-55), Valide Mektupları (Letters from My Mother, translation by Selmin Kur, 1999), Mensur Şiirler Mezardan Sesler (Poems in Prose, Voices from the Grave, edited by Ferhat Aslan, 2002).