Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın

Writer (b. 7 December 1874, Balıkesir - d. 18 October 1957, İstanbul). He graduated from Mülkiye Mektebi (School of Political Sciences) (1896). There he had Mizancı Murad Bey, Abdurrahman Şeref Bey and Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem as teachers. He worked as a teacher at the Vefa High School and Mercan High School. On the closure of the review Servet-i Fünûn due to one of his articles (1901), he stopped writing until the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy. He published the newspaper Tanin in collaboration with Tevfik Fikret and Hüseyin Kâzım in 1908. Later, he joined the Union and Progress Party and was elected as a parliamentary deputy from İstanbul. His printing house was raided during the events of March 31. At the time of armistice, he was arrested and exiled to Malta, where he learnt English and Italian. He resumed publishing the newspaper Tanin in 1922, but being critical of the Republican government, it was closed down and Yalçın was exiled to Çorum for eighteen months (1925-26).

After his return to İstanbul, he began to work at the Industry and Mining Bank with help from a friend. However, he was dismissed when he objected to the official proposal on the revolution of language at the 1^st Convention of the Turkish Language (1933). He wrote all the articles in the review Fikir Hareketleri, which he published himself (1933-40). He began a career in politics after the death of Kemal Atatürk and was elected as a parliamentary deputy for İstanbul and Kars (1939-50). He was appointed as the editorial writer at the newspaper Ulus, where he wrote until his death. He is buried in Feriköy Graveyard.

He began his literary career with his novel Nadide (Nadide, 1892), which was published when he was only fifteen years old. He wrote about the wealthy population of the time in his novels. Moreover, he was a journalist, which should be highlighted. He is one of the most severe critics of Divan* literature, especially at the time when new style literature was just being established. He dealt with this issue in his first work Nadide.

WORKS:

NOVEL: Nadide (Nadide, 1892), Hayal İçinde (In a Dream, 1901).

SHORT STORY: Hayat-ı Muhayyel (An Imaginary Life, 1899), Hayat-ı Hakikiyye Sahneleri (Scenes from Real Life, 1909), Niçin Aldatırlarmış (Why Do They Cheat?, 1924).

THOUGHT: Kavgalarım (My Fights, 1910), Seçme Makaleler (Selected Articles, 1951).

BIOGRAPHY: Talat Paşa (Talat Paşa, 1943).

MEMOIR: Edebî Hatıralar (Literary Memories, 1935; published with the title Edebiyat Anıları-Memories of Literature by Rauf Mutluay, 1975), Siyasî Anılar (Politic Memories, published by Rauf Mutluay, 1976).

In addition, he translated some works by Pierre Loti.