Writer (b. 6
June 1887, Jerusalem – d. 15 June 1966, İstanbul). He was the son of Saniye
Hanım of Crete, and the governor Mustafa Esat Bey. He was the second husband of
the painter Fahrünnisa Zeid and father of the painter Nejat Devrim and theater
artist Şirin Devrim. His childhood passed in Jerusalem, Konya and Hanya because
of his father’s postings. He graduated from Galatasaray High School (1906). He
studied law in Paris and İstanbul for a time. He worked as a civil servant,
general secretary and director at the İstanbul State Management Office (1906-
1925), as a financial advisor and board member at foreign banks (1925- 1940),
as a teacher of French at the War School (1942), as director at the Anatolian
Agency (1941- 48) and then retired. He is buried in Zincirlikuyu Graveyard.
He started
his writing career with his poems published in the reviews Çocuklara
Mahsus Gazete and Mecmua-i Edebiye. İzzet Melih, one of the members of the “Dawn of the New
Age Movement”, came second at a prose competition that was held by the review Les Annales Politique Literaire with his
short story L’Ennui (Annoyance –
1905). He was given an honorary literature doctorate by the Paris Faculty of
Literature (1938) for his etude on Henry Metaille and works on the French
language. He was selected as a member of the Writers Union of Paris (1957).
WORKS:
PLAY: Leylâ (Leila, in French, 1912).
NOVEL: Tezad (Opposite, 1915), Sermed (Eternity, 1918, French version
with a preface by Pierre Loti, 1919).
OTHER WORKS:
Hüzün ve Tebessüm (Melancholy and
Smile, poems in prose and short stories, 1922), Henry Bataille (research in French, 1924), Her Güzelliğe Âşık (In Love with Every Beauty, short story and
travel notes, 1938).
