Novelist (b. 1923, Hermite
(Gökçedam) village /
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 18th edition in 1983, was filmed in the same year
in the
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
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).