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Yasar
Kemal Gökceli
was born
in 1923 in Hemite, a
60-house
hamlet in
the
province
of Adana
in
southern
Turkey. At
the age of
five Yasar
Kemal
suffered a
profound
shock when
his father
was
murdered
while
praying at
the mosque
and this
left him
with an
impediment
of speech
which
lasted up
to his
twelfth
year.
Surprisingly,
it was
only when
singing
that he
did not
stammer
and this
led him
very early
in life to
improvising
songs
according
to the
Anatolian
tradition
of folk
minstrels.
It was
this love
of poetry
that made
him want
to learn
to read
and write
in order
to record
the poems
he
composed.
But at
that time
there was
no school
in Yasar
Kemal's
village,
as was the
case then
for 95% of
Turkish
villages.
So at the
age of
nine the
little boy
walked to
the
neighbouring
village
every day
and
attended
school
there.
Later his
family
moved to
the small
town of
Kadirli
where he
completed
his
primary
schooling.
He was the
first
villager
of Hemite
ever to
finish a
primary
school.
After
leaving
school he
took up
such a
great
variety of
jobs that
he himself
does not
remember
them all.
He worked
as a laborer
in the
cotton and
rice
fields,
taught in
a school
for a
while,
then
switched
to
agriculture
again and
operated a
threshing
machine.
He went to
Istanbul
where he
was
employed
by the gas
company,
then
returned
to the
little
town of Kadirli,
bought a
typewriter
and earned
his living
as a
public
letter-writer.
He even
managed to
get into
prison.
During
this time
he had
read all
the books
he could
lay his
hands on
and had
made
friends
with
intellectuals
who
contributed
to his
cultural
formation.
He wrote
his first
story in
1947.
In
1950 he
came to
Istanbul
again and
after a
time of
hardship
and
difficulties
looking
for work
he managed
to obtain
a job as a
reporter
for
Istanbul's
most
important
daily
newspaper, Cumhuriyet
(Republic).
His
articles
were
written in
a
unheard-of
style for
Turkey and
have since
been
published
in book
form,
caused a
sensation
and he
soon won
the annual
Journalists'
Association
Prize for
the best
reportage
of the
year.
His
first book
of short
stories
was
published
in 1952
under the
title Yellow
Heat.
He then
wrote Ince
Memed
(Memed My
Hawk)
which was
published
in 1955.
This book
was an
event both
in Turkey
and
abroad. In
Turkey it
won the
newly set
up Varlik
Prize 1996
for the
best novel
of the
year and
was also
chosen as
the
best-liked
novel
after a
one-year
opinion
poll among
readers
all over
Turkey.
The book
has broken
the record
of novel
sales in
Turkey.
Abroad,
The PEN
Club
International
recommended
the book
to UNESCO
which
sponsored
translation.
Ince
Memed
has been
published
with
success in
more than
thirty
countries,
and so
have the
other
novels
Yasar
Kemal has
written
since.
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