ORHAN KEMAL LITERATURE MUSEUM

Cihangir, Beyoğlu - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°01'50.0"N 28°59'00.8"E / 41.030556, 28.983556



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The Orhan Kemal Literature Museum (Turkish: Orhan Kemal Müzesi) is a literary museum and archive in Istanbul, Turkey dedicated to Turkish literature, and named after novelist Orhan Kemal (1914–1970).

Esrablished with the support of Orhan Kemal Culture and Arts Center, the museum is situated in a five-story building in Cihangir neighborhood of Beyoğlu. On display are photographs about his private life taken by Ara Güler, family photographs, original first edition of his books, his private letters, critics, articles and dissertations about his works. His study room contains his typewriter and many other personal belongings. His death mask is also exhibited in the museum. The building houses a bibliothek and a cafeteria for visitors.

Orhan Kemal (15 September 1914, Ceyhan, Adana – 2 June 1970, Sofia, Bulgaria) is the pen name of Turkish novelist Mehmet Raşit Öğütçü. He is known for his realist novels that describe the life of the poor in Turkey. Orhan Kemal was born in Adana, Ceyhan, on 15 September 1914. He was the son of Abdülkadir Kemali Bey, who was a Member of Parliament and Minister, and Azime Hanım, who was an intellectual secondary school graduate.

Kemal's father was obliged to flee Turkey for Syria, due to his party being suspected of involvement in a recent revolt, where Kemal remained with him for a year before returning to Adana in 1932. Kemal worked as a labourer, a weaver and as a clerk in a cotton mill. While doing his military service in 1938 his political opinions led to his being sentenced to a 5-year term of imprisonment.

The charges included "reading the works of Maxim Gorky and Nazim Hikmet" and "propagandising for foreign regimes and encouraging revolt". While in prison in Bursa he was the cellmate of Hikmet, who was his major literary influence. He had been writing poems until he met Hikmet. With his encouragement, he switched to stories. After being released from prison in 1943 he returned to Adana, working as a labourer, and beginning to publish his writings.

Although he started as a writer of poetry he soon began to publish stories, from 1943 under the adopted name Orhan Kemal. Following the birth of his third child (of four) Kemal moved his family to Istanbul in 1951 where he worked again as a labourer and then from 1951 as a clerk at the Tuberculosis Foundation, living with little money and all the time writing.

He was arrested again in 1966 for "forming a communist propagandist cell" but was released two months later after the charges could not be substantiated. Orhan Kemal, (Mehmet Raşit Öğütçü) writer of short stories and novels was born in Adana in 15.09.1914  and died in Sofia due to intracranial hemorrhage in 02.06.1970. His father, Abdülkadir Kemali, was an MP from Kastamonu during the first term parliament of the Turkish Republic.

Abdülkadir Kemali, a lawyer by profession, established The Ahali Party which was dissolved causing its founder to have to flee to Syria. In order to accompany his father, Orhan Kemal had to miss his final year of secondary school. Orhan Kemal stayed in Syria for a year, returning to Adana in 1932. He worked as a laborer, weaver and clerk in cotton gin mills.

During his military service he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for his political opinions. Bursa prison became a turning point in his life and art work as he met Nazım Hikmet who greatly influenced him. On his release in 1943, Orhan Kemal, moved to Istanbul (1951), where he worked as a labourer, a vegetable transporter and then as a clerk for the Tuberculosis Foundation. From 1950 onwards he tried to live upon the income gained from writing. Orhan Kemal died in Bulgaria. His body was returned to Turkey and buried in Zincirlikuyu cemetery.

Works
Orhan Kemal's stories and novels generally depict the lives of ordinary working people trying to hold on to their dignity in conditions of poverty or deprivation. His first poem was published in Yedigün under the name of Raşit Kemal (Duvarlar 25.04.1939) Further poems written under the same pen name are Yedigün and Yeni Mecmua 1940. On meeting Nazım Hikmet, Kemal wrote under the name of “Orhan Raşit” (Yeni Edebiyat 1941) Impressed by Nazım Hikmet, Kemal concentrated on stories as opposed to poems. His first story,

“Bir Yılbaşı Macerası”, was published in 1941. In 1942 he adopted the name Orhan Kemal when writing stories and poems in Yürüyüş. He found fame through stories in Varlık in 1944, his first collection of short stories “Ekmek Kavgası”, and first novel “Baba Evi”, was published in 1949. Early works depicted characters form the immigrant quarters of Adana Kemal described the social structure, worker employer relationships and the daily struggles of petty people from industrialised Turkey.

He aimed to present an optimistic view through the heroes of his stories. He never changed his simple exposition and thus became one of the most skilful names of Turkish stories and novels. He also wrote film scripts and plays including “İspinozlar” and “Kardeş Payı”. Dramatisations have been made of his novels and stories including “Murtaza”, “Eskici Dükkanı”.

His play about life in prison in the 1940s “72.Koğuş” (Cell 72) has been made as a feature film twice, most recently in 2011, starring well-known actors Hülya Avşar and Yavuz Bingöl. He also wrote a story named "Hanımın Çiftliği" (English, Lady's farm) which took a major success in Turkish history of soap operas.

The Orhan Kemal Literature Museum and library dedicated to Kemal and his work is to be found in the modest flat in which he lived at 30 Akarsu Caddesi, Cihangir, Istanbul. After his death a literary award was established in his name, the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize, given since 1972.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



WEB SITE : Orhan Kemal Literature Museum

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : info@orhankemal.org
Phone : +90 212 292 9245 - +90 212 292 1213
Fax : +90 212 243 6782

These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.

SAIT FAİK ABASIYANIK MUSEUM

Burgazada, Adalar - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 40°52'51.8"N 29°04'02.6"E / 40.881048, 29.067380



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Born in 1906 Adapazarı, Sait Faik Abasıyanık was educated at the Bursa Erkek Lisesi. He enrolled in the Turcology Department of Istanbul University in 1928, but went to Switzerland to study economics in 1930. He left school and lived for three years in Grenoble, France. He devoted his life to writing after 1934. He created a brand new language and brought new life to Turkish short story writing with his harsh but humanistic portrayals of laborers, fishermen, children, the unemployed and the poor.

Sait Faik Abasıyanık was an important figure in Turkish literature, and his sizable contribution of short stories and poems cannot be overlooked. Abasıyanık spent most of his time on Burgazada and was a great lover of the sea, a topic he frequently wrote about. To learn more about the English translations of his work, read our full review of the collection A Useless Man.

The Daruşşafaka Association, an NGO school for children who have lost one or more parent, was a personal interest of Abasıyanık, and upon his passing in 1954, he bequeathed all of his belongings to the school. Darüşşafaka in turn turned Abasıyanık’s home in Burgazada into an engaging museum that contains documents of both a professional and personal nature.

The Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum first opened in 1959, and was recently restored by Darüşşafaka and reopened in May 2013, exhibiting letters, photographs, and manuscripts, among some other of the writer’s belongings. The museum is open to the public free of charge, so regardless of whether you are familiar with Abasıyanık’s works or just looking to take a break from the city, do take the time to knock on the door of the great Turkish wordsmith and wander through his fascinating life.

Sait Faik Abasıyanık, the great writer who dedicated himself to Darüşşafaka's mission and bequeathed his assets and copyrights to his books to the Society, is a pioneer in modern Turkish story-writing. Sait Faik Abasıyanık’s museum house in Burgaz Island (Burgazada) where he lived and wrote many of his stories, was renewed and reopened for its visitors by Darüşşafaka Society.

Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum, exhibiting Sait Faik’s belongings, manuscripts, letters, photographs, and many other objects and documents which carry the traces of his memories, was opened to the public for the first time on August 22, 1959. The museum is maintained by Darüşşafaka Society since 1964, and is one of the most visited museum houses of Turkey since the day it was opened.

After the completion of restoration and conservation works which had been carried out since 2010 by Darüşşafaka, the museum was reopened to its visitors on May 11, 2013 with its brand new look, restored and renewed with a contemporary museology approach. The museum, which takes Sait Faik’s readers to a fascinating journey to his literary and spiritual world, is open to the public free of charge upon the writer’s bequest. We invite Sait Faik lovers and everyone who would like to discover his world, to Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum.

Sait Faik Abasıyanık, who is considered a landmark in Turkish literature with his contributions to contemporary story-writing, was born on November 18, 1906 in Adapazarı. He went to elementary school in Karamürsel and Adapazarı, and completed his high school education in Istanbul and Bursa. After studying for two years at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Literature, he travelled to several countries in Europe.

He stayed three years in Grenoble, France, which he loved and had a considerable effect on his writing and personality. Upon his father’s request, Sait Faik returned to Istanbul in 1934 and lived in the Rumeli apartment building on Rumeli Avenue of Şişli district, where his family had just moved in. After his father died, he spent his winters in Şişli and his summers with his mother at their house in Burgaz Island (Burgazada) which they had bought in 1938. He spent most of his time at this house after he became ill in 1945, until his death on May 11, 1954.

Sait Faik published his first short story “Uçurtmalar” (Kites) on December 9, 1929 in the Istanbul daily Milliyet. After returning home in 1934, he started publishing his short stories in Varlık, an important Turkish literary magazine. Beginning from this year, he devoted himself completely to writing short stories and he narrated the sea, nature, workers, children, poor people, unemployed and fishermen with a humanistic, sensitive, honest and modest way. His first collection of short stories, Semaver (Samovar) was published in 1936 by Remzi Publishing.

In 1939 Sarnıç (Reservoir), in 1940 Şahmerdan (Pile Driver), in 1948 Lüzumsuz Adam (The Futile Man), in 1950 Mahalle Kahvesi (The Neighborhood Coffeehouse), in 1951 Kumpanya (Company of Players), in 1952 Havuz Başı (By the Fountain), Son Kuşlar (Last Birds) and Birtakım İnsanlar (A Certain Kind of People), in 1953 Kayıp Aranıyor (Search for the Missing Person) and Şimdi Sevişme Vakti (Now’s the Time for Love), and in 1954 Alemdağ’da Var Bir Yılan (A Snake in Alemdağ) was published. In 1953, he was elected an honorary member of the International Mark Twain Society (USA) for his contributions to contemporary literature.

Sait Faik and Darüşşafaka
The paths of Darüşşafaka and Sait Faik crossed one year before his death at a literature matinee organized by Darüşşafaka High School in Fatih. He showed admiration for the children studying there and gave them special attention. After attending the matinee, Sait Faik wandered around the school, and when he returned home, he told his mother that he would like to bequeath all of his money to Darüşşafaka in order to provide children who had lost their fathers a chance to receive quality education.

His mother Makbule Abasıyanık respected his wish and left his assets and all the copyrights to his books to the Society with her bequest dated November 8, 1954, with the stipulation that his house at Burgazada be preserved as a museum and that an award in her son's memory be given each year. The Darüşşafaka Society faithfully embraces the terms of the bequest which was inherited in 1964, preserving the museum which was opened on August 22, 1959 and being responsible for its maintenance and renovation since 1964.

Darüşşafaka has also been organizing every year since 1964 one of the most significant literature contests in Turkey, “Sait Faik Story Award”, thereby commemorating the great writer on a nationwide scale. Turkish literature’s longest-standing story contest has been held in collaboration with “Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları” since 2012.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



WEB SITE : Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : bilgi@saitfaikmuzesi.org
Phone : +90 216 381 2060

These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.