The directory «Plots»
Adivar Halide Edib
(1883—1964)
Writer. She graduated from Üsküdar American Girls’ College (1901). Her father was Mehmet Edip, who worked as chief secretary and as the Ioannina and Bursa Minister of the Tobacco Monopoly in the period of Abdülhamit II. She received private lessons from Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı and Salih Zeki Ökten. The mathematician Salih Zeki was her first husband. During the 31 March Events she went to Egypt (1909) and then went to the United Kingdom. After she divorced from her first husband (1910), she became a teacher and examiner at İstanbul High School for Girls and inspector of Turkish schools in Beirut and Damascus, where she went upon the invitation of Cemal Paşa (1916). She went to Anatolia with Adnan Adıvar, with whom she married in 1917, after the Mondros Armistice and supported the National Struggle. She worked under the orders of the military with the ranks of corporal, sergeant and first sergeant during the years of the War of Independence. Her speeches at gatherings in Fatih, Kadıköy and Sultanahmet, which were held in protest of the occupation of İzmir, became influential.
After the announcement of the Republic, Atatürk did not welcome the Progressive Party she supported. Due to this situation she went to the United Kingdom, France and the United States with her husband and stayed there for fifteen years (1923-38). She gave lectures as a guest professor at Columbia University in the United States (1931-32) and at Delhi Islamic University, where she went upon the invitation of Mahatma Gandhi (1935). As her husband was charged and tried for taking part in the İzmir conspiracy, in her absence she stayed in the United Kingdom for a while. After the death of Atatürk, she returned home. She gave western literature lectures at İstanbul University, Faculty of Literature. She served as a parliamentary deputy with her husband between 1950 and 1954.
She published her first articles after the announcement of the Constitutional Monarchy in Tanin newspaper under the name Halide Salih. She wrote prosodic poems as well. Her later stories and articles about writers such as Yakup Kadri, Mehmet Emin and Ömer Seyfettin were signed with her real name. She worked as the editorial writer for Büyük Mecmua. Other than Tanin, she wrote in reviews such as Musavver Muhit, Şehbâl, Resimli Kitap and Resimli Roman. Halide Edip, who was influenced by western literature and who chose emotional love stories as the theme in her first works such as Seviye Talip (Striving for Love), wrote more realistic works later. She won the Republican People’s Party Novel Award with her novel Sinekli Bakkal (The Clown and His Daughter, 1942). Her novels were simplified and republished after her death.
According to Cevdet Kudret, the novels of Halide Edip can be classified into three groups according to their themes: Psychological analysis novels such as Seviye Talip (Striving for Love), Handan (Handan), Mev’ut Hüküm (The Promised Decree) and Kalp Ağrısı (Heartache); War of Independence novels such as Ateşten Gömlek (The Daughter of Smyra) and Vurun Kahpeye (Strike the Whore) and moral law novels such as Sinekli Bakkal (The Clown and His Daughter), Sonsuz Panayır (Endless Carnival). Halide Edip successfully reflected the circumstances and atmosphere of her time in her novels.
Turkey, 1966, Hålide E. Adivar
Turkey, 1996, Helide E. Adivar
