Peyami Safa

Peyami Safa (April 2, 1899 – June 15, 1961) was a Turkish journalist, columnist and novelist.

He was born in 1899 to writer and poet İsmail Safa (1867–1901) in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire. While he was only two years old, his father died in exile in Sivas. During his youth years until the age of seventeen, he lived in psychic and physical depression due a bone sickness he suffered from at the age of eight or nine. He rejected his doctors' advice to amputate his arm. Safa described his experiences in hospitals in his novel Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu, which was filmed in 1967.

In 1911, Peyami Safa had to give up his education at Vefa High School, and began working in a printing house and later in the Ministry of Post. He taught himself French, and in 1918 together with his elder brother began publishing a newspaper. In later years, he published three literary periodicals. He also wrote in various newspapers sometimes as a columnist, and sometimes as a novelist.

Most of his novels were created before 1940. In these novels, he stressed on the west-east conflict in the Turkish society during the early years of the Turkish Republic. His novel Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu gained much interest. In 1931, he wrote his only historical novel about Attila the Hun. Besides these novels, he wrote many serial stories and novels in newspapers, among them in Cumhuriyet and Milliyet, under the pseudonym "Server Bedii". Some of these are about a gentleman thief named Cingöz Recai.

He wrote 15 novels, excluding those written under pseudonym. He also wrote 17 non-fictions and 9 textbooks mostly about literature.

Novels

• Şimşek (1923) (Lightning)
• Sözde Kızlar (1923) (So-called Girls)
• Mahşer (1924) (Armageddon)
• Bir Akşamdı (1924) (It Was an Evening)
• Süngülerin Gölgesinde (1924) (In Shadow of Bayonets)
• Bir Genç Kız Kalbinin Cürmü (1925) (The Crime of a Young Girl's Heart)
• Canan (1925)
• Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu (1930) (Ninth External Ward)
• Fatih-Harbiye (1931)
• Atilla (1931)
• Bir Tereddüdün Romanı (1933) (The Novel of a Hesitation)
• Matmazel Noraliya'nın Koltuğu (1949) (The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noraliya)
• Yalnızız (1951) (We Are Alone)
• Biz İnsanlar (1959) (We People)

Play

• Gün Doğuyor (1932) (The Day Is Coming)

Other Works

• Cumhuriyet Mekteplerine Alfabe (1929) (Alphabet to Republic Schools)
• Cumhuriyet Mekteplerine Kıraat (1929) (Reading to Republican Schools)
• Yeni Talebe Mektupları (1930) (New Student Letters)
• Büyük Mektup Nümuneleri (1932) (Great Letter Examples)
• Türk İnkılâbına Bakışlar (1938) (Perspectives on Turkish Revolution)
• Büyük Avrupa Anketi (1938) (Great Europe Survey)
• Felsefî Buhran (1939) (Philosophical Crisis)
• Türk Grameri (1941) (Turkish Grammar)
• Fransız Grameri (1942) (French Grammar) (It was expanded in 1948 as "Türkçe İzahlı Fransız Grameri" )
• Millet ve İnsan (1943) (Nation and Human) (It was expanded in 1961 as "Nasyonalizm")
• Mahutlar (1959)
• Mistisizm (1961)
• Sosyalizm (1961)
• Doğu-Batı Sentezi (1963) (East-West Synthesis)
• Objektif Serisi (8 Books) (1970–1976) (Objective Series)
• Hikâyeler (1980) (Stories)

He died on June 15, 1961 in Istanbul at the age of 62 after couple of months his son Merve died, as he was serving his time in the military. Peyami Safa was laid to rest at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery. He was the editor-in-chief of the daily Son Havadis as he died.