Works
Kemal Tahir started to literature with poetry. His first poems were published in İçtihad magazine in 1931. He got published poems in Yeni Kültür, Geçit, Var and Ses magazines.
His first major work was a four-part novella that was published at Tan newspaper and later published as a book in 1955, titled Göl İnsanları (People of The Lake). Again in 1955, he became well-known with his novel Sağırdere (Deaf River).
Esir Şehrin İnsanları (People of the Captive City), first of his city novels that he took İstanbul as a frame to observe Turks' transition from Ottoman Empire to the Republic, was published in 1956. İn this novel, Tahir described İstanbul under occupation after the World War I. Sequels to this novel, Esir Şehrin Mahpusu (Prisoner of the Captive City) was published in 1961 and (People of the Independent City) in 1976.
At first, Kemal Tahir focused on problems of peasants. Then, he dealt with Turkish history, especially events of recent history. In his novel Devlet Ana (Mother State) he described governmental and social structure of Ottoman society at its beginnings; in Kurt Kanunu (Law of Wolf), he narrates the Izmir assassination incident, which was a failed attempt to kill Ataturk; he analysed banditry phenomenon in Rahmet Yolları Kesti (Rain Closed the Roads) and "ağa" system in Yedi Çınar Yaylası (Seven Plane Tree Plateau). İn his historical novel Yorgun Savaşçı (Tired Warrior), Tahir narrates the period that the national resistance forces in Anatolia without a leader came together and started the Turkish Independence War.
Because of financial difficulties, Kemal Tahir wrote pulp fiction novels under pseudonyms. He also translated Mike Hammer novels and even wrote original new novels for that series.
Some of his novels (like Karılar Koğuşu, Haremde Dört Kadın, Esir Şehrin İnsanları and Kurt Kanunu) later adapted into movies.
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“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)