(1884-1920 )

Famous short story writer Omer Seyfettin was born in 1884 in Gönen Famous short story writer Omer Seyfettin was born in 1884 in Gönen. His father was major Omer Bey. After having completed Military College he was commissioned as a gendermarie officer. He resigned from military service in 1910 and settled down in Salonika and established Genç Kalemler Dergisi magazine. In Balkan War he became an officer again and was taken captive by Greeks. He went to Istanbul one year later. He resigned from Military Service. He began to earn a living by writing and literature teaching in Kabatas High School. He passed away in Istanbul when he was 36 in 1920.

Omer Seyfettin is one of the founders of nationalist trend in our literature. He was reputed in his writing life for his nationalism understanding close to Turanism together with Ali Canip Yöntem and Ziya Gökalp even when he was Salonika. However after some time he gave up following Ziya Gokalp preferring a realistic nationalist idea. The principles set forth by Omer Seyfettin at those times were the same as Ziya Gokalp's principles in the Turkism in Language chapter of Türkçülüğün Esasları book: Eliminating the Arabic and Persian language rules in our language which were common in our language in those times not complying with the grammar rules of those languages unbinding phrases built according to grammar rules of Arabic and Persian. Another aspect of Turkism in Language was not to seek origin of a word after it was adopted by the people and if it complied with Turkish phonetics.

Omer Seyfettin applied such principles in all of his stories and writings. Thus he provided a simple story style based on Istanbul dialect similar to that of daily conversations and newspaper language. Omer Seyfettin's stories show realistic aspect of life and people. The writer who said "my genius is funny" mostly included humor in his stories. In fact Omer Seyfettin who began to write stories after he came to Istanbul and work as a journalist wrote 125 stories making ten books between 1917 and 1920.Harem can be added to his novel trials of Efruz Bey and Yalnız Efe. In addition he has summary supplementary books such as İlyada published by Ministry of National Education.

The writer selects his themes among daily life events however he sometimes turn back to heroism pages of our own history. His stories such as Başını Vermeyen Şehit Bomba Hürriyet Bayrakları describe the bitter sweat brave or considerable stages of our history. However in his many stories such as Gizli Mabet Yüksek Ökçeler he indicated various scenes from urban life in a ironic way. The first series of his stories included: İlk Düşen Ak ,Yüksek Ökçeler ,Bomba, Gizli Mabet, Efruz Bey, Beyaz Lale ,Mahçupluk İmtihanı , Dalga.

Considering his age we can better understand the significance of Ömer Seyfettin. This is because in his period the country was under dreadful pressure of an enemy. Nobody knew how the future would be. In such days like nightmare it was a very interesting event that a writer wrote in a very simple and enthusiastic style stories from the hero history of his own nation. Omer Seyfettin was a very humble but a well-informed person who was loved by his environment. In time he gained the features of a suspicious character. One of his friends who knew his such manner watched his time of going to the newspaper he wrote an article for each morning and put three of his friends on his way and those friends seeming to have been uninformed of each other said seriously to him that they were worried about him "Get well soon you look bad you look pale are you sick?". In the third Omer Seyfettin believed that he was really sick and turned back home to go to bed not going to the newspaper.

It is certain that a short-story writer would constitute the subject of some anecdotes while accepting others as themes. Omer Seyfettin also mentioned about some events he experienced in his various stories. Gizli Mabet is one of those and describes how a French friend of the writer visiting his house thought that the chest room was a secret worshipping place in a pleasant style.

A word Omer Seyfettin used much was "Cancagızım (My dearly)" A word Omer Seyfettin used much was "Cancagızım (My dearly)". Why the writer addressed to every acquaintance lies in his being a humble person open to everybody. Ali Canip Yöntem one of our valuable poets was his closest friend. He issued a book containing our famous story-writer's best stories and describing his life manners and art named Ömer Seyfettin'in Hayatı ve Eseri. The book was published in 1935. In a short time all of his stories were published as a book series. Those stories are still read with the same pleasure and excitement. The famous writer who got sick when he was 36 in 1920 and could not recover is buried in Mahmutbaba graveyard in Kuşdili.

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