Halit Ziya Usakligil

1865 - 1945

Halit Ziya Usakligil heads the list of most cultured and most productive members of the new writer's school. He started to be recognized with his articles in the journal called "Nevruz", which he started to publish in 1884. In 1886 he published the newspaper "Hizmet" (Service). He published his works such as "Sefile", "Nedime" and "Bir Muhtiranin Son Yapraklari" in this paper. One of his greatest works "Mavi ve Siyah" (Blue and Black) was first published in the journal Servet-i Fünun in 1894. "Ask-i Memnu" (forbidden love) which he published next raised Halid Ziya to the highest ranks of the Turkish Literature. Following the serialization of his biography as Forty Years ("Kirk Yil") in the newspaper Vakit, he wrote a novel where he tells the suicide of his son Vedat.

The author, who calls himself "an eternal lover of Turkish", was one of the most productive of the group of new writers, and he was the first to apply the Western technique to the Turkish novel.