Hilmi Yücebaş

Hilmi Yücebaş ( 1915 - 1996 ) was a Turkish author. Over the course of 60 years, he wrote more than 40 works on Turkish literature, writers and poets.

Life

Yücebaş was born in 1915 in Drama (Greece). As part of the population exchange , the family came to Tekirdağ . Yücebaş initially worked here as a primary school teacher. His wife was also from drama and was also a teacher. Because of his language skills, Yücebaş was recruited as a plainclothes officer by the police . He was supposed to help monitor the Muhacir who were suspected of being spies. Yücebaş worked in the Press Office in the 1st Police Department in Sansaryan Han in Sirkeci (Istanbul). There, the monitoring of print products was also one of his tasks. Ümit Bayazoğlu characterizes his work as follows:

Everything that was printed in the country, be it books, magazines or newspapers, ended up on his desk. He read everything. Scissors in one hand and a red pencil in the other. If he discovered something hostile to the state, he underlined it and turned it over to the public prosecutor.

Yücebaş was extremely interested in literature and poetry. Numerous well-known writers such as Nâzım Hikmet , Necip Fazıl Kısakürek , Sabahattin Ali or Nihal Atsız were interrogated, detained or mistreated in his office. As a minor officer, he was unable to help them when he met them in the hallways. When Mehmet Fuat, Nâzim Hikmet's stepson, was summoned in 1946 because his book had been confiscated for allegedly pornographic passages, it was Yücebaş who could tell him that he had nothing to fear, because the book only contained a kissing scene, such as he knew from his job. The seizure is said to have been nothing but harassment because of Fuat's family ties to the public enemy Hikmet.

Yücebaş is also said to have informed Kısakürek about an impending police measure and for this reason was transferred to the Karaköy customs office.

Yücebaş's secondary journalistic activity was the subject of inquiries and an official investigation with his superiors. Yücebaş was able to present a personal letter of thanks from then Prime Minister Adnan Menderes for a book that he had sent him. This led to the termination of the proceedings. He was then transferred to the 5th department. There he worked as a security attendant for the police on ship trips abroad and brought suitcases full of books from every trip abroad.

Works

Hilmi Yücebaş wrote more than 40 books in the period from about 1930 until his death. He wrote his books part-time. He collected all the information on writers and poets that he could get hold of during his work and put it into book form. Yücebaş limited himself to putting the information about a person in a chronological order and abstained from evaluating. This unacademic approach also earned him criticism and contempt.

Yücebaş 'biographical book series became known, the titles of which begin with "Bütün Cepheleriyle ..." (for example: "with all aspects"), ie "Bütün Cepheleriyle Tevfik Fikret" or "Bütün Cepheleriyle Neyzen Tevfik".

selection

• Hiciv ve mizah Edebiyatı Antolojisi. 1976
• Ulunay: Hayatı, Hatıraları, Eserleri. 1969
• Yedi Şairden Hatıralar: Abdullah Cevdet, Sâmih Rifat, Celâl Sahir, İhsan Hamamî, Halil Nihat, İbrahim Alâettin, Enis Behiç. 1960
• Ömer Hayyam: Hayatı, Felsefesi, Rubaileri. 1960
• Türk Mizahçıları Nüktedanlar ve Şairler. 1958
• Edebiyatımızda Mevlana

death

Yücebaş became lonely and neglected in old age. The collection of books, magazines, snippets and newspapers grew over his head. Most recently he worked on a book about the love letters of Turkish sultans. He died in Istanbul in 1996. After his death, parts of the collection were kept by relatives, but much was lost.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ümit Bayazoğlu: Uzun, İnce Yolcular. 42 portre. Istanbul 2014, p. 180.
2. ↑ Ümit Bayazoğlu: Uzun, İnce Yolcular. 42 portre. Istanbul 2014, p. 181.