Melih Cevdet Anday

Author · 24 books

Melih Cevdet Anday was born in Istanbul in 1915. In 1936, he started attending the Faculty of Letters and History-Geography. In 1938, he went to Belgium to study sociology, however, upon breakout of World War II in 1940, he had to return to his homeland. Between 1942 and 1951, he worked as a publication consultant for the Department of Publications of the Turkish Ministry of National Education, and subsequently he was employed as librarian for the Ankara Library. In 1951, he returned to Istanbul and did reporting for the Aksam newspaper. During this period, he wrote short features and essays for Tercüman, Büyük Gazete, Tanin and Cumhuriyet newspapers. He was also in charge of the art and literature sections of the same papers. From 1954 onwards, he taught phonetics and diction courses in the Department of Drama of the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. Between 1964 and 1969, Anday served as a member of the Turkish Radio Television’s Board of Directors. When he retired from his position in the Conservatory in 1977, Anday was assigned to the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as Cultural Attaché. Later on, due to a change in government he was called back to Turkey. He wrote essays for the Cumhuriyet newspaper regularly from 1960 to 1990, and occasionally from 1990 to 2000.