Memed, My Hawk by Yashar Kemal - 1961

London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1961. First edition thus. Hardcover. Brown Boards with Gilt Lettering on Spine. Original, Very Good Condition/good, Brodart covered. First published under the title of 'Ince Memed' by publishers Remzi Kitabevi, Istanbul, copyright 1958. Translated from the Turkish by Edouard Roditi.
Yasar Kemal, also spelled Yashar, original name Kemal Sadik Gogceli (1922 - 2015) was a Turkish novelist of Kurdish descent best known for his stories of village life and for his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed. He was born in 1922 in the small village of Hemite, Southern Anatolia - the countryside which supplied the background to Memed, My Hawk. On his mother’s side he was descended from a line of part-time brigands. He had a very hard upbringing, and when he was only five years old, saw his father shot dead in a mosque. Memed, My Hawk was his first novel. Kemal’s other novels include the Dagin ote yuzu (“Beyond the Mountain”) trilogy, Ortadirek (1960; The Wind from the Plain), Yer demir, gok bakir (1963; Iron Earth, Copper Sky), and Olmez otu (1968; The Undying Grass), as well as Tanyeri horozlari (2002; “The Cocks of Dawn”). He also published volumes of nonfiction including Peri bacalari (1957; “The Fairy Chimneys”), a collection of reportage, and Baldaki tuz (1974; “The Salt in the Honey”), a book of political essays as well as the children’s book Filler sultani ile kirmizi sakalli topal karinca (1977; “The Sultan of the Elephants and the Red-Bearded Lame Ant”). In 2007 an operatic adaptation of Kemal’s Teneke premiered at La Scala, in Milan.
351pp. DJ not clipped, a little chipped and soiled but now in protective cover, clean internally. 21.5cm x 15cm.

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