Sabaheddin Ali

(also Sabahattin Ali). Born Feb. 25, 1907, in Eğridir; died Apr. 2, 1948, in Kirklareli. Turkish writer.

Sabaheddin Ali’s works were first published in 1928. His verses resemble Turkish folk songs and express a zealous love of freedom. His short stories, novellas, and novels, some critically realistic and some strikingly romantic and rebellious in spirit, vividly depict social discrepancies in Turkey. Using his masterful command of literary Turkish, enriched by dialect and colloquial speech, Sabaheddin Ali characterized workers with psychological precision; he was the first to depict a Communist as a positive hero in Turkish prose (short story “Enemies”). He also sharply satirized Turkish reactionaries. Sabaheddin Ali is viewed as the father of socialist realism in Turkish literature. In 1945 he began working for the progressive press and published the satirical newspaper Marko Paşa. He was persecuted for this and eventually killed during an attempt to leave Turkey. The Sabaheddin Ali Literary Prize is awarded annually to Turkish writers of short fiction.