Eflâtun, Cem Güney

Born Mar. 25, 1896, in Ekimhan, Turkey. Turkish writer.

From 1918 to 1961, Eflâtun devoted himself to popular education. He was also a journalist. During the 1940’s he began collecting works of Turkish folklore. In 1948 the first edition of his The Best Turkish Folktales was published, followed by Folk Songs (vols. 1–2, 1953) and Anecdotes About Hoca Nasreddin (1957). Eflâtun has written monographs on folk poets and has published several collections of his own stories. Two of his collections, The Magic Tablecloth and Tales of Dede Korkut, were awarded the International Award for Children’s Literature and Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1956 and 1960, respectively.