Attilâ İlhan

Attilâ İlhan — Biography

Attilâ İlhan was a poet, novelist, essayist, columnist and screenwriter at once, and one of the leading names in Turkish literature and public thought. From a socialist and Kemalist standpoint he challenged imitative intellectualism in his Hangi… books. He died in Istanbul in 2005; literary awards and a foundation bearing his name continue today, and the centenary of his birth was marked in 2025.

His youth was turbulent: at school he was arrested and expelled for sending a Nâzım Hikmet poem to a girl, and returned to study only after a Council of State ruling. He published his first book, Duvar, himself in 1948. Paris years followed, then a 1950s spent between Istanbul, İzmir and Paris, and journalism. His link with cinema began in 1953 with film criticism and grew into about fifteen screenplays under the name Ali Kaptanoğlu. In İzmir he ran Demokrat İzmir, and later wrote for Milliyet, Meydan and, from 1996 until his death, Cumhuriyet. With the spread of television he returned to scriptwriting; Sekiz Sütuna Manşet, Kartallar Yüksek Uçar and Yarın Artık Bugündür were well received.

His novels dealt with city people and the effects of Westernisation; Sokaktaki Adam was the first published, with Sırtlan Payı after it. He won the Turkish Language Association Poetry Award in 1974 for Tutuklunun Günlüğü, the Yunus Nadi Prize in the same period, the Sertel Democracy Award in 2003 and the State Artist title in 1991. He was the brother of actress Çolpan İlhan.