It has been 6 years since the death of Adalet Ağaoğlu, who wrote many unforgettable works, including "Lying Down to Die", "The Thin Rose of My Mind", "A Wedding Night", "Soul Cold" and "Three or Five People".
Ağaoğlu, who is considered among the writers who successfully used modern narrative techniques in Turkish novels, made significant contributions to contemporary Turkish literature with his stream of consciousness, internal monologue and multi-layered time fiction.
Ağaoğlu, the daughter of fabric merchant Hafız Mustafa Sümer and İsmet Sümer, was born on October 23, 1929 in the Nallıhan district of Ankara. The writer, whose real name is Fatma İnayet on her identity card, changed her name to Adalet by court decision during her university years.
Ağaoğlu wrote her articles under the names Adalet Sümer before her marriage, and Adalet Sümer Ağaoğlu for a while after her marriage, and also used the pseudonyms Parker Quinck and Remüs Telada.
Ağaoğlu, who completed primary school in Nallıhan, wrote her first articles and poems while studying at Ankara Girls' High School.
The master writer, who defines his relationship with writing as "friendship", gave the following information about his family in an interview:
"My father was an enlightened man of the Ottoman Empire. He was a fabric merchant. Thanks to him, I got to know Istanbul at the age of 4. What would have happened if the law to send girls to school had not been passed in 1933? I did not even have an identity card. My father, who was religious, had a very beautiful voice. He would sing my hatim. Hafiz himself. He moved to Ankara for me, just so that I could go to secondary school. I was able to study and graduated from the faculty in Ankara. Westernism was so much my heart. Why am I ashamed to say Hafız? However, he is an artist. My mother's lineage comes from Sarajevo. How did they meet and marry in the town? They grew up in two completely different cultures. My brother Ayhan always says, 'Justice, you didn't write a family novel.' We had something different. "Two different cultures side by side, in peace."
He wrote theater reviews in Ulus newspaper.
Adalet Ağaoğlu wrote theater reviews in Ulus newspaper from 1946 to 1947, when she finished high school.
The author, whose first poem called "Shadows" was published in Kaynak magazine in 1948, shared his poems with readers in the same magazine until 1950.
In an interview, the master writer told his story of starting literature with the following words:
"I started with poetry at a very young age. In fact, I was chosen first in a poetry competition among university students, of which Nurullah Ataç was a jury. This surprised me, but also scared me a lot. Because poetry is not an easy job, I did not know how prepared I was for it at that age. But I continued doing it with great love for a while."
Ağaoğlu graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Department of French Language and Literature in 1950.
Ağaoğlu, who turned to theater plays as well as poetry, wrote his first radio play "Love Song" in 1951, when he started working at Ankara Radio. The writer, who worked as a dramaturg in radio for a while, later became the Radio Theater Manager.
The successful writer founded Ankara's first private theater "Meydan Sahnesi" in 1961 with his theater actor and director friends Kartal Tibet, Üner İlsever, Çetin Köroğlu and Nur Sabuncu, and also published Meydan Sahne Magazine.
In 1953, when the play "Let's Write a Play", which he wrote with Sevim Uzungören, started to be staged in Ankara, the master of letters went to Paris to increase his manners and knowledge about theatre.
Engineer Halim Ağaoğlu and Adalet Ağaoğlu got married in 1954.
Ağaoğlu's work "House Game", based on the observations he made from the environment he lived in, was staged in Ankara in the 1963-1964 season.
The master writer was mentioned among the world theater writers in the theater encyclopedia called "The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama", published in New York in 1969. The author's play "To Live" was broadcast on French and German radios.
After the establishment of TRT, the writer served as program specialist and department head and worked at TRT until 1971.
The works of Ağaoğlu, who was one of the leading playwrights of the 1960s and 1970s with the plays he wrote, were translated into German, Slovak, English, Dutch and Bulgarian.
Ağaoğlu, who showed a sensitive attitude towards society's problems and current situations in the plays he wrote, turned to novel and story writing since the 1970s. He published his first novel, "Lying Down to Die", in 1973, and his first story book, "High Tension", in 1974.
The author, who made time the most important figure of his novels in his three works titled "Lying Down to Die", "A Wedding Night" and "No...", published under the subtitle "Dar Zamanlar", was evaluated as the "time master" in contemporary Turkish novel.
The novel "The Thin Rose of My Idea" was adapted into a movie under the name "Yellow Mercedes" in 1993.
While the master of letters generally deals with the problems and relationships of intellectuals in his novels, in "Lying Down to Die" he deals with the dominant ideology of the Republican period, its effects on social segments and its inconsistencies.
Ağaoğlu, who wrote novels, stories and essays for about 20 years, returned to playwrighting with his work "Too Far, Too Close" in 1991.
The author's novel "The Thin Rose of My Mind" was adapted into a movie by Tunç Okan in 1993 under the name "Sarı Mercedes".
Ağaoğlu, who was seriously injured when a car hit him while sitting in the park in 1996, regained his health after a long treatment period in Türkiye and abroad.
Ağaoğlu, who was also appreciated internationally, was awarded the "Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres)" by the French Government in 2005.
Ağaoğlu, who received the TDK Theater Award in 1974 with his work "Three Games", won the Sait Faik Story Award in 1975 with "High Tension", the Sedat Simavi Foundation Literature Award in 1979 with "A Wedding Night", the Orhan Kemal Novel Award and the Madaralı Novel Award in 1980.
The successful writer received the Türkiye İş Bankası Literature Grand Prize in 1992 with "Too Far, Too Close", the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Prize in 1995, the Aydın Doğan Foundation Literature Award in 1996 with "A Romantic Vienna Summer", and the Aziz Nesin Award in 1999.
Ağaoğlu's novel "A Wedding Night" was also the subject of controversy in the evaluations of the Yunus Nadi Novel Gift when it was published.
The master pen passed away on July 14, 2020 and was buried in Cebeci Asri Cemetery.
Ağaoğlu's personal archive, donated to Boğaziçi University, is kept in a room in the university's library designed under the control of the author.
In this room, the writer's personal belongings such as his desk, typewriter, awards and records, as well as his filed correspondence with his wife Halim Ağaoğlu and his friends Halil Ergün, Yalçın Küçük, Haldun Taner, Tunç Yalman, Hulki Aktunç, İlhami Soysal, Pirko-Asaf Çiğiltepe, Faruk Ulay are kept. At the same time, the author's documents and letters sent to him after the traffic accident he had in 1996 are also included in a file.
Ağaoğlu, who wrote many works in the fields of novels, stories, plays, essays, memoirs, criticism and translations, contributed many works to Turkish literature, including "Lying Down to Die", "The Thin Rose of My Mind", "A Wedding Night", "Ruh Şüşümesi", "Three or Five Persons", "High Tension", "Passing", "Too Far, Too Close" and "Drop by Drop Days".