Zeynep Nihal Yeğinobalı (16 November 1927 - 14 March 2020) was a Turkish novelist and translator.

Private life

Zeynep Nihal was born in

Manisa Manisa (), historically known as Magnesia, is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port ci ...

on 16 November 1927. She moved to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

when she was eight years old. Following the primary school, she attended American College for Girls (ACG45), and upon graduation in 1945, went to the United States to study literature in the State University of New York. After living eight years in the United States, she returned to Turkey. Yeğinobalı died in

at the age of 92 on 14 March 2020.

Career

She used the pen names "Süreyya Sarıca" and"Vincent Ewing". She was a young woman when she published her first translation of the 1904 novel '' The Garden of Allah'' by Robert Hichens (1864-1950) into ''Allah’ın Bahçesi'' in 1946, and her first novel ''Genç Kızlar'' ("Young Girls") in 1950, which was an example of fictitious translation by her pen name "Vincent Ewing". She translated many classical and contemporary works of writers, including

Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768), was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' and '' A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'', publishe ...

(713–1768), Jane Austen (1775–1817),

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted i ...

(1816–1855), W.M. Thackeray (1811–1863),

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

(1812–1870), Thomas Hardy (1840–1928),

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(1832–1898), Oscar Wilde ,(1854–1900), Mark Twain (1835–1910),

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...

(1860–1937),

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

(1885–1930),

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(1856–1919), John Steinbeck (1902–1968),

Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...

(1892–1973), Mikhail Sholokhov (905–1984),

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christopher ...

( 1928–2012),

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

(born 1942),

Eduardo Galeano Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left". Galean ...

(1940–2015), Patrick White (1912–1990),

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(1919–1999) and

D. M. Thomas Donald Michael Thomas (born 27 January 1935), is a British poet, translator, novelist, editor, biographer and playwright. His work has been translated into 30 languages. Working primarily as a poet throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Thomas's 1981 ...

(born 1935). Her writings and translations were also published in periodicals like ''Hafta'', ''100 Roman'', ''Yıldız'', '' Hayat'' and '' Akbaba''. She must have been a forceful personality —not many girls of her age would have been able to talk a publishing company into printing her translation of a new and exciting book by an American writer, a writer, who never existed. Yeginobali, a keen young writer at the time, wanted to write a novel about life at a girls’ college, but was tired of being turned down by publishing companies, which kept telling her that she was too young to be a writer. She also felt that the eroticism in her writing might be an overdose for readers of the time, especially coming from a young woman like herself. Aware that translated novels were much more in demand than work by new Turkish writers, she plotted, and convinced a publishing company to expect a chapter of translation (!) from Vincent Ewing’s book each week. The book hit the bestseller list in no time. Though Yeğinobalı was initially planning to reveal her identity, after the book came out to so much attention, she decided to keep at her game, and enjoy the commentaries from her hidden corner. Finally, in 2004, to coincide with a reprint of the novel by Can Publishing, Yeğinobalı decided that the time had come to add on her own name next to that of Vincent Ewing’s. The book’s new issue is among the publisher’s bestseller novels. She recently wrote her memoirs, ''Cumhuriyet Çocuğu'' ("The Republic’s Child"), published by Can Yayınları in 2005. Spanning the first ten years of her life, Yeğinobalı’s memoirs provide the reader with a vivid picture of life in a small

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

n town during the very first years of the Republic. Filmmakers are currently interested in her two other novels ''Mazi Kalbimde bir Yaradır'' (1988), and ''Sitem'' (1998), which suggest subtle readings of suppressed sexuality in Turkish society.

Works

Own works

Her major works are: ;Novels # # ''Eflatun Kız'' 1964 (Novel) # # # # # ;Memoirs *

Translations

Some of her translations are: # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

References

Sources

* "Graduates in the News." RC Quarterly 23 (2004): 18. * "Nihal Yeğinobalı." Imge Kitapevi. 2004. 9 May 200

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeginobali, Nihal 1927 births 2020 deaths People from Manisa Alumni of Arnavutköy American High School for Girls State University of New York alumni Turkish translators Turkish women novelists