Halide Edib ADIVAR 1884-1964

She is a Turkish writer, politician, academician, and teacher. She is also known as Corporal Halide.
She was born in İstanbul in 1884. She was suspended a year later from Üsküdar American College for Girls, which she started when she was seven years old, upon the notice of a student. She completed her primary education by taking private lessons at home. In 1897, Jacob Abbott's "Ana", which she translated while learning English, was published. In 1899, she was awarded the Order of Charity by Abdülhamid II for this achievement.

She then returned to the college's higher grades and began learning English and French. Halide Edib became the first Muslim woman to receive a bachelor's degree from Üsküdar American College for Girls.

She translated the life stories of famous British mathematicians, several Sherlock Holmes stories, and many works into Turkish. Although she was a civilian who served alongside Mustafa Kemal at the front in the War of Independence, she was considered a war hero by being granted a rank. During the war years, she took part in the establishment of Anadolu Agency and worked as a journalist. Halide Edib, who started writing with the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, wrote articles about women's rights in newspapers. Her first article was published in Tanin. In her first writings, she used the signature Halide Salih. She worked as a teacher in girls' teacher training schools and as an inspector in foundation schools.

With twenty-one novels, four story books, two theater works and various reviews, she became one of the most produced writers of Turkish Literature in the Constitutional and Republican Periods. Her novel Sinekli Bakkal (The Clown and His Daughter) is her best-known work.  During the 14 years she lived abroad since 1926, she became the most well-known Turkish writer of her time in foreign countries thanks to the conferences she gave and the works she wrote in English. Halide Edib, a professor of literature at İstanbul University, served as the Chair of British Philology and a member of parliament for a period. She died in İstanbul on January 9, 1964.