Typescript letter signed 'Burhan Toprak'.

Original TLS with autograph signature 'Burhan Toprak'. 21x16 cm. In Turkish. 1 p. Letterhead 'TC Kültür Bakanligi Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi' [i. e.Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture Fine Arts Academy]. Sent to Muallim Ferit Güney. It was written about the arrangement of the education period in 1936 and the program. Burhan Toprak was an art historiographer, researcher of literature, translator (b. 1906, Demirci / Manisa -d. 16 September 1967, Istanbul). His full name was Burhan Ümid Toprak. He was the son of Doctor Ali Riza Bey. He attended the French and American School in Izmir. After graduating from Izmir High School for Boys (Atatürk High School), he went to France for his education. He graduated from Paris Sorbonne University, Department of Philosophy in 1929 and returned home. He worked as art history teacher for several years starting in 1930 at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts. He was appointed Director of the Academy in 1936 on the death of the incumbent, the painter Namik Ismail and pioneered the opening of the Department of Turkish Decorative Arts at this academy in the same year. While he was the director, he did studies into rejuvenating the methods of education at the academy with the help of Lèopold Lèvy, Louis Sue Rudolf Belling and Bruna Tout who were foreign experts in this field. Although he left his directorship after the fire at the Academy in 1948, he continued to give lessons. He was also an inspector at the Ministry of National Education for three years and he was a member of the Board of Instruction and Education between 1949-50. Burhan Toprak, who was one of the important names in the history of our literature and art, was the first who translated the famous work of Andrè Gide, Dar Kapi (Narrow Door) into Turkish. He collected and published Yunus Emre Divani (The Divan of Yunus Emre) and with his important work Ballar Balini Buldum (I Found the Honey of the Honeys) he became well known. He led the way in using the meter known as "Yunus Tarzi" (i.e. Yunus Style) in Turkish poetry. The first scientific research on Yunus Emre in which known sources were evaluated, was done by Fuad Köprülü (Ilk Mutasavviflar, The First Mystics, 1919). Burhan Toprak was the fist to rewrite in the new alphabet the 1885 lithograph publication of Yunus Emre Divani (The Divan of Yunus Emre - 3 volumes, the first two volumes were under the name Burhan Ümit, 1933. The third volume includes the research of Niyazi-i Misri and Bursali Ismail Hakki: 1934). In this work of Burhan Toprak there is a perfect article named Baslangiç (The Start) that reads: "Before finding Yunus Emre, I was very bored with the feeling of Turkish literature.".

Lingue: Turkish