Stamboul Ghosts: A Stroll Through Bohemian Istanbul

by John Freely, Ara Güler (Illustrator), Andrew Finkel (Introduction)

The Irish-American physicist, academic and traveler John Freely wrote more than sixty lively books on travel, history and science before he died in 2017, aged 90. But It was Istanbul, where he emigrated with his family in 1960 to take up a post teaching physics at the American Robert College, that turned him into a writer. His first book, Strolling Through Istanbul, written with his fellow academic Hilary Sumner-Boyd, was an instant success when it was published in 1972 and has never been out of print since.

With the exception of Oğuz, so thin that he was known as The Ghost because he barely cast a shadow, everyone in John Freely's rumbustious memoir, including the author himself, is larger than life. Bohemian Istanbul was a haven for myriad misfits who found their feet in the city. Clamorous, glamorous, eccentric, cosmopolitan and frequently outrageous, they included the 'berserker' Peter Pfeiffer, a resourceful exile with three passports; Aliye Berger, the beautiful queen of bohemian Pera; the writer James Baldwin; and, fleetingly, the future Pope John XXIII.

This elegy for a lost world encapsulates the flavor of their daily life and nightly excesses. Well lubricated with lemon vodka and Hill Cocktails served by Sumner-Boyd's gloomy housekeeper, Monik Depressive, the Freely crowd weave their way from the Galatasaray fish market and the taverns of CiCek Pasajı to the Russian restaurant Rejans, and frequently on to the Freely household on the Bosphorus hills, where a party will soon be in full swing and eggnog flowing freely. Stamboul Ghosts is illustrated with Ara Guler's poignant black-and-white photographs, which make of Freely's beloved city an evocative stage-set.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2018

About the author

John Freely was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrant parents, and spent half of his early childhood in Ireland. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 to join the U. S. Navy, serving for two years, including combat duty with a commando unit in the Pacific, India, Burma and China during the last year of World War II. After the war, he went to college on the G. I. Bill and eventually received a Ph.D. in physics from New York University, followed by a year of post-doctoral study at Oxford in the history of science. He worked as a research physicist for nine years, including five years at Princeton University. In 1960 he went to İstanbul to teach physics at the Robert College, now the Boğaziçi University, and taught there until 1976. He then went on to teach and write in Athens (1976-79), Boston (1979-87), London (1987-88), İstanbul (1988-91) and Venice (1991-93). In 1993 he returned to Boğaziçi University, where he taught a course on the history of science. His first book, co-authored by the late Hilary Sumner-Boyd, was Strolling Through İstanbul (1972). Since then he has published more than forty books.

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author, but I luckily stumbled across this in the library while on vacation. I really enjoyed the stories that this author told, as well as the stories told about him in the introduction and epilogue (written by the author's friend and daughter, respectively). The characters are filled with life and color, even though everything else in this book is physically black and white. I found myself giggling internally at many points, and oddly found myself somehow missing a lifestyle I don't live in a city I've never known. Strange how that can happen with travel memoirs.

[Irine Kaplan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best feel-good books about Istanbul. It's both sentimental and funny. Through every word, in this book, you feel incredible love for the city and people who used to live there.
10 short stories about outstanding inhabitants of Istanbul. In the end, you don't have a list of must-visit sights (it's possible to create though because Freely do not greed for mentioning places), but you rather have a mood of past good times, the mood of the old city. And eventually, you start to love this city even more, if it's only possible.
Highly recommended reading before going to Istanbul. Also, after visiting Istanbul. Perfect for those who live in Istanbul permanently.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have caught a bug on my vacation in Istanbul, so I must, for now, be satisfied with reading about Istanbul rather than visiting it.
I met John and Delores several time when I lived here at parties and so forth. He had the most amazing shock of gray hair and sparkling eyes that seemed otherworldly. Something in him seemed to always be smiling. He would speak with anyone if they wanted to chat (though one could never be sure what he was really thinking). He knew I was part of a writer's group here in Istanbul, and he wanted me to know that they'd had their own circle of writers in the 1960s.
Which brings me to this book. I love how it evokes that lost Istanbul, which I only experienced drips and drabs. The characters we meet are rendered with a careful eye on the sketch pad of John's tongue. And they're interesting and fun. I'm glad he got all this down but I remain wary of Istanbul nostalgia such as one sees in these great photos by Are Güler. Like John's stories, these images are very enticing. As John used Homer's Odyssey throughout the book, so too we must beware the siren song of the past, where things are always better. I also found it just a tad annoying that the idea of ghosts was repeated as a coda at the end of every chapter. The reader gets the point.
But this gone world is enticing, especially when compared to the overbuilt, traffic jammed, village of 18 million that Istanbul has become. The era of genteel poverty is gone, replaced by the rush to secure a living by all means possible. Oh brave new world that has such creatures in it!

[Hall's Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories and vignettes of a beautiful city loved by all who come to know it well. One wonders how they ever managed to get any work done between the near-constant drinking sessions. It is a shame that there aren't more of the author's photographs illustrating the book, which would have been so much more interesting than Güler's brilliant images, which are nonetheless unconnected with any of the places or characters.

JM 18/05/20

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful little collection of some of Freely's more off-color writings and recollections, i.e., chiefly tales of how they got DOWN back in the early days. A somewhat bittersweet read, given everyone's eventual disappearance from the scene, but nothing that can't be said for any other part of the planet (spoiler: we all die in the end). He really seems to have captured all that was worth capturing in his day. A very delightful little book.

[Selim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aliye berger trying to shoot her lover outside of Moda, an elephant carcass in Aşiyan, James Baldwin taking in the bosphorus view from arifi paşa during morning prayer, legless beggars at gay bars in kasımpaşa, geese shopping drunkards in rejans, bohemian narmanlı han memories and many more layers of people, stories and dramas all in the wonderful chaos of İstanbul. Wonderful read.

[Trish Graboske · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful read with wonderful photos, but very sad. Almost everyone dies by the end, and that Istanbul is mostly gone now, too.

[damla · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think the coolest thing in this world is to listen to people talk about those they love and how they loved them