[THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN STUART MILL IN TURKISH] Stuart Mill (Büyük Adamlar No. 7). Cover design by Ihap Hulûsi [Görey] (1898-1986)

AGAOGLU [TASKIRAN], TEZER (1903-1979).

Maarif Vekâleti / Devlet Matbaasi, Istanbul, 1931.

Original illustrated wrappers. Cr. 8vo. (19,5 x 14 cm). In Turkish. 103, [3] p., 10 reproduced ills. A very small loss to the head of the spine and a tiny stain to the front cover. Otherwise, a very clean copy.

The scarce first edition of the first biography in Turkish, of the English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), with a striking cover design by the Turkish graphic artist Ihap Hulûsi. Issued as no. 7 in the Büyük Adamlar Serisi (Great Men Series), an early Republican educational series conceived to introduce major figures of Western intellectual, scientific, and cultural history to a new Turkish readership.

Written by Tezer Ağaoğlu, later Tezer Taşkıran, the daughter of the prominent Azerbaijani-Turkish intellectual and politician Ahmet Ağaoğlu, the book presents Mill's life and intellectual development together with an introduction to his philosophical and political thought. Ağaoğlu herself would become an educator, writer, women's-rights advocate, and member of the Turkish parliament; her later public career was particularly associated with education and women's and children's rights. (Atxem online).

Particularly attractive for its striking Art Deco-influenced cover by Ihap Hulûsi Görey, one of the leading graphic designers of early Republican Turkey. The cover features a large portrait of Mill, with a crowd depicted across his eyes and illuminated by two beams of light, in a bold and distinctly modernist composition.

As of September 2026, WorldCat shows a sole copy in Turkey, in the Bilkent University Library (281711290).