The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-07
Year first published: 1907
Publisher: w. B. Dodge & Co. (extinct).

plemented at several points.
A Constantinopolitan.
DEMETRA VAKA is Greek whose ancestors lived
In Constantinople for more than 700 years. Many
of them were Turkish Government officials. Mrs.
Brown s early life brought her constantly and in
timately in touch, therefore, with the Turks. She
played with Turkish children and was able to view
the Turkish people without any religious prejudice
whatever. But she was born, she says with an
American soul. Certain conditions revolted her.
and not least among them the system of prear
ranged marriages. 1t was to escape such mar
rage that she ran away from home, coming to the
United States with the family of relative. Once
here however she left to shift for herself
Alone, penniless and not yet eighteen, she found
it neither easy nor romantic affair to get work
When finally she got the staff Of Atlantis she
found she liked newspaper work. But it came
home to her that going this way she would never
learn English and at that time she wanted English
because she hoped to study medicine. So she be-
came private school teacher of French, and within
two years she had charge of the French department
of the school.
In 1901, SIX years after her arrival in America,
she returned to Turkey. Carefully guarded in her
pocket was ticket back to America. She had no
intention of staying in Constantinople. Once in
that city invitations from girlhOod friends began
to reach her. These were now married women, and
So equipped with a new, an American, point Of
view, she entered Turkish harems as a welcome
visitor from whom there need be no secrets Eight
years later ten studies of Turkish women, embody
ing what she saw and heard in 1902, were pub
lished as book, Haremlik, which means tthe place
of the harem But to stick to the order of events:
How She Came to Write.
DEMETRA VAKA returned to America and the
teaching of French, but not for long. In 1904 she
was married to KENNETH Brown, novelist, and had
at last the continuous encouragement and profess
sional assistance necessary if she was to become
writer in English. She had been frequently urged
to prepare for publication her picturesque expe-
riences. One day after her marriage she sent to a
magazine editor an account of an experience while
on visit to Russia. 1t was accepted. That settled
it. She would write
HaremIik was her second book. 1t made q wide
and deep impression. There have been French,
Swedish, German, Italian, Danish and Dutch trans
atons 1t is not fiction, and neither essentially, is
Mrs. Browns later book, Child of the Orient,
which is the tale of the authors own childhood and
early life in Constantinope, of Greek girl with
Turkish friends and playmates. The favor Of the
Arabian Nights fills the pages of HGrenlik and
Child of the Orient. The final chapters of the sec
ond book give DEMETRA VAKAs first impressions of
America, the effect upon a girl in her teens of
land almost as different from Paris as Paris had
been from Constantinople and Athens
an the Heart of German Intrigue"
Mrs. Browns latest book is war book but of
quite exceptional character. To understand its
genesis you must remember that she is though by
her marriage an American citizen, Greek by race.
Her love for Greece her hope for its future, are
pretty clearly disclosed in the opening chapter Of
Haremlik And so when the European war had
passed its first stages and the political situation in
Greece had developed into struggle between King
CONSTANTINE and VENKELos, struggle in which
the Kings attitude threatened national dishonor,
DEMETRA KENNETH Brown resolved to 60 over to
Greece interview the leaders of both factions and
Greece for the Allies-at least endeavor to
that Greece fulfilled her treaty obligations, such
those entered upon with Serbia.
Looking at the enterprise now Mrs. Brown is the