“Anadolu Notları” by Reşat Nuri Güntekin (1889-1956), one of the leading novelists, story authors and playwrights of the Republican period, contains the features of the travel writing, memoir and essay genre. The work was created by the author’s collecting his notes on his trips to Anatolia because of his duty as an inspector into a book. The work consists of two volumes. The first edition of the first volume was published in 1936 and the first of the second volume was published in 1966. Twenty-seven notes in the first volume and twenty-five in the second volume, fifty-two notes in total, are included in the “Anadolu Notları”. The work contains various opinions and impressions of the author regarding the social and cultural life of Anatolia in the 1930s. The main topics in the “Anadolu Notları” can be listed as follows: Anatolian geography and Anatolian people, poverty, education, health, transportation, religion, hospitality, theatre, coffeehouse culture, money. The fact that the author lived in Anatolia in his childhood, as well as his travels to many parts of Anatolia due to his duty as an inspector in the Ministry of National Education, played an undeniable role in his penning the “Anadolu Notları”. In the introduction to this study, information about the life, art and works of the author is given respectively. Then the work was introduced. Finally, the contribution of the author’s childhood in the creation of this work is briefly explained. In the “Anadolu Notları”, the most comprehensive part of this study, information about Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s childhood is included while in the section titled the stories he listened to or read in his childhood and the author’s childhood memories’ contribution to the work is shown by quoting from the texts. It was aimed to reveal how the traces of Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s childhood were reflected in the “Anadolu Notları” with this study.

Reşat Nuri Güntekin, travel writing, Anadolu Notları, childhood.