Halman received his B.A. from
Robert College in
Istanbul. In the mid-1950s he received his master's degree from
Columbia University in political science, international relations and international law. During his long academic career, Halman taught at
Columbia University,
Princeton University (1965–1971) and (1972–1980), the
University of Pennsylvania and
New York University, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. He taught at
Bilkent University in
Ankara from 1998, rising to become the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters. While there, he helped to found a program in Turkish languages and literature with a goal of introducing new critical approaches. His honors include Columbia University's Thornton Wilder Prize for lifetime achievement as translator, an honorary doctorate from the
Boğaziçi University, a
Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities, the
UNESCO Medal, and "
Knight Grand Cross, the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire"). In 1971, he served as Turkey's first minister of culture. During his tenure, he coordinated the
whirling dervishes' landmark first tour of the US in 1971. In 1976 he oversaw the first American museum tour of historical and cultural artifacts from the Ottoman Sultans'
palace. From 1980 to 1982, he served as the Turkey's first ambassador for cultural affairs. Based in New York, he inaugurated a comprehensive program of Turkish cultural activities. From 1991 to 1995 he was a member of UNESCO's Executive Board. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the
PEN American Center and worked at the Center's Translation Committee. He was a long-time member of the
Poetry Society of America and a member of the Editorial Board of
World Literature Today from 1967. In 1971, during her visit to Turkey,
Queen Elizabeth II conferred a
Knight Grand Cross (GBE) on Halman. Halman was also a well-known translator into
English as well as
Turkish. His books in English include two collections of his poems ("Shadows of Love", published in Canada, and "A Last Lullaby", published in the United States), Contemporary Turkish Literature, Modern Turkish Drama, Living Poets of Turkey, three books of the 13th century Anatolian mystic folk poet
Yunus Emre,
Rumi and the Whirling
Dervishes (with Metin And),
Suleiman the Magnificent - Poet, Turkish Legends and Folk poems, Tales of
Nasreddin Hodja, and others. His 1984 book on Celalettin Rumi preceded and contributed to the wave of Rumi enthusiasm in the United States in the 1990s. His books on Rumi, Nasrettin Hoca, and Turkish Legends books are widely available throughout Turkey. He also published books featuring selections from the work of
Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca,
Orhan Veli Kanık,
Sait Faik Abasıyanık, and
Melih Cevdet Anday. His renditions of three Turkish plays (I, Anatolia by Güngör Dilmen, Old Photographs by Dinçer Sümer, and In Ambush by Cahit Atay) have also been published. His books in Turkish include nine collections of his original poems, two massive anthologies of the poetry of ancient times, a book of
Ancient Egyptian poems, the selected poems of
Wallace Stevens and
Langston Hughes, an anthology of living American poets, a book of American woman poets, his verse translations of
Shakespeare's Complete Sonnets, a book of
Eskimo poems, a one-actor play featuring Shakespeare, etc. He has translated
Robinson Jeffers' version of "Medea"', Neal Simon's "Lost in Yonkers"', Dear Liar" (based on
George Bernard Shaw-
Mrs Patrick Campbell letters) and
Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" (for the two latters plays he won Turkey's top play translation awards.) He was the first Turkish translator of
William Faulkner. In poetry Talat Sait Halman found, as he is quoted in a biographical essay listed below: "freedom of intellectual and emotional exploration; freedom in creative prospects..." (
Festschrift, p. 5) ==Festschrift==