John Freely

Background

John Freely was born on June 22, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. John was the son of Peg (Murphy) and John Freely. His mother took him for a time to live in her native Dingle, in County Kerry, Ireland, while his father, whose jobs included trolley conductor, gardener, and gravedigger, tried to find steady work in Brooklyn. By the time John was six, he had crossed the Atlantic four times, thus setting the pattern for his restless life.

Education

John Freely was expelled from high school in Brooklyn, for neglecting all studies except the humanities that interested him. At the age of 17 enlisted in the United States Navy during the Second World War, and after the war was over John attended the American Catholic college, Iona College on a G.I. Bill majoring in physics with minors in philosophy and mathematics and earned a Bachelor of Science in 1951. Freely went on to do his Masters in 1953 and Doctorate in Physics in 1960 at New York University. Later he pursued his postdoctoral studies on the history of science for a year at Oxford University under Alistair Cameron Crombie, who was an expert in the field of the intellectual history of Medieval European science. The principal idea John inherited from Crombie was "the continuity of western European science from the Dark Ages through Copernicus, Galileo and Newton."

Career

John Freely dropped out of school and at age 17 enlisted in the United States Navy serving with a commando unit in Burma and China during the last years of World War II. While studying at New York University John worked at the same time as a research physicist, first at the United States Army Signal Corps Laboratory in Camp Evans and afterwards in Forrestal Research Centre at Princeton University. While working in the Single Corps Laboratory, he made a discovery in electron physics, on which he wrote a paper with two of his colleagues, which was published in the Physical Review. This was followed by two more collaborative papers published in the same prestigious journal. It was as a result of these labours that he was offered a job at the Forrestal Research Centre, where he worked on "Project Matterhorn" - a project on thermonuclear fusion, at that time classified as top secret.

After receiving his Doctorate in 1960 Freely was offered a permanent research position at Princeton but chose instead a life of travel and exile. In keeping with a bond that he and his wife Dolores had made that when they married they would travel the world together. The job that he applied for and obtained was at Robert College (now Boğaziçi University). The city where the College was situated - Istanbul, was a place John had always dreamed of ever since reading about it in his great grandfather's book, A Pictorial Journey Around the World, which he had discovered in the attic of his mother's house in Ireland. John had been fascinated most by the chapter on "Constantinople" showing the mosques and minarets on the Seven Hills and the Bosphorus (The Art of Exile). In 1960 a chance encounter with a former teacher at Robert College persuaded them to move with their young children to Turkey, where Freely took up a post teaching theoretical physics, astronomy and the history of science at the college, including the course, The Emergence of Modern Science, East and West. Freely lived and taught for many years at the prestigious Boğaziçi University, having started when it was still known as Robert College. At Robert College, he also collaborated in redesigning the curriculum together with the then Department Head Professor Robert McMickle.

John's life in Istanbul in the 1960s was both scholarly and hedonistic, the expatriate crowd he hung out with being noted for hard-drinking and party-going, and for inebriated midnight swims in the Bosphorus. John’s elder daughter, the novelist and translator Maureen Freely, dramatized this in her novels The Life of the Party (1984) and Sailing Through Byzantium (2013). Alcohol later became a grave problem, however, and John eventually quit drinking altogether. Freely continued to teach at Robert College (Boğaziçi University) until in his late eighties, with intermittent sabbatical leaves and one long and some short breaks abroad in New York City, Boston, London, Athens, Oxford, and Venice. On one occasion, he went back to New York and joined the Physics Department of the City College of New York for a year as a visiting full professor. He returned to Boğaziçi University in 1993.

Over the course of around 50 years, and inspired by the example of the Ottoman traveller and historian Evliya Çelebi, he became steeped in the history and cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. The young family took extensive trips in college vacations; the inspiration was often Homer and the Odyssey, and by the end of his travelling days John had easily outdistanced his mythical precursor. While teaching physics Freely also authored more than 60 books on diverse social subjects: Ottoman history, the architecture of Byzantium and Istanbul as well as travel-guide books on Istanbul and the prominent historical and natural sites of the Mediterranean and the Balkans such as Athens, Venice, the Cyclades archipelago, and the Aegean coasts of Turkey - in short, wherever his and Dolores' footsteps led them. Freely's works include his masterpiece Strolling Through Istanbul: A Guide to the City, which is seen as the perhaps the best guide to Istanbul ever written. Along with many travel books focusing on Turkey and its region, Freely also wrote on history, including Storm on Horseback: The Seljuk Warriors of Turkey and The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II: Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire. His books are remarkable for the way they unite accuracy and erudition with first-hand observation, imaginative depth, and a great narrative power - books for each of which he spent immense time studying and reading all sources available to him. John's two volumes on A History of Robert College in 2000 and A Bridge of Culture: Robert College - Boğaziçi University, How an American College in Istanbul Became a Turkish University in 2009, reflect the research conducted during a leave of absence for a term in the archives of Robert College at their New York Office as well as in all available sources. At Robert College, which has since become Bosphorus University, Freely devised a course in the history of science that over the years attracted countless devoted students. Recently the institution named one of its principal halls after him.

John Freely departed from Istanbul after the death of his beloved wife Dolores in 2015, to be together with his daughter Maureen, novelist and translator, and his grandchildren in England. He passed away on 20 April 2017, shortly after his visit to the United States for the launching of his book, The House of Memory: Reflections on Youth and War (March 7, 2017). During his last days, he was still working on a book on Byzantine architecture. His ashes were brought to Istanbul and placed in the same grave as that of Dolores.

Achievements

• John Freely was an author of more than sixty travel books, guides, and historical books, most of them about Greece and Turkey. He is author of The Cyclades, The Ionian Islands, Crete, The Western Shores of Turkey, Strolling Through Athens, Strolling Through Venice as well as Inside the Seraglio, Jem Sultan, and the bestselling Strolling Through Istanbul. John was dubbed "the memory of Istanbul" for his various books on the city's history, Freely lived and taught for many years at the prestigious Boğaziçi University, having started when it was still known as Robert College. Boğaziçi University named one of its principal halls after him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Jem Sultan: The Adventures of a Captive Turkish Prince in Renaissance Europe

    (A remarkable tale of empire and exile, restoring to vivid...)

    2004
  • Galata: A Guide to Istanbul's Old Genoese Quarter

    (Richly illustrated with photographs, prints, paintings, a...)

    2000
  • Companion Guide to Istanbul and around the Marmara

    (Istanbul is the only city in the world that stands astrid...)

    2000
  • Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City

    (Taking the reader on foot through Istanbul, the authors d...)

    1972
  • Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul

    (This is the story of the House of Osman, the imperial dyn...)

    1999
  • The Princes' Isles: A Guide

    (Ideal for either armchair travel or a walking tour, this ...)

    2005
  • Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the Western World

    (Long before the European Renaissance, while the western w...)

    2010
  • The Sultan's Admiral: Barbarossa: Pirate and Empire Builder

    (In this definitive biography, Ernle Bradford has brillian...)

    2009
  • The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople, Master of an Empire and Lord of Two Seas

    (Sultan Mehmet II, the Grand Turk, known to his countrymen...)

    2009
  • A History of Robert College: The American College for Girls and Boğaziçi University

    (This two-volume slipcased set is the story of two America...)

    2000
  • The Cyclades: Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean

    (The Cyclades are the quintessential Greek isles, renowned...)

    2006
  • Istanbul: City of Two Continent

    (Istanbul: City of Two Continents showcases both the histo...)

    2008
  • The Lost Capital of Byzantium: The History of Mistra and the Peloponnese

    (Clinging to a rugged hillside in the lush valley of Spart...)

    2009
  • Stamboul Sketches: Encounters in Old Istanbul

    (Throughout the 1960s, John Freely explored the alleys, hi...)

    1974
  • The Western Shores of Turkey: Discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts

    (Resting on two continents, Turkey reflects and absorbs th...)

    1988
  • Sinan: Architect of Suleyman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Golden Age

    (The greatest architect of the Ottoman Golden Age of the 1...)

    1992
  • Strolling Through Athens: Fourteen Unforgettable Walks through Europe's Oldest City

    (Athens, city of the gods, birthplace of modern democracy,...)

    1991
  • Storm on Horseback: The Seljuk Warriors of Turkey

    (Storm on Horseback is both a dramatic history and, unique...)

    2008
  • The Ionian Islands: Corfu, Cephalonia and Beyond

    (Legend has it that the Ionian Islands were created as Zeu...)

    2008
  • Istanbul: The Imperial City

    (Istanbul's history is a catalog of change, not least of n...)

    1996
  • Blue Guide Boston and Cambridge

    (A detailed description of Boston and Cambridge, packed wi...)

    1984
  • Strolling through Venice: The Definitive Walking Guidebook to "La Serenissima"

    (There is perhaps no other European city quite as romantic...)

    1994
  • John Freely's Istanbul

    (John Freely has explored, loved, and illuminated his adop...)

    2003
  • Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul

    (This book is about the Byzantine monuments of Istanbul, m...)

    2004
  • Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor since the Days of Troy

    (Since the days of Troy historic lands of Asia Minor have ...)

    2009
  • Flame of Miletus: The Birth of Science in Ancient Greece and How it Changed the World

    (Miletus: one of the wealthiest and most important towns i...)

    2012
  • Crete: Discovering the Great Island

    (Crete is a major travel destination with two million visi...)

    1988
  • Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe

    (Virtually nothing is said about the European scholars who...)

    2012
  • A Complete Guide to Greece 1974
  • Naxos: Ariadne's isle 1976
  • Blue Guide Istanbul 1983
  • The Companion Guide to Turkey 1984
  • Classical Turkey 1990
  • The Redhouse Guide to the Black Sea Coast of Turkey 1996
  • The Redhouse Guide to the Aegean Coast of Turkey 1996
  • The Eastern Mediterranean Coast of Turkey 1999
  • The Bosphorus 1999
  • Turkey Around The Marmara 1999
  • The Lost Messiah 2001
  • Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World 2009
  • Kingdoms of Ruin: The Art and Architectural Splendours of Ancient Turkey 2009

Views

John Freely was a supporter of the protection of the natural and historical environment. Among some of these, John together with his friends including Professor Süheyla Artemelto struggled to preserve and protect the historic cemetery and the hill above Robert College where a Bektashi tekke of Nafi Baba that dates back to the 15th century was situated. Freely took an active part in starting a campaign that Süheyla led and coordinated in the early 1970s for initiating an environmental preservation project that aimed at conserving the natural and historic sites and buildings of the Bosphorus. These efforts and struggles bear testimony to John's unwavering dedication to the conservation of historic and cultural heritage. Freely also invested his effort to save the values and traditions of Robert College and Boğaziçi University, working together with Keith Greenwood, David Garwood, and Hilary Sumner-Boyd, who were professors at Robert College (Boğaziçi University), to preserve the Boğaziçi University library collection intact, once reputed to be the richest and the best in the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean.

Personality

John Freely was a truly dedicated reader as well as a prolific writer with an amazing memory. In his sixties, he had a light transient stroke in Venice. When told by the doctor at the hospital that this could have been due to "usual atrophy," he was alarmed at the prospect of losing his memory and in order to test his recollective powers, John's immediate reaction was, in his own words: "I began solving complex mathematical problems in my head, such as computing the Fibonacci numbers, after which I silently recited the names of all the Byzantine emperors, Ottoman sultans, and Venetian doges. But my memory seemed as good as ever which greatly relieved me since my brain was my only resource, the machine that powered my cottage industry of writing books."

Freely loved Greek music and enjoyed its melodies best on the shores of the Bosphorus. He was admired by the librarians for the assiduous research he carried out, particularly in the Rare Book section. The library to John was, as he put it, his sanctuary. Following the publication of his books, he had a habit of giving as a present a signed copy to the library staff to whom he felt grateful and indebted. John and Dolores have left their mark as genuine and living examples of how to be human, how to connect with people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds - examples that we so much need in these times when the ills of alienation and segregation seem to prevail all over the world. John Freely was an indefatigable walker - nothing escaped his eye when he was touring a place, and he was able to situate the things he saw in a human as well as a historical context. He was also highly irreverent.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He was like the great amphibian living simultaneously in divided and distinguished worlds." - Sir Thomas Browne

Interests

• history, traveling

• Music & Bands

  Greek music

Connections

In 1947 John Freely married Dolores Stanley. They had two daughters Maureen and Eileen, and a son Brendan.

Father:

John Freely Sr.

Mother:

Peg (Murphy) Freely

Wife:

Dolores (Stanley) Freely

Daughter:

Maureen Freely

Daughter:

Eileen Freely

Son:

Brendan Freely

Friend:

Süheyla Artemel

colleague:

Hilary Sumner-Boyd

colleague:

Keith Greenwood

colleague:

David Garwood