Vahe H. Apelian
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| Albert Apelian M.D. (courtesy The Antiochians) |
Dr. Albert Apelian came from a prominent family of Kessab. He was the son of Dr.Soghomon Apelian who was one of the very first Armenians to graduate from the medical school of the American University of Beirut. In 1907, the beloved American Missionary in Kessab Effie M. Chambers sent his uncle Bedros Apelian to study ministry in her alma mater in Iowa. Rev. Bedros became a well-known minister on the East Coast. His, that is to say Albert's brother George was a medical doctor as well. His other brother Robert was a pharmacist. Both of them also immigrated to the United States. Only his brother Hagop remained in Kessab. One of Albert's sisters was married to Hetoum Agha Filian of Moussa Dagh. Her great-grandson Levon Filian is the AMAA director for the West Coast. His other sister Mary was married to Dr. Avedis Injejikian. Her son Gabriel Injejikian became the pioneer of the Armenian day schools in the U.S. Not much is known of his third sister.
Dr. Albert Apelian was born in 1893 during a period of spiritual and cultural revival in Kessab. Ani Apelian, the long-standing principal of the Armenian Evangelical School of Kessab and his grandniece, in her article in the booklet published during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the school (1952-2002), citing Rev. Dirkan Kherlopian noted that two years after its founding in 1846 in Constantinople, the newly established Armenian Evangelical denomination had found adherents in Kessab who laid the foundation of the Armenian Evangelical School there. Rev. Garabed Tilkian claimed that the school was established in 1852, which came to be accepted as the official date of its founding as there were no records to substantiate the claim for the earlier founding. Many Kessabtsi aspiring young men were thus given the opportunity to be educated in Kessab. Many of whom furthered their education elsewhere.
In 1909 Kessab also lived through the pogrom known in our history as the Adana Massacre that was not confined in that city alone. Young Albert’s family survived the pogrom thanks to his prominent father.
In 1912 he graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree from the Aintab Central College, which later became the famed Aleppo College. His graduation dissertation was about Kessab.
In 1917 he graduated with a medical degree from the American University of Beirut. Much like his prominent father, the Turkish authorities drafted him also to serve in the Ottoman Army during the World War I.
On February 13, 1921, he set foot in the United States as another immigrant and after having acquired the necessary credentials he embarked on the practice of medicine but noted in the introduction of his books that he always devoted time for writing.
Dr. Albert Apelian remained a lifelong physician in Belmont, MA. But he also distinguished himself as a prodigal literary figure who wrote in Armenian (mostly), in Turkish (he claimed) and in English. He wrote under the literary pen name Epilents (Էբիլենց).
His prodigal literary output of four medical books in Armenian, four novels in Armenian as well, lasted less than a decade and started almost right after his immigration to the United States as if the country unleashed his latent literary talent. His nephew, Soghomon Apelian Hekimian, the son of his brother Hagop, secured and entrusted his graduation dissertation from the Aintab College to Yervant Kassouny, the eminent man of letters and distinguished editor of Armenian Evangelical periodical "Chanassar". Yervant Kassouny edited the manuscript by footnoting valuable information and thus he put the manuscript in context and had it published as a book in 2002. Albert’s last book “The Antiochians” (see https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-antiochians-by-dr-albert-apelian.html) was published decades later after his prodigal decade-long literary output.
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| The cover of the Armenian novels Dr. Albert Apelian wrote. |
The chronology of his books is as follow:
“Գեսապ եւ իր Գիւղերը» (Kessab and its Villages). The manuscript was written in 1912 as a dissertation paper in Aintab College and was published in 2002, edited by Dr. Yervant Kassouny.
"Հէքիմարան» (Hekimaran) - Published in 1924, 350 pages.
«Մատեան Մանկաց» (Children's Manuscript) – Published in 1925, 254 pages.
«Հայ Մայրերու Մենտորը» (Armenian Mothers' Tutor) - (information missing).
«Հնգամեայ Զրոյցներ" (Five Years Long Discourse: 1923-1928). – Published in 1928, 410 pages.՝
«Անահիտ կամ Հայ Ֆլէփփըրը» (Anahid or the Armenian Flipper) – Published in 1929, 166 pages.
«Զմրուխտ Մատանին» (The Emerald Ring) – Published in 1929, 138 pages.
"Աշ-Գար» (Ash-Kar) – Published in 1930, 116 pages.
«վաղուան Արշալոյսը» (Tomorrow's Dawn) – Published in 1930, 116 pages.
His novel in English, “The Antiochians” was published in1960.
Dr. Albert Apelian claimed that he also had a number of unpublished literary works. Along with these books, he contributed regularly to Armenian journals such as in “Hairenik” and others.
Garbis Harboyan MD, recently reviewed his medical book, «Մատեան Մանկաց» (Children's Manuscript). Dr. Garbis Harboyan MD is the author of a four-volume medical books sequel. Dr. Harboyan found Dr. Apelian's book medically sound and well written and very informative. His medical books were intended for the Armenian general leadership and were well received. He claimed that they became out of print soon after their publications. Let us bear in mind that these medical books became available to the Armenian readership at a time when reading in Armenian was the norm and most of the Armenian immigrants were not sufficiently fluent in English to read in the language of the country they were adopting. It is no surprise that his medical books became a valuable and helpful source of information for the immigrant Armenians of his generation.
There is an underlying sentimentality that exudes in the introduction of these books in Armenian, be it medical or novels. Young Albert Apelian dedicated his dissertation to his academic mentor in sentiments not seen in such scholastic work anymore. He dedicated his first book "Hekimaran" to his father with trepidation asking his father to kindly accept his work as a token of his appreciation for having instilled in him the love of medicine. He dedicated his «Մատեան Մանկաց» (Children's Manuscript) book to the memory of the Armenian children of his "tortured nation" who perished during the genocide and to the mothers to raise their lion cubs who one day will avenge their martyred brethren and collect their remains in a pantheon dedicated to them.
Unlike his medical books, his Armenian novels are understandably fictions. However, they are based on actual social issues and aspirations of the times. His book «Անահիտ կամ Հայ Ֆլէփփըրը» (Anahid or the Armenian Flipper) depicted the young Armenian American generation caught in the frenzy of the roaring twenties.
He dedicated his novel «Զմրուխտ Մատանին» (The Emerald Ring) "to the gallant tales of those who believed in guns as a legacy to the upcoming generations so that they too will continue on the struggle to realize our big dream of a united and free Armenia where our inheritors will live the honorable life of an independent people".
He dedicated his last Armenian novel, «վաղուան Արշալոյսը» (Tomorrow's Dawn) to his two daughters Laura and Aileen – he will father a third daughter later on – so that "they will get to know and love Armenia through this novel” and quoted: "when will I see seated on the throne an Armenian prince writing orders in Armenian characters?".
He dedicated his book "Աշ-Գար» (Ash-Kar) "to the victims of unfortunate marriages". The title is made of the first two letters of the Armenian word autumn and the first three letters of the word spring. In this book he covered a rarely discussed social issue. He noted that many Armenian young men came to America before the genocide to earn money and return to their homeland and set their lives in order. The genocide deprived them to do so and they remained in America but their dreams of having an Armenian family of their own remained alive. They went overseas in search of suitable younger mates or resorted to marriages arranged by mail. He noted, in his introduction that "the Armenian women came, caravan after caravan, to join their mates on the other side of the Atlantic whom they had known by pictures. This is how the Armenian immigrants married by the hundreds and thousands” he wrote resulting in "unfortunate" (դժբախտ) marriages. He ended his introduction writing that never should the autumn be paired with the spring henceforth. It is plausible that many had confined their marital problems to him as their medical doctor.
He published his last Armenian book in 1930 and henceforth abruptly stopped publishing any more for the next thirty years. He married Zabel Arakelian and fathered three daughters. Much like any father, he surely remained engrossed in his medical practice to provide for his growing family and understandably could not devote sufficient time anymore for writing.
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| The Covers of "Kessab and Its Villages", "The Antiochians" |
The books he wrote in Armenian during that productive period stand out by his command of the Armenian language and fluency of expression, especially for a medical doctor who was not trained in arts let alone in the Armenian language. Surely he was a naturally endowed writer, but his command of the Armenian diction is something else. His mastery of the Armenian language, his choice or words, remain a rarity.
He published his last novel "The Antiochians" in 1960, three decades after he published his last Armenian novel. He considered "The Antiochians" the crowning achievement of his writing legacy and the fulfillment of his father's prediction that one day he may write a long novel. In 1909, when the family had escaped for their lives and were living in a tent, Albert kept his siblings occupied by telling them stories. It is then his father had noted that one day he might write a "roman”, a novel in French.
The transformation of Albert Apelian is evident in his last novel “The Antiochians”. He has ceased writing in Armenian anymore. The poetic sentimentality he displayed in the introduction of the books he wrote in Armenian three decades earlier, almost right after his emigration, is not there anymore. He had survived the onslaught of Kessab in April 1909, right after the Adana massacre. He had also survived the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. With his last novel, Albert Apelian comes across having completed the last phase of his life as a bona fide Armenian American citizen much like many immigrants of his generation who adopted the United States as their own having found there a hospitable and a safe haven.
Albert Apelian MD, the family physician who was also an astute social diagnostician as well. He passed away on November 14, 1986, in Boston.
