Selim Nüzhet: Complete Works, the first book in our series, is On Past Times. Bringing together the articles Selim Nüzhet wrote for newspapers and magazines between 1939 and 1944, this book consists of sections formed by 6 themes. The first is On Past Times, which also gives the book its name. The second section is From Our Old Entertainments, the third is Old Ramadan Nights, and the fourth is Ramadan Conversations. These sections are formed by grouping the newspaper and magazine serials the author published under main headings, taking their publication dates into account. The fifth section also brings together articles on a similar theme: Books and Reading Culture. The final section consists of articles that we could not group under a single theme but which we could not bear to let disappear in the pages of magazines.

Written approximately 80 years ago, these articles can be considered, from today's perspective, first and foremost an inventory of what we have lost. Secondly, each article that makes up this book serves as an instructive and commemorative archival document of the beauties we once possessed, the aesthetic values that formed the texture of our perception of life, and our culture of living. Thirdly, it is a work in which some of the problems we speak of today were identified and diagnosed at that time, where solutions were proposed, and where it becomes clear that these were ignored. Fourthly, it is a work that will serve as a guide to help us primarily recognize the fundamental motives and mechanisms, the universe of meaning, beauties, and elegance of our past life regarding culture, city-space, people, social life, and entertainment, and will awaken, revitalize, and even develop our aesthetic sensibility. Having a sincere and selfless approach toward the society and space we live in, seeing it as a whole of interconnected relationships and bonds, and thinking by adopting sensitivity as a principle can be considered the fundamental character of these writings.

Finally, these writings provide, line by line, an example of a taste for language with a high degree of simplicity. Selim Nüzhet fulfills the responsibility of carrying the time before him into his own time with a superior taste for language and a sensitive perspective. By taking his understanding and grasp as an example, let us hope that while learning about the past through his pen, we may also have a share in this understanding and style of perception.