ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the topics covered in opening scenes, in some cases the earliest memory an author recalls or claims to recall. The re-telling of earliest memories sets the scene for and defines the mood of a whole autobiography, as with Sevket Sureyya Aydemir, who begins his autobiography Suyu arayan adam with a quite spectacular picture: "My first memory concerning my childhood is a fire". Many if not most authors of autobiography start their narrative by locating themselves both in time and in space. The autobiographies of Halide Edip Adivar and Selma Ekrem are examples for the way of introducing and locating the autobiographical narrator. Looking at the opening scenes of Ahmet Emin Yalman's autobiography, the modern reader cannot help but wonder why Yalman makes no mention in this context of the diverse and rich composition of Salonica's multiethnic population, which contributed to a great extent to the city's unique atmosphere as Yalman describes it.
