Editing J. Slauerhoff

{{Short description|Dutch poet, writer and doctor (1898–1936)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name         = J. Slauerhoff
| image        = Slauerhoff2.jpg
| imagesize    =
| caption      =
| pseudonym    = John Ravenswood (only occasionally)
| birth_name    = Jan Jacob Slauerhoff
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=yes|1898|9|15}}
| birth_place   = [[Leeuwarden]], Netherlands
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=yes|1936|10|5|1898|9|15}}
| death_place   = [[Hilversum]], Netherlands
| occupation   = Poet, novelist, [[general practitioner]], [[ship's doctor]]
| education    = Medicine
| alma_mater   = [[University of Amsterdam|Amsterdam Municipal University]]
| period       = 1918–36
| notableworks = ''Soleares'' (poetry), ''The Forbidden Kingdom'' (prose)
| spouse       = [[Darja Collin]] (1930–1935)
| children     = 
| awards       = {{awards|{{Ill|C.W. van der Hoogtprijs|nl|3=Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs}}|1934}} for ''Soleares''
| signature    =
}}
'''Jan Jacob Slauerhoff''' (15 September 1898 – 5 October 1936), who published as '''J. Slauerhoff''', was a Dutch poet and novelist. He is considered one of the most important [[Dutch language]] writers.

==Youth==
Slauerhoff attended [[Hogereburgerschool|HBS]] (secondary school) in [[Leeuwarden, Netherlands|Leeuwarden]], where he first met fellow future writer [[Simon Vestdijk]], who was from [[Harlingen, Netherlands|Harlingen]]. In 1916, Slauerhoff and Vestdijk both moved to [[Amsterdam]] to read medicine. While at the university, Slauerhoff wrote his first poems; his debut as a poet was in the Communist magazine ''[[De Nieuwe Tijd]]''. He edited the Amsterdam student magazine ''[[Propria Cures]]'' from 1919 to 1920.<ref name="stuiveling"/> In 1919, Slauerhoff became engaged to a Dutch language student, Truus de Ruyter.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} In 1921 he joined the staff of the literary magazine ''[[Het Getij]]'' and later that of ''[[De Vrije Bladen]]''; in this period he became acquainted with poets [[Hendrik Marsman]] and [[Hendrik de Vries]].<ref name="stuiveling"/>

==Early career==
His first collection of verse, ''Archipel'' ("Archipelago"), was published in 1923.<ref name="stuiveling"/> Afterwards, he started working as a medical doctor on board of ships, especially in South East Asia. Much of his work refers to travel, to longing for far coasts, to China and Japan, and to the sea.

==Marriage, final years==
From 1929 on, Slauerhoff stayed in the Netherlands more frequently. He was an assistant in the [[Utrecht University]] clinic for Dermatology and Venereal Diseases from 1929 to 1930.<ref name=hazeu /> In September 1930, he married dancer and ballet teacher Darja Collin, the start of a short happy period in his life. By 1931, however, Slauerhoff had fallen ill again and left for the Italian health resort of [[Merano]] to recuperate. His wife followed him in 1932, so that they might experience the birth of their first child together. The child, Juan Darito, was [[stillbirth|stillborn]], prompting a serious depression in Slauerhoff.<ref name=hazeu>{{cite book | last=Hazeu | first=Wim | title=Slauerhoff : een biografie | publisher=De Arbeiderspers |date=2018 | isbn=9789029525862}}</ref>

Later in 1932, Slauerhoff went to sea again, signing up with the Holland-West-Afrikalijn. His general bad health continued to trouble him and he considered moving to [[Northern Africa]], as this would benefit his health. In March 1934, he set up a doctor's practice in [[Tangier International Zone|Tangier]], then an international [[protectorate]], but by October he had left again. His periods of illness grew longer as the symptoms grew more serious, and his relationship with Darja deteriorated.<ref name=hazeu />

[[File:Slauerhoff4.jpg|thumb|Slauerhoff wearing Chinese attire (Coll. Letterkundig Museum)]]
His fame as a writer, meanwhile, spread. In 1932 he published ''Het verboden rijk'' ("The Forbidden Kingdom"), a partly [[historical novel|historical]], partly [[magical realist]] novel combining the life of a 20th-century European with that of [[Luís de Camões]], the 16th-century Portuguese poet (author of sonnets and the epic ''[[Os Lusíadas|The Lusiads]]'') who spent part of his life in the Orient.<ref name=laan/> Despite not being translated into English until 2012,<ref>{{cite book  | last = Slauerhoff  | first = Jacob  | title = The Forbidden Kingdom  | publisher = Pushkin Press  | location = London  | year = 2012}}</ref> it attracted attention from scholars publishing in English. Jane Fenoulhet, for instance, referred to it as an important modernist novel in 2001.<ref>{{cite journal  | last = Fenoulhet  | first = Jane  | title = Time Travel in the Forbidden Realm: J. J. Slauerhoff's Het verboden rijk Viewed as a Modernist Novel  | journal = [[Modern Language Review]]  | volume = 96  | issue = 2  | pages = 116–29  | year = 2001| doi =  10.2307/3735720| jstor = 3735720 | s2cid = 161222122 | url = http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/455/ }}</ref> Both ''Het verboden rijk'' and the follow-up novel ''Het leven op aarde'' ("Life on Earth," 1934) were widely praised, and his 1933 verse collection ''Soleares'' was awarded the {{Ill|C.W. van der Hoogtprijs|nl|3=Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs}}.<ref name=laan>{{cite book|last=Laan|first=K. ter|title=Letterkundig woordenboek voor Noord en Zuid|chapter-url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/laan005lett01_01/laan005lett01_01_6796.php|year=1952|publisher=G.B. van Goor Zonen|location=The Hague/Jakarta|language=nl|chapter=J. Slauerhoff}}</ref>

The year 1935 saw more sea voyages as a ship's doctor, but also his divorce from Darja Collin. In this period of his life, Slauerhoff fell out with many of his literary friends, among them Du Perron and Vestdijk. During his last voyage, to South Africa, he fell severely ill with malaria on top of his neglected tuberculosis and returned to Merano for yet more recuperation.<ref name=hazeu />

Still ill, he returned to the Netherlands in 1936 to take up residence in a nursing home in Hilversum, where he died on 5 October, just after his 38th birthday and one month after the publication of his last collection of verse, ''Een eerlijk zeemansgraf'' ("An Honourable Seaman's Grave").<ref name=hazeu />

==Style and themes==
Though Slauerhoff writes in the time of [[expressionism]], his poetry is, according to Garmt Stuiveling and G.J. van Bork, essentially [[Romanticism|romantic]]: strongly autobiographical, it evidences restlessness, imagination, and a longing for faraway places, expressed through an identification with tramps, discoverers, and pirates.<ref name="stuiveling">{{cite book|last1=Stuiveling|first1=Garmt|last2=Bork|first2=G.J. van|editor=G.J. van Bork, P.J. Verkruijsse|title=De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs van middeleeuwen tot heden met inbegrip van de Friese auteurs|chapter-url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bork001nede01_01/bork001nede01_01_1217.php|year=1985|publisher=De Haan|location=Weesp|language=nl|pages=529–30|chapter=Slauerhoff, Jan Jacob}}</ref>

Much of Slauerhoff's work is concerned with the poor and downtrodden; especially the poetry collections ''Archipel'' (1923), ''Eldorado'' (1928), ''Soleares'' (1933), and ''Een eerlijk zeemansgraf'' (1936). A performance of his play ''Jan Pietersz. Coen'' (1930), highly critical of [[Jan Pieterszoon Coen]] (seventeenth-century officer of the [[Dutch East India Company in Indonesia]] and two-term [[Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies]]), was prohibited by the mayor of Amsterdam in 1948.<ref name=laan/>

==Posthumous editions==
[[File:J.J. Slauerhoff - 'T ZWERK ligt teneergeslagen - Utrechtse Jaagpad 3, Leiden.JPG|thumb|Poem by Slauerhoff on a [[Wall poems in Leiden|wall in Leiden]] ]]
Two works in progress that were nearly finished at the time of Slauerhoff's death, the original novel ''De opstand van Guadalajara'' ("The [[Guadalajara, Jalisco|Guadalajara]] Uprising") and the translation of [[Martín Luis Guzmán]]'s novel ''In de schaduw van den leider'' ("In the Shadow of the Leader"), were published [[posthumous work|posthumous]]ly in 1937.

A Committee for the Preparation of Slauerhoff's Complete Works was put together and convened to compile his ''Complete Works''. This committee, which consisted of leading literary figures, among which a number of friends of Slauerhoff, included [[D.A.M. Binnendijk]], [[Menno ter Braak]], [[N.A. Donkersloot]], [[J. Greshoff]], [[Kees Lekkerkerker]], [[Hendrik Marsman]], [[Adriaan Roland Holst]], and [[Constant van Wessem]]. Du Perron contributed a general outline for the ordering and grouping of the contents, but declined to participate further. Work progressed slowly and was further slowed down by the events of [[World War II]]. The first volume appeared in 1941, one year behind schedule, and the series of eight volumes was not completed until 1958. Two of the committee's members, Ter Braak and Marsman, died at the start of the war and the publisher, [[Nijgh & Van Ditmar]], lost faith halfway through the project, which resulted in the intended separate volume of [[critical apparatus]] being scrapped and the last volume, containing Slauerhoff's essays, being published independently by Lekkerkerker.
Lekkerkerker, ever the dedicated text researcher and caretaker of Slauerhoff's literary heritage, continued over the years to unearth and study Slauerhoff's [[manuscript]]s and uncollected publications, resulting in ever better versions of the ''Complete Poems'' and ''Complete Prose'' volumes.

[[File:J.J.Slauerhoff.jpg|thumb|right|Sculpture of Slauerhoff in Huizum]]In 2018 a revised complete edition of all his poems was published.<ref>{{cite book | last=Slauerhoff | first=J. | title=Verzamelde Gedichten | publisher=Nijgh & Van Ditmar | editor-last1=Aalders | editor-first1=Hein| editor-first2=Menno | editor-last2=Voskuil}}</ref> Wim Hazeu, one of the main biographers of the Netherlands, published a revised edition of his Slauerhoff biography that same year.<ref name=hazeu /> Slauerhoff's 1934 novel, ''Het leven op aarde'', was republished by Handheld Press in a new English translation by David McKay as ''Adrift in the Middle Kingdom'' in 2019.

==Bibliography==
[[File:Slauerhoff Camoes Macao.jpg|thumb|Slauerhoff near the bust of [[Luís de Camões]] in [[Macao]] ]]

===Poetry===
*''Archipel'' ("Archipelago", 1923)
*''Clair-obscur'' (1927)
*''[[Oost-Azië]]'' ("East Asia", 1928, under [[pseudonym|ps.]] John Ravenswood)
*''[[Eldorado (poems)|Eldorado]]'' (1928)
*''[[Fleurs de Marécage]]'' ("Marsh Flowers", 1929, in French)
*''[[Saturnus (poems)|Saturnus]]'' ("Saturn", 1930, revised and enlarged re-issue of ''Clair-obscur'')
*''Yoeng Poe Tsjoeng'' ("Of Little Use", translations from the Chinese and original poems, 1930)
*''[[Serenade (poems)|Serenade]]'' (1930)
*''[[Soleares (poems)|Soleares]]'' (1933)
*''[[Een eerlijk zeemansgraf]]'' ("An Honorable Sailor's Grave", 1936)
*''Verzamelde gedichten'' ("Collected Verse", 1947)
*''Al dwalend'' ("Wandering About", previously uncollected poems, 1947)
*''Alleen in mijn gedichten kan ik wonen'' ("Only in My Poems Can I Dwell", anthology, 1978)
*''Op aarde niet en niet op zee'' ("Not on earth, and not at sea"), poems selected by [[Henny Vrienten]] (Amsterdam: Nijgh & Van Ditmar 2000. {{ISBN|90-388-7039-6}})
*''In memoriam mijzelf'' ("In Memory of Myself", anthology, 2006)

===Prose===

====Original prose====
*''Het Lente-eiland en andere verhalen'' ("The Isle of Spring and Other Stories", 1930, [[short story|short stories]])
*''Schuim en asch'' ("Spume and Ashes", 1930, short stories)
*''[[Het verboden rijk]]'' (1932, novel); translated into English by Paul Vincent as ''The Forbidden Kingdom'' (London: Pushkin, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1-906548-88-9}})
*''Het leven op aarde'' ("Life on Earth", 1934, novel); translated into English by David McKay as ''Adrift in the Middle Kingdom''. Handheld Press, 2019 {{ISBN|978-1999944872}}
*''De opstand van Guadalajara'' ("The Guadalajara Uprising", 1937, [[posthumous work|posthumous]]ly published novel)
*''Verzameld proza'' ("Collected Prose", 1961)
*''Verwonderd saam te zijn'' ("Strange Bedfellows", 1987, short stories and a [[one act play]] [1928–1935])
*''Alleen de havens zijn ons trouw'' ("Only the Ports Are Loyal to Us", 1992, [[Travel literature|travelogue]] short stories [1927–1932])

====Translated prose====
*[[Ricardo Güiraldes]] – ''Don Segundo Sombra'' (1930, 1941², 1948³; from Spanish with R. Schreuder)
*[[José Maria de Eça de Queiroz]] – ''De misdaad van Pater Amaro'' ("[[O Crime do Padre Amaro|The Crime of Father Amaro]]", 1932; from [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] with R. Schreuder)
*[[Guillermo Hernández Mir]] – ''De hof der oranjeboomen'' ("The Court with the Orange Trees", 1932; from Spanish with R. Schreuder)
*[[Paulo Setúbal]] – ''Johan Maurits van Nassau'' ("[[John Maurice of Nassau]]", 1933; from Portuguese by R. Schreuder with J. Slauerhoff)
*[[Ramón Gómez de la Serna]] – ''Dokter hoe is het mogelijk'' ("Doctor Improbable", 1935; from Spanish)
*[[Martín Luis Guzmán]] – ''In de schaduw van den leider'' ("In the Shadow of the Leader", 1937; from Spanish with G.J. Geers, published posthumously)
*[[Jules Laforgue]] – ''Hamlet, of De gevolgen der kinderliefde'' ("Hamlet, or The Consequences of Filial Love", 1962, 1970²; from French [1928])
*[[Roger Poidatz|Thomas Raucat]] – ''Twee verhalen'' ("Two Short Stories", 1974; from French [1929])

===Drama===
*''Jan Pietersz. Coen'' (1931, [[tragedy]])<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Veenstra
  | first = J.H.W.
  | title = Slauerhoff, Coen en de oorlogsmisdaden
  | journal = Maatstaf
  | volume = 17
  | pages = 337–50
  | year = 1969
  | issn = 0464-2198
  }}</ref>

===Miscellaneous===
*''Verzamelde werken'' ("Complete Works", 8 vols., 1941–1958)
*''Brieven van Slauerhoff'' ("Letters from Slauerhoff", ed. by [[Arthur Lehning]], 1955)
*''Dagboek'' ("Diary", ed. by [[Kees Lekkerkerker]], 1957)
*''Verzameld Proza'' ("Collected Prose"), 2 vols. (The Hague: Nijgh & Van Ditmar 1975. {{ISBN|90-236-5569-9}} (vol. 1) and {{ISBN|90-236-5570-2}} (vol. 2))
*''Slauerhoff student auteur'' ("Slauerhoff Student Writer", [[prose]] and poetry from Slauerhoff's student days ed. by Eep Francken et al., 1983)
*''Brieven aan Hans Feriz'' ("Letters to Hans Feriz", ed. Herman Vernout, 1984)
*''Het China van Slauerhoff: aantekeningen en ontwerpen voor de Cameron-romans'' ("Slauerhoff's China – Notes and Outlines for the Cameron Novels", ed. W. Blok et al., 1985)
*''Hij droeg de zee en de verte aan zich mee'' ("He Carried the Sea and the Distance with Him", [[Letter (message)|letters]] ed. by J.J. van Herpen, 1985)
*''Cristina Branco Canta Slauerhoff'' (Cristina Branco Sings Slauerhoff, 9 poems translated into Portuguese and put to Fado music, 2000)
*''Van een liefde die vriendschap bleef'' ("Of a Love that Remained Friendship", letters ed. by [[Wim Hazeu]], 2007)
* ''Het heele leven is toch verloren'' ("Life Is a Lost Cause Anyway", poems, letters, diaries, ed. by Arie Pos et al.) {{ISBN|978-90-814450-7-8}}
*''Slauerhoff Biografie'' [[Wim Hazeu, 2018]]
*''J. Slauerhoff Verzamelde gedichten'' [[2018, bezorgd door Hein Aalders en Menno Voskuil]]

There are a number of German, French, Italian, [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and Portuguese translations of his prose works and Russian translations of his poetry.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|J. Slauerhoff}}
* [http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=slau001 Texts and secondary literature at DBNL]

{{Slauerhoff}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slauerhoff, J.}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1936 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch poets]]
[[Category:Dutch male poets]]
[[Category:Dutch medical writers]]
[[Category:Dutch travel writers]]
[[Category:Dutch male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Dutch male novelists]]
[[Category:People from Leeuwarden]]
[[Category:Utrecht University]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch male writers]]