Hilda van Stockum

Hilda Gerarda van Stockum (born February 9, 1908 in Rotterdam , Netherlands ; † November 1, 2006 in Berkhamsted , England ) was a children's book author , painter and book illustrator who was widely read in the USA , Canada , Ireland and the Netherlands .

Life

Origin and education

Hilda van Stockum was born in Rotterdam in 1908. Her father, Abraham Johannes van Stockum (1864–1935), was a captain and, for a short time, vice admiral in the Dutch navy. Her mother, Olga Emily b. Boissevain (1875–1949), was a daughter of Charles Boissevain (1842–1927) and his Irish wife, Emily Héloïse born. MacDonnell.

Hilda van Stockum and her two younger brothers, Willem Jacob (1910–1944) and Jan Mauritz (1913–1947), spent their childhood both in the Netherlands and in Ireland, due to their family's extensive, multicultural roots. The family made numerous trips, including to France, Switzerland and Asia. During these trips Hilda van Stockum filled many notebooks with stories and drawings and at the early age of five she wrote a book for her younger brother Willem Jacob and illustrated it with her pictures.

After completing school, she studied art at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and at the Dublin School of Art . During her studies in Dublin Hilda met the American Ervin Ross Marlin , a college friend of her brother Willem Jacob at Trinity College in Dublin. The two married on June 27, 1932 in Dublin.

Relocation to the USA and first successes

Shortly after the wedding, the Marlins moved to New York City , where they had to endure tough times due to the economic depression . In 1934, her husband got a job with the new administrative agencies that were emerging in connection with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policy. The family later had to move to Washington, DC .

Hilda van Stockum (-Marlin) gave lectures on Montessori education during her time in New York and Washington . Her mother, Olga Emily van Stockum (-Boissevain), was committed to this pedagogy and wrote articles for the Dutch Montessori Bulletin ; one of her aunts, Hilda de Booij (1877–1975), was one of the founders of one of the first Montessori schools in the Netherlands, the Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam .

In 1934 Hilda van Stockum published her first children's book A Day on Skates. The Story of a Dutch Picnic . Because of the realistic but at the same time warm-hearted description of the everyday life of a family in the Netherlands, this very first book received the Newberry Honor Prize in 1935 , which was awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association , and made her a children's book author well known. Even in the children's books that followed, family life was usually the focus of events.

Novels from family life

The Marlin van Stockum family grew - in 1934 daughter Olga Emily was born. Brigid Nella followed in 1936, Randal Robert Alexander in 1938, Sheila Ruth Mary in 1939, John Anthony in 1942 and Elisabeth in 1944. Hilda van Stockum received new ideas for her stories from her large family, and so her children also appeared - in encrypted form - in her books, especially in the semi-autobiographical Mitchell series : Olga Emily as "Joan" , Brigid Nella as "Patsy" , Sheila Ruth Mary as "Angela" , Elisabeth as "Catherine" , Randal Robert Alexander as "Peter" , and John Anthony as "Timmy" .

Hilda van Stockum wrote a lot - and quickly: 1938 The Cottage at Bantry Bay , the first volume in the so-called Bantry Bay series , in which the adventures of the four O'Sullivan children are described, who travel to the south of Ireland with their families living in Bantry Bay. Hilda van Stockum's memories of her own childhood in Ireland were incorporated into these stories. 1939 Francie on the Run (2nd volume in the Bantry Bay series ), 1940 Kersti and St. Nicholas , 1941 Pegeen (3rd volume in the Bantry Bay series ), 1942 Andries , 1943 Gerrit and the Organ , 1945 The Mitchells , in which she described the time of World War II in Washington DC, the difficulties of raising their children during that time. The book also contains an encrypted description of her brother Willem Jacob, who died as a Royal Air Force bomber pilot on June 10, 1944 on a mission in France.

After the Second World War, the family moved to Montreal , Canada, in 1945 . Hilda van Stockum described the small and big problems that the move and the new environment brought with it for her and her six children in encrypted form in the second and third books of the Mitchell series ( Canadian Summer and Friendly Gables ).

In 1962, The Winged Watchman , Hilda van Stockum's best-known book, was published, in which she described how 10-year-old Joris and his older brother Dirk Jan supported the Dutch resistance movement against the German occupiers and, with the help of their parents, a British pilot during the Second World War hide. Some members of the Hilda van Stockums family had fought in the resistance against the Nazi occupiers and she incorporated their experiences into her story. In 1975 she took up this issue again with The Borrowed House . This time from the perspective of a young German girl in occupied Amsterdam. Van Stockum lets the girl realize that war means above all hunger, separation and also gas chambers .

Draws and moves to England

In addition to her work as a writer, painting and drawing were Hilda van Stockum's second great passion. With one exception, she illustrated all the books she wrote herself. Only the drawings in King Oberon's Forest are by her daughter Brigid Marlin.

In the 1960s and 70s she put more emphasis on this form of artistic expression. Her pictures have been exhibited in galleries in Geneva , the Netherlands, Washington DC and Ottawa . In 1984 the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin made her an honorary member and in 1991 showed a retrospective of her work.

It was amazing and admirable how she could manage all of this - family, children, and artistic creation. When asked in 1942 by a Washington Post journalist how she did it all at once, she jokingly replied, "By neglecting all the rest of my duties . " In fact, however, her numerous activities were excellently organized and very disciplined.

In 1973 Hilda van Stockum moved with her family to Berkhamsted , near London . Her husband, Ervin Ross Marlin, died there on December 16, 1994. Hilda van Stockum died on November 1, 2006, also in Berkhamsted. Their six children now live in four countries on three continents: Olga Emily in Kenya , Brigid Nella, Sheila Ruth Mary and Elisabeth in England, Randal Robert Alexander in Canada and John Anthony in the United States .

Works

• 1934: A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic
• 1940: Kersti and St. Nicholas
• 1942: Andries
• 1943: Gerrit and the Organ
• 1950: The Angels' Alphabet
• 1951: Patsy and the Pup
• 1957: King Oberon's Forest
• 1962: Little Old Bear
• 1962: The Winged Watchman
• 1963: Jeremy Bear
• 1964: Bennie and the New Baby
• 1964: New Baby is Lost
• 1966: Mogo's Flute
• 1972: Penengro
• 1973: Rufus Round and Round
• 1975: The Borrowed House

Bantry Bay series

• 1938: The Cottage at Bantry Bay
• 1939: Francie on the Run
• 1941: Pegeen

Mitchell's series

• 1945: The Mitchells
• 1948: Canadian Summer
• 1958: Friendly Gables

Web links

• Literature by and about Hilda van Stockum in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website about Hilda van Stockum with further links
• Information about the family / ancestors of Hilda van Stockum
• Boissevain family website