Jan Willem Hofstra

Jan Willem Hofstra (born November 13, 1907 in Amsterdam ; † March 30, 1991 ibid) was a Dutch writer, poet, journalist , singer, actor and translator of German, English and French literature into Dutch. As a television presenter, quiz master and member of numerous juries for literary and theater awards, he was one of the most influential Dutch literary and theater critics.

Singer and actor

After training as an opera singer, after which he was hired as a baritone at the Bremen Opera , he became a singer, theater and film actor, among other things he played a supporting role in the first Dutch sound film Prince Wilhelm of Orange by Jan Teulings in 1934 . Birthday of the Dutch father of the fatherland Wilhelm von Nassau-Dillenburg the silent.

Journalist and writer

From 1936 he worked for the press and propaganda department of the Dutch post, telegraph and telecommunications office. During this time he began to work as a journalist and initially wrote mainly theater reviews. As a writer he made his debut in 1940 with the novel De vrienden van mijn vrienden ("The friends of my friends"). This was followed by numerous other, mostly successful novels such as Het glazen huis ( Das Glashaus, collection of poems 1941), Bloemen voor Brenda ( Flowers for Brenda, 1960) Hemelse modder ( Heavenly Mud, 1982) and numerous others. From 1948 to 1959 he was a theater critic for de Volkskrant , then for Elsevier . He wrote in English for Time . He was also a permanent member of the Katholieke Illustratie team . He moderated art programs on television and worked as a quiz master. JW Hofstra's literary work includes more than a dozen books and novels, most of which have been translated into different languages, as well as numerous short stories, contributions to non-fiction, reviews and more.

Literary work (examples)

Jan Willem Hofstra wrote straightforward, mostly “psychological” novels and short stories, often in an artistic setting with an unmistakably Catholic background.

His novellas, which were surprisingly published as bibliophile press prints towards the end of the Second World War, are collectibles with interesting origins. De waaier ("The Fan "), illustrated by Emile Puettmann, was published in autumn 1944 "in the days of hope and fear" in 72 copies by H. Pleiter in The Hague.

The romantic novella Valken ("Falken"), which Bertram Witte (d. I. Bertram A. Th. Weihs) illustrated, was published in March 1945 in 250 copies by AAMStols on hand-made gray-blue paper in The Hague by AAMStols, an unauthorized press print .

It is about a baroness who, finally becoming a widow, rides on horseback to a neighboring estate, the neighbor fascinates her, she visits him, he is the never mentioned nephew of her deceased husband. There's a hawk on the estate. The nephew tells how he was once in love with a beautiful girl who turned out to be a slut after marriage. Caught in flagrante delicto, the falcon seriously injured her face. On her deathbed, she later stated that her husband had set the bird of prey on her. The man was then ostracized by society. In the last section of the novella, the baroness meets her neighbor again ...

At the center of his best-known novel Een man alleen (German Rumba auf Montmartre . Translated by Julie von Wattenwyl-de Gruyter, Munich 1959.) are eight city dwellers who, lonely and addicted to anesthesia and noise, feel like "human wreckage" in Parisians Find nightspots without faith, hope or love. They circle around their own ego in agonizing endlessness because they know nothing outside of this ego. The materialistic, free-spirited upbringing has thrown them defenselessly into a life that lacks meaning and purpose. They are "thrown together by the brackish water of lust on the night beach of Parisian pubs". The reader follows the unstoppable, exciting slide these people into the catastrophe.

The turning point is the senseless murder of one of her friends. Death, suddenly inexorably before them, demands a decision from each of these people.

Mediator of German literature in the Netherlands and Belgium

Jan Willem Hofstra was also a sensitive translator and mediator (as a reviewer) of English, French and German literature into Dutch. His translations from German include:

Rüdiger Syberberg : Stenen voor brood. [= «... that these stones become bread.»] Translated into Dutch by JW Hofstra. Antwerp: 't Groeit 1955.

Wolf Justin Hartmann : Het papegaaiennest. [= «The parrot's nest.»] Translated into Dutch by JW Hofstra. Amsterdam: Standaard-Boekhandel 1956.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt : Bad luck. Een verhaal, that no steeds mogelijk is. [= «The breakdown.»] Ill. By Rolf Lehmann. [Translated into Dutch by JW Hofstra]. Bilthoven: Nelissen 1958 and Naarden: Strengholt 1977.

Gudrun Tempel : Duitsers blijven Duitsers. Herontmoeting with a vaderland. [= «Germany? But where is it? Re-encounter with a fatherland. »] / [Translated into Dutch by JW Hofstra]. Brussels: Reinaert-Uitgaven 1962 and Amsterdam: Becht 1964.

Web links

• History ( memento of June 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) of the unapproved bibliophile press print of the novella Valken ("Falken") published in 1945 in the Internet archive (see section 5).

literature

• Jan Willem Hofstra: een leeven in de art. In: De Gelderlander . April 3, 1991.

• Digital library voor de Nederlandse Letteren. Catalog raisonné (with picture).