Maria Dermoût
Maria Dermoût (15 June 1888 – 27 June 1962) was an Indo-European novelist, considered one of the greats of Dutch literature and as such an important proponent of Dutch Indies literature. In December 1958 Time magazine praised the translation of Maria Dermoût's The Ten Thousand Things, and named it one of the best books of the year. Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker wrote:
BiographyHelena Anthonia Maria Elisabeth Ingerman was born on 15 June 1888 on a sugar plantation[2] in Pati, Java, Dutch East Indies, and educated in the Netherlands. She wrote in Dutch. After completing her education she returned to Java, where she married Issac Johannes Dermoût and became known as Maria Dermoût. She travelled extensively across Java and the Moluccas with her husband. In 1933 her husband retired, and the couple settled in the Netherlands. Maria Dermoût was widowed in 1952. Maria Dermoût died in The Hague on 27 June 1962. She is the subject of the biography Geheim Indië. Het leven van Maria Dermoût 1888-1962 ("The Secret East Indies. The Life of Maria Dermoût 1888-1962") in 2000 by the Indo-European (Dutch-Indonesian) author Kester Freriks. Body of workDermoût turned to writing early in life, but remained largely unpublished until she was 63.[2] She wrote two novels, both of which were not published until she was in her sixties: The Ten Thousand Things (De tienduizend dingen, 1955) and Days Before Yesterday — also published as Just Yesterday (Nog pas gisteren, 1951).[3] There are English translations of her novels by Hans Koning. Some of her short stories were published in translation in magazines such as Vogue during the 1960s. In Dutch, five short-story collections by her were also published. She is viewed as one of the giants among Dutch-Indies literary writers, and The Ten Thousand Things in particular is widely regarded as an idiosyncratic masterpiece. The book has been translated into thirteen languages. As Hans Koning puts it in his Introduction to the New York Review Books edition of the novel:
Although not conventionally autobiographical, both of her novels draw from events in Dermoût's own life. Like the central character in The Ten Thousand Things, Dermoût lost her son in violent circumstances (he died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp). The reminiscences of Javanese childhood experiences described in Days Before Yesterday are based on, but do not mirror, her own childhood in the tropics. Author Oek de Jong appropriately wrote:
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