Simon Vestdijk - Bibliography (selection)

Novelist, poet, essayist, and scholar, born in Harlingen, N Netherlands. After studying medicine and working as a ship's doctor for some years, he fully engaged in writing to become one of the most prolific Dutch writers of the 20th-c with a production of 52 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 21 volumes of poetry, 18collections of essays and criticism, and many translations. In addition, he also ventured outside the field of literature with books on the theory of music, religion, philosophy, and psychology. His novels are regarded as more significant, and range from those set against a detailed historic background, such as Het vijfde zegel (1937, The Fifth Seal) and De nadagen van Pilatus (1938, The Latter Days of Pilate), to psychological novels with autobiographical elements, the best known of which are the Anton Wachter novels, a series of eight autobiographical novels about Anton's love for Ina Damman, a distant and unattainable woman. Vestdijk's entire body of work is characterized by his objective way of storytelling combined with an eye for detail and mastery of language. His prizes included the P C Hooft-prijs (1950), the Constantijn Huygensprijs (1951), and the Prize of Dutch literature (1971).

Bibliography (selection)

Kind tussen vier vrouwen (Child between four women, written 1933, first published 1972) Terug tot Ina Damman (Back to Ina Damman, 1934) Else Böhler (1935) Meneer Visser's hellevaart (Mr. Visser's perdition, 1936) De nadagen van Pilatus (The last days of Pilate, 1938) Aktaion onder de sterren (Aktaion under the stars, 1941) Ierse nachten (Irish nights, 1946) Pastorale 1943 (1948) De redding van Fré Bolderhey (Fré Bolderhey's salvation, 1948) De kellner en de levenden (The waiter and the living, 1949) De koperen tuin (The copper garden, also, The garden where the brass band played, 1950) Ivoren wachters (Ivory guardians, 1951) Het glinsterend pantser (The shining armour, 1956) De ziener (The seer, 1959) Een moderne Antonius (A modern Antonius, 1960)