Gerrit Krol (1 August 1934 − 24 November 2013) was a Dutch
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
,
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
ist and
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
. He studied
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and worked with
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
and some of its operating units as computer programmer and system designer. Krol's debut consisted of poems published in 1961 in various Dutch literary magazines. In 1962 his first book ''De rokken van Joy Scheepmaker'' was published. Thereafter, he developed a typical writing style consisting of text mingled with abstract thoughts expressed in drawings and mathematical equations. His novel ''Het gemillimeterde hoofd'' is typical for this Krollesque style.
In 1986 Krol received the
Constantijn Huygens Prize
The Constantijn Huygens Prize (Dutch: ''Constantijn Huygens-prijs'') is a Dutch literary award.P. C. Hooft Award - the highest Dutch Governmental award for literature - for his complete oeuvre. On 20 October 2005, the 125th anniversary of the Amsterdam Free University, Krol received a
Doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
Honoris causa
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
from this university.
Published works
*''De rokken van Joy Scheepmaker'', 1962
*''Kwartslag'', 1964
*''De zoon van de levende stad'', 1966
*''Het gemillimeterde hoofd'' (English translation: ''The Cropped Head''), 1967
*''De ziekte van Middleton'', 1969
*''De laatste winter'', 1970
*''APPI'', (essay) 1971
*''De man van het lateraal denken'', (essay) 1971
*''De chauffeur verveelt zich'', 1973
*''In dienst van de 'Koninklijke''', 1974
*''Hoe ziet ons gevoel er uit?'', essay 1974
*''De gewone man en het geluk of Waarom het niet goed is lid van een vakbond te zijn'', (essays) 1975
*''Halte opgeheven'', (short stories) 1976
*''Polaroid'', (
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
) 1976
*''De weg naar Sacramento'', 1977
*''Over het huiselijk geluk en andere gedachten'', (columns) 1978
*''De t.v.-b.h.'', (columns) 1979
*''Een Fries huilt niet'', 1980
*''De schrijver, zijn schaamte en zijn spiegels'', (essay) 1981
*''De man achter het raam'', 1982
*''Het vrije vers'', (essays) 1982
*''Scheve levens'', 1983
*''De schriftelijke natuur'', (essays) 1985
*''Maurits en de feiten'', 1986
*''Bijna voorjaar'', (
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s) 1986
*''De weg naar Tuktoyaktuk'', 1987
*''De schoonheid van de witregel'', (essays) 1987
*''Helmholtz' paradijs'', (essays) 1987
*''Een ongenode gast'', 1988
*''De Hagemeijertjes'', 1990
*''Voor wie kwaad wil'', (essay) 1990
*''Wat mooi is moeilijk'', (essays) 1991
*''Oude foto's'', (short stories) 1992
*''Wat mooi is is moeilijk'', (essays) 1992
*''Omhelzingen'', 1993
*''Okoka's Wonderpark'', 1994
*''De mechanica van het liegen'', (essays) 1995
*''Middleton's dood'', 1996
*''De kleur van Groningen'', (poetry) 1997
*''60000 uur'', (
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...