Johan Fabricius

Johan Johannes Fabricius (24 August 1899 – 21 June 1981), who published in English as Johan Wigmore Fabricius, was a Dutch writer, journalist and adventurer.

Fabricius was born in Bandung, Java. He wrote approximately 60 books, among them many books for children, including '' De Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe'' (1924), which was reprinted 28 times as of 2003.

Biography

Johan Fabricius was born in Bandung, Dutch East Indies, to Jan Fabricius and Minke Dornseiffen. His father was a journalist and playwright, which facilitated Johan's entry into the arts. He was a tall man, and had an aptitude for various arts. Until the age of fourteen he spent most of his time in the Dutch East Indies (ten years in all) and would return for brief visits throughout his life, maintaining a strong connection to the area.

His schooling was varied; he was educated in different places in the Indies and the Netherlands, and briefly in Paris, and in the fall of 1914 he enrolled in the '' Hogere Burgerschool'' in The Hague, but soon left for the ''Academie van Beeldende Kunsten'', where he showed a great talent for portraits, later illustrating his own books. The success of the series " a series of five books advertising for the ''Nederlandsche Oliefabrieken'' (since 1928 part of Unilever), was due in part to his illustrations. In 1925 he married Ruth Freudenburg, and they had three children.

After his years in The Hague, Fabricius joined the Austrian army as a war painter. He spent a few months on the Pavia front, where mostly Bosnian soldiers were engaged with Italian troops. Some of his letters home were published in the literary magazine ''De Gids''. In 1922 he managed to get ''Eiko van den Reigerhof'', his first novel, published; it had been written a few years earlier. By that time Fabricius was trying his hand as an illustrator, painter, stage actor, and costume designer. Following in his father's footsteps he wrote plays, some of which were actually staged.

His breakthrough as a writer was ''Het meisje met de blauwe hoed'', a humorous novel about a soldier's life based on his experiences in the military. The book was a commercial success, and was adapted for a movie in 1934; in 1974 it was adapted to a musical for television. His '' De scheepsjongens van Bontekoe'' (1923) was to become his best-known book; based on the real-life experiences of a 17th-century Dutch captain, Willem Bontekoe, who was shipwrecked on the way to the Indies, it became a best-seller after a slow start. The three fictional characters who set sail with Bontekoe allowed for easy identification for a young audience; a statues of the three is in the harbor of Hoorn since 1968. This book was tuned into a national award-winning feature film in 2007. Having sold an estimated 300,000 copies, the 34th edition was published in 2016.

In between work Fabricius traveled widely. In 1922 already he had visited Argentina and Paraguay. His honeymoon was a one-year long journey along the shores of the Mediterranean, and he lived in Vienna and Capri. A journey around the world in 1936 brought him back to the Indies. His experiences and impressions formed the foundation for many of his novels, which combined drama with exoticism and unusual characters, in a relaxed style full of humor and anecdotes.

The 1930s found Fabricius at the height of popularity and creativity; he produced a best-selling picaresque trilogy set in 18th-century Italy, ''Komedianten trokken voorbij'' (1931, winner of the C.W. van der Hoogt award), ''Melodie der verten'' (1932), and ''De dans om de galg'' (1934).

When World War II broke out, Fabricius was living in Antwerp with his family, and fled to England by way of Saint-Malo. In London he worked for the Dutch news department of the BBC
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