Louise Sophie Blussé (pen name, D.N. Anagrapheus; 12 January 1801 – 1 April 1896) was a Dutch writer. Born in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

in 1801, Blussé was the daughter of Abraham Blussé and Jeanne Petronella Maizonnet. Her father was an editor and school inspector, and a proponent of the Walloon church. Blussé married the historian and archaeologist

Caspar Reuvens Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens (22 January 1793 – 26 July 1835) was a Dutch historian and archaeologist. He was the founding director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Dutch National Museum of Antiquities) in Leiden, the world's first ever prof ...

in Leiden on 19 July 1822. They had three children. After the death of Reuvens in 1835, Blussé lived with her parents' family in Leiden, and they collaborated on the creation of a pocket dictionary in two volumes, English-Dutch and Dutch-English, which were published in the years 1843 and 1845 respectively. Around 1860, Blussé met

Maria Leer Maria Leer (June 20, 1788 – July 3, 1866) was a prophetess and Dutch religious figure, one of the leaders of the '' Zwijndrechtse nieuwlichters'' ( Zwijndrecht New Lighters), a religious community with communist features which opposed social conv ...

(died 1866), who was living in a Leiden

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

. Leer had been one of the founders of '' Zwijndrechtse nieuwlichters'' ( Zwijndrecht New Lighters), a

Dutch Protestant The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

sect, which had established a commune within a boatbuilder's yard near Zwijndrecht earlier in the century. Blussé made notes of her conversations with Leer, and more than 25 years after Leer's death, Blussé decided to publish Leer's memoir. Using the pen name, D.N. Anagrapheus, Blussé published the work under the title ''"De Zwijndrechtsche nieuwlichters (1816-1832) volgens de gedenkschriften van Maria Leer"'', with a foreword by the

Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...

preacher Jan Hendrik Maronier (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1892). At the time of publication, Blussé was 91 years old. In an 1892 article in ''De Gids'', professor

Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack (2 July 1834 – 6 January 1917) was a Dutch jurist, legal scholar, economist and historian, who is best known for his work ''De socialisten: Personen en stelsels'' ("The socialists: persons and systems"). Biography ...

(1834-1917) stated that, based on Blussé's description, ''Zwijndrechtse nieuwlichters'' could be characterized as a form of religious communism. Blussé died in April 1896 at the age of 95 in her hometown of Leiden. The biologist and professor

Hugo de Vries Hugo Marie de Vries () (16 February 1848 – 21 May 1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of ...

was a grandson of hers.

References

External links

*
Louise Sophie Blussé
at

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blusse, Louise Sophie 1801 births 1896 deaths 19th-century Dutch writers Women religious writers People from Leiden Women memoirists 19th-century Dutch women writers