Maria Dermoût (15 June 1888 – 27 June 1962) was an

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

novelist, considered one of the greats of

Dutch literature Dutch language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, Be ...

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:

''"Mrs. Dermout, in the manner of Thoreau and the early Hemingway, is an extraordinary sensualist. ..in passages of a startling, unadorned, three-dimensional clarity; often one can almost touch what she describes."''

Biography

Dermoût was a Dutch novelist born on a sugar plantation in Pati,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, Dutch East Indies, and educated in the Netherlands, who wrote in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. After completing her education she returned to

, where she married and travelled extensively across Java and the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

with her husband. In 1933 her husband was pensioned, and the couple returned to the Netherlands. Maria Dermoût was widowed in 1952. Dermoût died in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

in 1962. She is the subject of the

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

''Geheim Indië. Het leven van Maria Dermoût 1888-1962'' ("The Secret East Indies. The Life of Maria Dermoût 1888-1962") in 2000 by the

(Dutch-Indonesian) author Kester Freriks.

Body of work

Dermoût turned to writing early in life, but remained largely unpublished until she was 63. 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). There are English translations of her novels by

Hans Koning Hans Koning (born Hans Königsberger, since 1949 officially Hans Konigsberger; July 12, 1921 – April 13, 2007) was a Dutch author of over 40 fiction and non-fiction books, was also a prolific journalist, contributing for almost 60 years to many ...

. Some of her

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

were published in translation in magazines such as ''

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'' 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 New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, Ne ...

edition of the novel:

"Dermoût was sui generis, a case all her own. She did not write about her Indies as a Dutch woman, or as a Javanese or an Ambonese. Hers was a near-compassionate disdain for the dividing lines, the hatreds and the fears ... She ''painted'' landscapes, still lifes and people in a world of myth and mystery."

Although not conventionally

autobiographical 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 ...

, both of her novels draw from Dermoût's own life. In particular, 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 A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

). The Javanese childhood experiences and reminiscences described in ''Days Before Yesterday'' are based on, but do not mirror, her own childhood in the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referr ...

Author

Oek de Jong Oebele Klaas Anne (Oek) de Jong (born 4 October 1952 in Breda) is a Dutch novelist. He debuted in 1976 with ''De hemelvaart van Massimo'', a collection of short stories for which he received the Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs. In 1980 he won th ...

appropriately wrote:

''"Still, Maria Dermoût an author for the happy few. Is she a writer's writer? Certainly not. She is a storyteller par excellence. Her stories are subtle, but they are also accessible. Nonetheless she remains an author for the happy few, equal to the greats of Dutch prose, but much less known than they are. There are many reasons for her modest literary reputation: her own modesty, the small body of her work, the brevity of her literary career. But it is mainly her work itself that is the cause. It possesses something that wards off hordes of readers, yet still manages to attract a handful, who then embrace it and spread the word of its exquisite nature. The shell seekers among the readers, the slow walkers, those who stop and turn and bend over to pick up that one beautiful shell - they recognize her extraordinary work."''Jong, Oek de. ''Oek de Jong leest Maria Dermoût.'' (Amsterdam, 2005) P.7-

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References

External links

Maria Dermout website.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dermout, Maria 1880s births 1962 deaths 20th-century Dutch East Indies people People from Pekalongan Indonesian women novelists Novelists from the Dutch East Indies Indonesian people of Dutch descent Indo people 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch women writers Dutch women novelists 20th-century Indonesian women writers