J. Slauerhoff
| J. Slauerhoff | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 15 September 1898 Leeuwarden, Netherlands |
| Died | 5 October 1936 (aged 38) Hilversum, Netherlands |
| Pen name | John Ravenswood (only occasionally) |
| Occupation | Poet, novelist, general practitioner, ship's doctor |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Education | Medicine |
| Alma mater | Amsterdam Municipal University |
| Period | 1918–36 |
| Notable works | Soleares (poetry), The Forbidden Kingdom (prose) |
| Notable awards | C.W. van der Hoogtprijs 1934 for Soleares |
| Spouse | Darja Collin (1930–1935) |
| Children | 1 (stillborn) |
Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (1898–1936), who published as J. Slauerhoff, was a Dutch poet and novelist. He is considered one of the most important Dutch language writers.
Slauerhoff was born fifth in a family of six children and raised in a moderately orthodox-protestant middle class environment in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. He suffered from bouts of asthma, especially during his childhood years; to alleviate his condition, Slauerhoff stayed on the island of Vlieland a couple of times during the summer months with relatives of his mother's.
Slauerhoff attended HBS (secondary school) in Harlingen, where he first met fellow future writer Simon Vestdijk. In 1916, Slauerhoff moved to Amsterdam to read medicine. While at the university, he wrote his first poems; his debut as a poet was in the Communist magazine De Nieuwe Tijd. He edited the Amsterdam student magazine Propria Cures from 1919 to 1920. In 1919, Slauerhoff became engaged to a Dutch language student, Truus de Ruyter. In 1921 he joined the staff of the literary magazine Het Getij and later that of De Vrije Bladen; in this period he became acquainted with poets Hendrik Marsman and Hendrik de Vries.
He took a confrontative stance towards conventional student life, taking on a bohemian role modelled on his French symbolist poet heroes Baudelaire, Verlaine, Corbière, and Rimbaud.
His first collection of verse, Archipel ("Archipelago"), was published in 1923, by which time he had broken off his engagement to De Ruyter because he felt he was not ready for long-time commitment. That same year, 1923, Slauerhoff graduated from university.
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