Anne de Vries (22 May 1904 – 29 November 1964) was a Dutch

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

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, ...

, particularly famous in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

for his

novels A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

of regional life. Born in the village of Kloosterveen near Assen, de Vries married Alida Gerdina van Wermeskerken in 1930 and the couple had five children. In 1972, de Vries gained national recognition when his novel '' Bartje'' was made into a television series by

Willy van Hemert Willy van Hemert (29 March 1912 – 26 June 1993) was a Dutch actor and theatre and television director, but is best known as a songwriter who penned two winning Dutch songs for the Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Van Hemert was born in Utre ...

. The personnage of Bartje subsequently came to symbolize the Dutch province of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nove ...

. De Vries wrote a number of regional novels, most famously the coming-of-age novel ''Bartje'' and then ''Bartje Seeks Happiness''. He also wrote ''

Journey through the Night ''Journey Through the Night'' ( Dutch: ''Reis door de nacht'') is a novel, originally in four volumes published from 1951 to 1958, by Dutch author Anne de Vries. The novel centers around the representation of the Second World War in the Nether ...

'', a children's book about

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

which was published in four volumes between 1951 and 1958. His Bartje books may be considered ''

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...

e''.Biografie Anne de Vries verschenen 2010
/ref> De Vries died, aged 60, in

Zeist Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 8 ...

Selected works

* ''Jongens van de straat'', 1934 * ''Bartje'', 1935 * ''De stroper'', 1935 * ''Jaap en Gerdientje'', 1937 * ''Op de grote heide'', 1937 * ''De grote veenbrand'', 1937 * ''Groot vertelboek voor de Bijbelse geschiedenis'', 1938 * ''Verhalen voor Kersttijd'', 1948 * ''Honderd vertellingen uit de bijbel'', 1949 * ''Het boek van Jan Willem'', 1950 * ''Reis door de nacht'', 1951–1958 * ''De ring van de profeet'' (Anne de Vries and Jan Fabricius), 1952 * ''Kinderkleurbijbel (Oude testament)'', 1961 * ''Twee meisjes in de tropen'' 1964

References

1904 births 1964 deaths Dutch writers People from Assen {{family name hatnote, de Vries, Vries, lang=Dutch