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Jan de Hartog (April 22, 1914 – September 22, 2002) was a Dutch playwright, novelist and occasional social critic who moved to the United States in the early 1960s and became a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
.


Biography


Early years

Jan de Hartog was born to a Dutch
Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
Minister and professor of theology, Arnold Hendrik, and his wife, Lucretia de Hartog (who herself was a lecturer in medieval mysticism), in 1914. He was raised in the city of Haarlem, the Netherlands. At around the age of 11, he ran away to become a cabin boy, otherwise referred to as a "sea mouse" on board a Dutch fishing boat. His father had him brought home, but shortly afterwards, Jan ran off to sea again. The experiences thus gained became material for some of his future novels, as many of his life experiences did. At 16, he briefly attended the Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart in Amsterdam, a training college for the Dutch merchant marine but was only there for a year. Per his own account, he was expelled, and told emphatically by his angry schoolmaster, "This school is not for pirates!"The Quaker Liar
.
De Hartog was a coal shoveler on the night shifts with the Amsterdam Harbor Police until 1932. As he often had time on his hands, he began to write here. While employed as skipper of a tour boat on the Amsterdam Canals, he wrote several mysteries featuring Inspector Gregor Boyarski of the Amsterdam Harbor Police. At this time he used a pseudonym "F. R. Eckmar" (which is euphemistically translatable as "whatever." The literal meaning of is ''drop dead'', and it is commonly used like the English expression ''go and jump in the lake'') for these works which ("luckily", according to the author himself) were never translated into English. His theater career began in the late 1930s at the Amsterdam Municipal Theater, where he acted in and wrote a play.


World War II

De Hartog's career as a writer, as well as his personal life, was decisively influenced by a coincidence that occurred during World War II. In May 1940, just ten days before
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
invaded and swiftly occupied the hitherto-neutral Netherlands, de Hartog published his book ''Hollands Glorie'' (''Holland's Glory'', translated much later into English as '' Captain Jan''). The novel described the life of the highly skilled sailors on ocean-going
tugboats A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
, a specialized field of nautical enterprise in which the Dutch have always taken the lead. Without saying it in so many words, de Hartog portrayed the sailors—doing a difficult, dangerous and poorly rewarded job—as the modern successors to the bold navigators of the
Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and art and ...
. In fact, the book's plot as such had nothing political, anti-German or anti-Nazi, the sailor protagonists' conflict being mainly with nature and with their highly paternalistic and authoritarian (and thoroughly Dutch) employers. Nevertheless, for a country undergoing the shock of invasion and occupation, the book with its outspoken assertion of and pride in Dutch identity became a bestseller in the occupied Netherlands and a focus of popular opposition to the Nazi occupation. As a result, the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
took a lively interest in de Hartog himself, who had joined the non-military Dutch resistance movement, performing/writing plays while assisting in the concealment and relocation of Jewish babies to avoid having them sent to concentration camps. His book was banned, and he was forced into hiding, assuming the identity of an elderly woman in a nursing home. Eventually, he staged a difficult and adventure-filled escape to England.WeberStudies Volume 4.1 - Spring 1987
/ref> His book became the best selling novel of the war years in the Netherlands. In London, he became deeply involved in the community of the exiled Dutch sailors. The exiles worked with their British allies, often going on dangerous missions, with inadequately armed (or sometimes, completely unarmed) boats. He joined the Netherlands merchant navy as a correspondent in 1943, and later served as a ship's captain for which he received the Netherlands' "Cross of Merit". This experience served as the background to several of his later books such as ''
The Captain ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' and ''Stella''. ''Stella'' was made into a movie, starring
Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
,
Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...
, and
William Holden William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
under the title ''The Key''; it also started de Hartog on the route to becoming a
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campai ...
, which later culminated when he joined the
Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
(Quakers).


After World War II

De Hartog had many hesitations about authorizing the translation of ''Hollands Glorie'' into English, and when he finally did in 1947, the English version (entitled ''Captain Jan'') did not have as much success as the Dutch original. However, in the wake of the war, he made the decision to remain in the UK. He also made the professional decision to write most of his later works in English, beginning with ''The Lost Sea'' (1951), which was a fictional account of his experiences working aboard ship as a boy, colloquially called a "sea mouse." Precisely because in the war years he had been regarded as close to a national hero, quite a few people in the Netherlands resented this decision to write in English and felt betrayed and abandoned by him. While the sales of his books in the English-speaking world soared, his reputation in his own homeland took somewhat of a plunge, which took years to repair. For his part, de Hartog continued to regard himself as—and take pride in being—a Dutchman, and many of his later books had Dutch protagonists and themes. Indeed, for many people outside the Netherlands, these books became a major source of information about Dutch society, culture and modern history. In 1952, while visiting New York, he encountered a play he had written while still in hiding during the war, and had sold the rights to while in England. The play was called '' The Fourposter''. A ''New York Times'' reviewer called it "the most civilized comedy we have had on marriage for years." It went on to win de Hartog a
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
at the 6th annual Tony Awards Show for Best Play. Columbia Pictures also made ''The Fourposter'' into a partially animated movie, starring
Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play '' French Without Tears'', in wh ...
and Lilli Palmer. The scenes from the play were linked by cartoon sequences between them. The film was nominated for both, a
Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...
and an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for its cinematography. Later, in 1966, it became the musical '' I Do! I Do!''. The play also appeared under its original name at the Theatre New Brunswick in 1974. Jan and Marjorie de Hartog took a 90-foot Dutch ship (called ''The Rival'') and transformed it into a houseboat which they made their home. During the severe floods in the Netherlands of 1953, ''The Rival'' was transformed into a floating hospital, which de Hartog wrote about in ''The Little Ark''.


Moving to America

In the late 50s the de Hartogs decided to take ''The Rival'' to the US, on the deck of a freighter. They had difficulty locating a dock with cranes large enough to lift the houseboat from the freighter, but eventually made for Houston, Texas. They decided they liked it there, and stayed. While Jan was out lecturing at the University of Houston on playwriting, Marjorie was looking for community volunteer opportunities for both of them to participate in. She decided on Jefferson Davis County Hospital. Conditions there were bad at that time, and with the hospital being significantly underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded, showed no sign of getting better. Jan decided to document the conditions there, resulting in the non-fiction memoir ''The Hospital'' (1964), which exposed the awful conditions of Houston's charity hospitals in the 1960s. The book received a national response, but also a local response in which, within a week of the book's release, nearly four hundred citizens volunteered at the hospital. It led to significant reforms of the city's indigent healthcare system through the creation of the
Harris County Hospital District The Harris Health System, previously the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, includin ...
. It also led, however, to considerable hostility and many anonymous threats, which finally forced the de Hartogs to move back to Europe. In 1967 de Hartog wrote ''
The Captain ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', which revisited his love of the sea, featuring a central character based loosely on himself called Martinus Harinxma, who had first appeared in ''The Lost Sea'' (1951). The book was a success, and Martinus would live on as a central character in several sequels. Before starting work on the second in the Martinus series, Jan wrote of the experience of adopting his two daughters, who were
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
orphans, in ''The Children'', which appeared in 1969. He afterwards wrote a fictionalised account of the origin of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). '' The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga'' of 1972, was nominated for the Nobel Prize, and was followed eight years later by a Quaker novel, ''The Lamb's War'' (1980). In 1985, Jan de Hartog was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree from
Whittier College Whittier College (Whittier Academy (1887–1901)) is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. It is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and, as of fall 2022, had approximately 1,300 (undergraduate and graduate) students. It was ...
. He published the next book in the Martinus series, ''The Commodore'', in 1986, while living in "The Walled Garden" in Somerset, England, and it was followed by ''The Centurion'' (1989), which explored an interest that he and his wife had become involved in:
dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...
. In the novel, Martinus Harinxma dabbled with dowsing and was led on a journey that followed in the footsteps of a Roman centurion. The real story, in terms of researching and writing this book, was not much different from the book itself, with the exception of fictional elements used to carry the story along. In 1993, Jan and Marjorie returned to Houston with minimum publicity, to a much improved atmosphere. Shortly afterward, he returned to the Quaker theme to write the last in the series, ''The Peculiar People'' in 1992. This was followed by his last fully completed novel, ''The Outer Buoy: A Story of the Ultimate Voyage'' in 1994, which was once again a Martinus Harinxma novel, which expressed quite clearly Jan de Hartog's own fascination with becoming old, a fascination with inner explorations of the mind, and perhaps even a desire to rest. In 1996, Jan de Hartog was chosen to be honored as the annual "Special Guest" at the
Netherlands Film Festival The Netherlands Film Festival ( nl, Nederlands Film Festival) is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht. During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Be ...
. Six years later in 2002 Jan de Hartog died at the age of 88. Appropriately, his ashes were taken to sea on an ocean-going tugboat, the SMITWIJS SINGAPORE, and scattered on the surface of the sea at position 52.02.5 N – 04.05.0 E at 13.10 hrs LT by his wife, Marjorie, and his son, Nick, while other family members spread flowers at the site.Biography of Jan de Hartog
in the ''Daily Shipping Newsletter''
A few years later, Marjorie de Hartog decided to collate and edit a short story that her husband had been working on some time ago, in the hope of releasing it in his memory. ''A View of the Ocean'' was published in 2007, and was the story, in essence, of Jan de Hartog's own mother's death, which reveals his first contact with Quakers.


Media

Jan de Hartog wrote many of his plays, books, and magazine articles in Dutch. Some of his plays and books were adapted as movies. It is the intent of this section to document those of his works that were published in English (including some translated from the original Dutch versions by other parties).


Books


Fiction

* * * (also published as ''Stella'' and ''The Key'') * * * * ''The Inspector'' (1960) * ''The Artist'' (1963) * * '' The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga'' (1971) * * ''The Trail of the Serpent'' * ''Star of Peace'' (1983) * ''Het Helig Experiment'' (1983) * * ''The Centurion: A Novel'' (1989) * ''The Peculiar People'' (1992) * * ''The Flight of the Henny'' * ''The Call of the Sea''


= Stories appearing in Reader's Digest Condensed Books

= See also
Reader's Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine '' Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a ...
. * ''Mission to Borneo'' in Volume 30 - Summer 1957 * ''Duel with a Witch Doctor'' in Volume 31 - Autumn 1957 * *


Non-fiction

* * * * * * (released posthumously)


Adaptations of his works


Movies

'' The Four Poster (1952)'' - 1hr 43min — Directed by Irving G. Reis * Based on the play '' The Fourposter''. * Won Venice International Film Festival — Volpi Cup for Best Actress ( Lilli Palmer) * Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Cinematography — Black and white (
Hal Mohr Hal Mohr, A.S.C. (August 2, 1894 in San Francisco – May 10, 1974 in Santa Monica, California) was a famed movie cinematographer who won an Oscar for his work on the 1935 film, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. He was awarded another Oscar for '' ...
) * Nominated - Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) at the
26th Academy Awards The 26th Academy Awards were held on March 25, 1954, simultaneously at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood (hosted by Fredric March), and the NBC Century Theatre in New York City (hosted by Donald O'Connor). The second national telecast of ...
(
Hal Mohr Hal Mohr, A.S.C. (August 2, 1894 in San Francisco – May 10, 1974 in Santa Monica, California) was a famed movie cinematographer who won an Oscar for his work on the 1935 film, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. He was awarded another Oscar for '' ...
) '' The Key (1958)'' - 2hrs 1 min — Directed by
Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...
* Based on the novel ''Stella'' * with
William Holden William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
and
Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
* Won a British Academy Award for Best British Actor (
Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...
) ''
The Spiral Road ''The Spiral Road'' is a 1962 American adventure-drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Rock Hudson, Burl Ives, Gena Rowlands, and Geoffrey Keen. The film was released by Universal-International in the United States in 1962, the sa ...
(1962)'' - 2hrs 25min - Directed by
Robert Mulligan Robert Patrick Mulligan (August 23, 1925 – December 20, 2008) was an American director and producer. He is best known for his humanist dramas, including ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1962), '' Summer of '42'' (1971), ''The Other'' (1972), '' Same ...
* Based on the novel of the same name. * starring
Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Gold ...
and
Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...
'' Lisa (1962)'' - 1hr 52min - Directed by Philip Dunne * Based on the novel, ''The Inspector'' * Released as ''The Inspector'' in the United Kingdom * starring Dolores Hart, Stephen Boyd and
Donald Pleasence Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He began his career on stage in the West End before transitioning into a screen career, where he played numerous supporting and character roles including RAF ...
* Nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Picture - Drama" ''
The Little Ark ''The Little Ark'' is a 1972 children's film directed by James B. Clark, produced by Robert B. Radnitz for Cinema Center Films and released theatrically in the U.S. by National General Pictures. It stars Geneviève Ambas and Philip Frame as child ...
(1972)'' - 1hr 40min - Directed by James B. Clark * Based on the novel of the same name. * Nominated - Best Original Song ("Come Follow, Follow Me") at the
45th Academy Awards The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston ...
(Marsha Karlin and Fred Karlin)


Television

* ''The Fourposter'' (Play on TV) (1955) - 1hr 30min - Directed by Clark Jones and aired on NBC, July 25, 1955, as an episode of the 'Producers' Showcase Series' whose tagline reads "Bringing the best of Broadway to the 21-inch screen". * '' The Four Poster'', 1964 Australian TV play directed by
James Upshaw James Upshaw, an Australian producer and director, best known for his work in TV in the 1960s including early variety show ''The Lorrae Desmond Show'', which garnered its hostess Lorrae Desmond as the fist female recipient of the '' Gold Logie A ...


References


External links


Biography of Jan de Hartog
in the ''Daily Shipping Newsletter''

by Harrie Verstappen, whose sources include on-going collaborations with Marjorie de Hartog. It covers more in-depth articles regarding details of Mr. De Hartog's books. It is a source for some of the material found on this page.

An article by Ann Walton Sieber, which was originally published in the "Houston Press". It's a good source of information gleaned through personal contact with the De Hartogs.
An abridged version of "Jan de Hartog: A Captain on the Ocean of Light and Love"
also by Ann Sieber, includes historic photographs of Jan De Hartog provided by his wife.

*
Summary of his book: "The Hospital"
which also adds to the author biography

This is a transcript of a talk Jan de Hartog gave at Weber State College on November 17, 1986. It discusses his involvement with the Dutch Underground Theatre, along with notes regarding ''The Fourposter.'' While this is arguably not a proper biographical reference per Wikipedia guidelines, it should stand as a temporary one until conflicting or supporting references can be uncovered.
Ron Slate's review of ''A View of the Ocean''
includes de Hartog biography. * -A video, possibly of interest, (though narrated entirely in Dutch) includes old filmstock of Jan. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hartog, Jan De 1914 births 2002 deaths Converts to Quakerism 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch male writers Dutch male novelists Dutch Quakers De Hartog, Jan Writers from Haarlem De Hartog, Jan Dutch Christian pacifists