Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager (26 August 1935, in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

– 18 March 1992, in Rotterdam), who generally published with only his initials as C. B. Vaandrager, was a Dutch writer and poet who lived and worked in Rotterdam. Later he came to be known simply by the shortened version of his name as Vaan. Vaandrager was a leading writer, along with Hans Sleutelaar and

Armando Armando may refer to: * Armando (given name) * Armando (artist) (1929–2018), the name used by Dutch artist Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd * Armando (producer) Armando Gallop (sometimes written as Armando Gallup) (February 12, 1970 – December 17, ...

, in the group of experimental Dutch writers called ''De Zestigers'' (The Sixtiers), who were preceded by '' De Vijftigers''.

Life and work

Youth, education and early career

Vaandrager was born in the Pretorialaan in southern Rotterdam in 1935. His father was a postman and van driver, his mother a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

. The family moved when he was six to the Brielselaan, where he grew up. He was a brilliant student at the Charlois Lyceum, where he received a straight A at his exam for his Greek translations of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

. The principal urged him to go on to university, but Vaandrager opted to become a trendsetting poet, writer and artist. After his

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

Vaandrager started working as

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...

for a local newspaper, and later for some publicity agencies. In the new paper ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

'' he published his first children's story in 1958. He joined the artistic scene, taking part in the café night life with his school friend Hans Sleutelaar and such emerging pop artists as Woody van Amen and Daan van Golden. Late in the 1950s, together with Sleutelaar and painter-poet

, he joined the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of editors, writers, and other people who are charged with implementing a publication's approach to editorials and other opinion pieces. The editorials published normally represent the views or goals of the publicat ...

of the Flemish-Dutch literary magazine ''Gard Sivik'' (1955–64), which was then relocated from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

to Rotterdam. Later the three were joined by the poet

Hans Verhagen Hans Verhagen (3 March 1939 – 10 April 2020) was a Dutch journalist, poet, painter and filmmaker, born in Vlissingen. He gained the P. C. Hooft Award in 2009 "for his humour, his engagement, his poetic daring and whimsy."coming of age story In genre studies, a coming-of-age story is a genre of literature, theatre, film, and video game that focuses on the growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood, or "coming of age". Coming-of-age stories tend to emphasize dialogue or interna ...

, ''Leve Joop Massaker'' (Long Live Joop Massaker), which was compared by critics to novels by

Gerard Reve Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (14 December 1923 – 8 April 2006) was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he i ...

and

Hugo Claus Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (; 5 April 1929 – 19 March 2008) was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, novels, and poetry; he also lef ...

. A year later came his poetry debut, ''Met andere ogen'' (With other eyes). With those works he established his name as a promising local literary talent. Vaandrager set his face against literary pretension and identified his work with the "dislocating, raw city mentality of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and New Wave". In the preface to his 1967 collection of poems (''Gedichten'') he claimed "not to give a shit about poetry". Like several others in his generation, he took inspiration from

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

’s concept of the

readymade A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have ...

. At the heart of his "Dutch Railways", for example, there is a railway schedule, given context by the opening line "Tanya, it's up to you" and those following the train times: "Say hello to Amsterdam/ and no messing around". The poem tells a story without descending into the anecdotal. Similarly, in "Tourist Traffic" the mind plays over three statements that juxtapose a river in motion and a moving bridge in "Fluent Dutch/ Fluent English and/ Fluent German". The element of collage also carried over into Vaandrager's 1970s prose works, including the highly autobiographical documentary novels: ''De reus van Rotterdam: Stadsgeheimen'' (The Rotterdam Giant, 1971) and ''De hef'' (The Head, 1975), detailing the city's musical and literary scene during the sixties. The two works were later issued together in 2002. Another such work from the same period, the 'street-collage' ''Sleutels'' (Keys, 2012) was only published posthumously.

Later decline and death

Vaandrager's life was now going downhill. Drug use began to dominate his life, as a result of which he became labelled as "the junky writer". With severe clinical depression, he sometimes spent months in a psychiatric hospital. In 1981 he was awarded the Anna Blaman Prize from the Prince Bernhard Fund for his entire work. Afterwards Vaandrager published only a few poetry collections, including ''Metalon'' (1987) and ''Sampleton'' (1990). As a wandering eccentric, Vaandrager died lonely in 1992 at the age of 56.Reinjan Mulder.
Drie Rotterdamse dichters herdacht op Poetry festival
" ''NRC Handelsblad,'' Rotterdam, 1992/06/13, p. 7.

Publications

Poetry

* ''Met andere ogen'' (1961) * ''Gedichten'',

De Bezige Bij De Bezige Bij ("the busy bee") is one of the most important literary publishing companies in the Netherlands. History The company was founded illegally in 1943, during the German occupation of the Netherlands by ; its first publication was a po ...

, Amsterdam, 1967 * ''Martin, waarom hebbe de giraffe... '', Rotterdam, 1973 * ''Totale poëzie'', De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam,1981 * ''In staat van oproer, Rotturdamse gedigte'', Rotterdam, 1987. * ''Metalon'', De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 1987 * ''Sampleton'', De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam,1990 * ''Made in Rotterdam'' (collected poems), Amsterdam, 2008

Prose

* ''Leve Joop Massaker'' (1960) * ''De avonturen van Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager I'', 1963 * ''De reus van Rotterdam'' (1971) * ''De Hef'' (1975) * ''Sleutels – a 'street-collage, (2012) * ''De Ramblers gaan uit vissen'' – collected stories, incorporating ''Leve Joop Massaker'' (2017) ; Publications about Vaandrager * "C.B. Vaandrager Special". In: ''Passionate'', jrg. 9 (2002) nr. 2 (March–April) * Erik Brus ed. ''Vaan nu. C.B. Vaandrager met andere ogen''. Rotterdam, Studio Kers, 2017. * Menno Schenke: ''Vaan. Het bewogen bestaan van C.B. Vaandrager'' (biography). Amsterdam, De Bezige Bij, 2005

References

External links

Biographies, works and texts
at the Digital Library for Dutch Arts (dbnl) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaandrager, Cornelis Bastiaan 1935 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch novelists