Jan Andries Blokker Sr. (27 May 1927 – 6 July 2010) was a Dutch journalist, columnist, publicist, writer, and amateur historian. In The Netherlands, Blokker was best known for his columns in ''

De Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...

'', which he wrote between 1968 and 2006.

Biography

Blokker, born in the Admiralenbuurt in Amsterdam, grew up in a

social liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

family. His father was office clerk. At the age of seven, he and his father weekly visited the Cineac theatre for the Polygoon newsreel. Blokker went to the HBS on the

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

. In 1944, after getting his gymnasium-

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

diploma, he went on to study '' Neerlandistiek'' and history. He never completed them. In 1950, Blokker made his debut as a novelist with the novelle ''Séjour'', for which he won the Reina Prinsen Geerligs Award. Two more novels followed, ''Bij dag en ontij'' (1952) and ''Parijs, dode stad'' (1954). In 1952, Blokker became student reporter for the Dutch newspaper ''

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' ...

''. After a while,

Simon Carmiggelt Simon Carmiggelt (; 7 October 191330 November 1987) was a Dutch writer, journalist, and poet who became a well known public figure in the Netherlands because of his daily newspaper columns and his television appearances. Biography Simon Johannes ...

asked him to write film reviews. In 1954 he became film critic at ''

Algemeen Handelsblad ''Algemeen Handelsblad'' was a Dutch daily newspaper founded in 1828 by stockbroker . Originally liberal, economically focused, and Amsterdam-based, the paper merged in 1970 with the ''Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant'' to form ''NRC Handelsblad''. H ...

''. At the art section of the newspaper, he met important Dutch writers like

Henk Hofland Hendrik Johannes Adrianus "Henk" Hofland (; 20 July 1927 – 21 June 2016), also commonly known as H.J.A. Hofland, was a Dutch journalist, commentator, essayist, and columnist. He is often referred to as the éminence grise of Dutch journalism. I ...

and

Harry Mulisch Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch (; 29 July 192730 October 2010) was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into 38 languages so far. Along with Willem Fre ...

. Blokker was also a screenwriter, who wrote the scripts for films like ''

Fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets (including fanfare trumpets), French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introdu ...

'' by

Bert Haanstra Albert Haanstra (; 31 May 1916 – 23 October 1997) was a Dutch director of films and documentaries. His documentary ''Glass'' (1958) won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. His feature film '' Fanfare'' (1958) was the ...

(1958) and '' Makkers Staakt uw Wild Geraas'' by

Fons Rademakers Alphonse Marie "Fons" Rademakers (5 September 1920 – 22 February 2007) was a Dutch actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. Career His 1960 film '' Makkers Staakt uw Wild Geraas'' was entered into the 11th Berlin International F ...

(1960) and ''

Monsieur Hawarden ''Monsieur Hawarden'' is a 1968 Belgian-Dutch drama film directed by Harry Kümel. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film is an adapta ...

'' (1969). He was also one of the people behind the satirical VARA TV-program ''Zo is het toevallig ook nog eens een keer'' (1963–1964). At another broadcasting organisation,

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for ''Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep'', lit. 'Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcaster', nowadays known as ''Omroepvereniging VPRO'') is a Netherlands, Dutch Public broadcasting, public broadca ...

, he became editor in chief. He was partly responsible for the revolutionary course that organisation took. He also provided VPRO's documentaries with commentary. From 1968 on, he worked for ''

'' as a columnist. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was seen as the voice of the intellectual left, specialized in satirical pieces about politics, current affairs and whatever was fashionable with the left-wing readers of the newspaper. Between 1978 and 1983, he was adjunct editor in chief at the newspaper. He wrote the column until 2006, when a conflict forced him to leave the newspaper. He continued his column for ''

nrc.next ''NRC Next'' (; stylized as ''nrc•next'') was a Dutch daily newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis. The first edition was released on 14 March 2006. It was stopped in March 2021. ''NRC Next'' was a morning edition tabloid, and its ...

''.

References

External links

Author's page
on website

Uitgeverij De Harmonie De Harmonie is a Dutch publishing company best known today as the publisher of the Harry Potter series of books since the 1990s, though their largest success didn't come until the 2000s and since 14 February 2008 they are located on Herengracht in ...

List of works at the Digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren

Volkskrant January 21, 2007: Machiavelliprijs for Jan Blokker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blokker, Jan 1927 births 2010 deaths Dutch journalists Dutch columnists Dutch political writers 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch screenwriters Dutch male screenwriters Writers from Amsterdam