Maria Dermoût (15 June 1888 – 27 June 1962) was an Indo-European novelist, considered one of the greats of Dutch literature and as such an important proponent of Dutch Indies literature. In December 1958 ''Time'' magazine praised the translation of Maria Dermoût's '' The Ten Thousand Things'', and named it one of the best books of the year. Whitney Balliett of ''The New Yorker'' wrote:

''"Mrs. Dermout, in the manner of Thoreau and the early Hemingway, is an extraordinary sensualist. ..in passages of a startling, unadorned, three-dimensional clarity; often one can almost touch what she describes."''

Biography

Helena Anthonia Maria Elisabeth Ingerman was born on 15 June 1888 on a sugar plantation in Pati,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, and educated in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She wrote in Dutch. After completing her education she returned to

, where she married Issac Johannes Dermoût and became known as Maria Dermoût. She travelled extensively across Java and the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

with her husband. In 1933 her husband retired, and the couple settled in the Netherlands. Maria Dermoût was widowed in 1952. Maria Dermoût died in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

on 27 June 1962. She is the subject of the

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

''Geheim Indië. Het leven van Maria Dermoût 1888-1962'' ("The Secret East Indies. The Life of Maria Dermoût 1888-1962") in 2000 by the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

(Dutch-Indonesian) author Kester Freriks.

Body of work

Dermoût turned to writing early in life, but remained largely unpublished until she was 63. She wrote two novels, both of which were not published until she was in her sixties: '' The Ten Thousand Things'' (''De tienduizend dingen'', 1955) and ''Days Before Yesterday'' — also published as ''Just Yesterday'' (''Nog pas gisteren'', 1951). There are English translations of her novels by Hans Koning. Some of her

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

were published in translation in magazines such as '' Vogue'' during the 1960s. In Dutch, five short-story collections by her were also published. She is viewed as one of the giants among Dutch-Indies literary writers, and ''The Ten Thousand Things'' in particular is widely regarded as an idiosyncratic masterpiece. The book has been translated into thirteen languages. As Hans Koning puts it in his Introduction to the New York Review Books edition of the novel:

"Dermoût was sui generis, a case all her own. She did not write about her Indies as a Dutch woman, or as a Javanese or an Ambonese. Hers was a near-compassionate disdain for the dividing lines, the hatreds and the fears ... She ''painted'' landscapes,
still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...
s and people in a world of myth and mystery."

Although not conventionally

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

, both of her novels draw from events in Dermoût's own life. Like the central character in ''The Ten Thousand Things'', Dermoût lost her son in violent circumstances (he died in a Japanese

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

). The reminiscences of Javanese childhood experiences described in ''Days Before Yesterday'' are based on, but do not mirror, her own childhood in the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

Author Oek de Jong appropriately wrote:

''"Still, Maria Dermoût an author for the happy few. Is she a writer's writer? Certainly not. She is a storyteller par excellence. Her stories are subtle, but they are also accessible. Nonetheless she remains an author for the happy few, equal to the greats of Dutch prose, but much less known than they are. There are many reasons for her modest literary reputation: her own modesty, the small body of her work, the brevity of her literary career. But it is mainly her work itself that is the cause. It possesses something that wards off hordes of readers, yet still manages to attract a handful, who then embrace it and spread the word of its exquisite nature. The shell seekers among the readers, the slow walkers, those who stop and turn and bend over to pick up that one beautiful shell - they recognize her extraordinary work."''Jong, Oek de. ''Oek de Jong leest Maria Dermoût.'' (Amsterdam, 2005) P.7-

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References

External links

Maria Dermout website.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dermout, Maria 1888 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Dutch East Indies people People from Pekalongan Indonesian women novelists Novelists from the Dutch East Indies Indonesian people of Dutch descent Indo people 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch women writers Dutch women novelists 20th-century Indonesian women writers