Jan de Hartog
Encyclopedia
Jan de Hartog was a Dutch playwright, novelist and occasional social critic who moved to the United States in the early 1960s and became a Quaker.
At around the age of 11, he ran away to become a cabin boy, otherwise referred to as a "sea mouse" onboard 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 Netherlands Naval College
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!"
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 'verrek maar' 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.
invaded and swiftly occupied the hitherto-neutral Netherlands
, de Hartog published his book Hollands Glorie (Holland's Glory, translated much later to English as Captain Jan).
The novel described the life of the highly skilled sailors on ocean-going tugboats, 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
.
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
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. His book became the best selling novel of the war years in Holland.
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 Marine as a correspondent in 1943, and later served as a ship's captain for which he received Netherland's "Cross of Merit".
This experience served as the background to several of his later books such as The Captain
and Stella (also published as The Key). The Key was made into a movie, starring Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard under the title Stella's Key
; it also started de Hartog on the route to becoming a pacifist which later culminated when he joined the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers).
Precisely because in the war years he had been regarded as close to a national hero, quite a few people in Holland 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, even after living several decades in America, and many of his later books had Dutch protagonists and themes. Indeed, for many people outside the Netherlands, these books of his 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
at the 6th annual Tony Awards Show
for Best Play
. Columbia Pictures also made The Fourposter into a partially animated movie, starring Rex Harrison
and Lili Palmer. The scenes from the play were linked by cartoon sequences between them. The film was nominated for both, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award 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 lived on. In 1953, during Holland's severe flooding, "The Rival" was transformed into a floating hospital, which de Hartog wrote about in "The Little Ark." It was entirely stripped-out and refitted with coffins.
While Jan was giving lectures in Houston regarding play writing, Marjorie was out looking for community volunteer opportunities for both of them to participate in. They found Jefferson Davis County Hospital (now the Ben Taub Memorial Hospital). Conditions at the hospital were bad at that time, and with the hospital being significantly underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded, it showed no signs of getting better.
Jan decided to document the conditions there, resulting in the historical memorial The Hospital (1964), which exposed the horrid conditions of Houston's
charity hospitals in the 1960s. The book received national response, but also a local response where, within a week of the book's release, nearly four hundred citizens volunteered at the hospital. It also led to significant reforms of that city's indigent healthcare system through the creation of the Harris County Hospital District
. It also led, however, to considerable hostility and many anonymous threats which finally forced de Hartog and his wife to move away from Houston.
In 1967, de Hartog wrote The Captain
, which again revisited his love for the sea, using a main character that was loosely based on himself, called Martinus Harinxma, who had first appeared in the previously published The Lost Sea (1951). The book was a success for de Hartog, and later Martinus would go on as a primary character for several more sequels.
Before going to work on the second of the Martinus series, Jan wrote of his experience regarding the adoption of his two daughters who were Korean War
orphans. This book, called The Children, was written in 1969. He then wrote an important semi-fictional account of the origin of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The book, The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga
, written in 1972, won him a nomination for the Nobel Prize, and was followed eight years later by another Quaker novel, called The Lamb's War in 1980.
He later released the next book of the Martinus series, entitled The Commodore (1986), while living in "The Walled Garden" in Somerset, England, followed by The Centurion in 1989, which explored an interest that he and his wife had become involved in: dowsing
. In the story, Martinus Harinxma dabbled with dowsing and was led on a journey that followed in the footsteps of a Roman Centurion from history. 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 1990, Jan and Marjorie "quietly" returned to Houston to a much improved atmosphere. Shortly afterwards he returned to the Quaker books to write the last of 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 again, was 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 year's "Special Guest" at the Netherlands Film Festival
.
Six years later, in 2002, Jan de Hartog died at the age of 88. Appropriately, his ashes were taken to sea by an ocean going tugboat, the SMITWIJS SINGAPORE, and scattered onto the surface of the sea at the coordinates 52.02.5 N – 004.05.0 E at 13.10 hrs LT, by his wife, Marjorie de Hartog, and his son, Nick de Hartog, while other family members spread flowers at the site.
A few years later, Marjorie de Hartog decided to compile and arrange a story that Jan had been working on some time ago, in the hopes of releasing it in his memory. In 2007, A View of the Ocean was released, a story, in essence about Jan de Hartog's own mother's death, and reveals his first contact with Quakers.
The Fourposter
(1952)
- 1hr 43min — Directed by Irving G. Reis
The Key
(1958)
- 2hrs 1 min — Directed by Carol Reed
The Spiral Road
(1962)
- 2hrs 25min - Directed by Robert Mulligan
Lisa
(1962)
- 1hr 52min - Directed by Philip Dunne
The Little Ark (1972)
- 1hr 40min - Directed by James B. Clark
Early years
Jan de Hartog was born to a Dutch Calvinist 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, Holland.At around the age of 11, he ran away to become a cabin boy, otherwise referred to as a "sea mouse" onboard 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 Netherlands Naval College
Royal Netherlands Naval College
The Royal Netherlands Naval College in Den Helder is the service academy of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The KIM offers a program of four or five years and also a short course of sixteen to twenty-two months...
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!"
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 'verrek maar' 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. In May 1940, just ten days before Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded and swiftly occupied the hitherto-neutral Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, de Hartog published his book Hollands Glorie (Holland's Glory, translated much later to English as Captain Jan).
The novel described the life of the highly skilled sailors on ocean-going tugboats, 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
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
.
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
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
took a lively interest in de Hartog himself, who had joined the non-military Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
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. His book became the best selling novel of the war years in Holland.
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 Marine as a correspondent in 1943, and later served as a ship's captain for which he received Netherland's "Cross of Merit".
This experience served as the background to several of his later books such as The Captain
The Captain (1967 novel)
The Captain is a 1967 novel by Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.Ocean-going tugboats, a highly specialized field of nautical enterprise in which the Dutch have always taken the lead, were the subject of De Hartog's book, "Hollands Glorie" - in which the highly skilled tugboat sailors were depicted The...
and Stella (also published as The Key). The Key was made into a movie, starring Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard under the title Stella's Key
The Key (1958 film)
The Key is a 1958 war film set in 1940 during the World War II Battle of the Atlantic. It was based on the novel Stella by Jan de Hartog.-Plot:...
; it also started de Hartog on the route to becoming a pacifist which later culminated when he joined the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers).
Beyond World War II
De Hartog had many hesitations about authorizing the translation of Hollands Glorie into English, and when finally he 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; later he relocated to the USA. 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 Holland 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, even after living several decades in America, and many of his later books had Dutch protagonists and themes. Indeed, for many people outside the Netherlands, these books of his 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
The Fourposter
The Fourposter is a 1951 play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans thirty-five years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage...
. 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
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
at the 6th annual Tony Awards Show
6th Tony Awards
The 6th Annual Tony Awards, presented by the American Theatre Wing, took place at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom, on March 30, 1952. It was broadcast on radio station WOR and the Mutual Network. The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards,...
for Best Play
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
. Columbia Pictures also made The Fourposter into a partially animated movie, starring Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
and Lili Palmer. The scenes from the play were linked by cartoon sequences between them. The film was nominated for both, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for its cinematography. Later, in 1966, it became the musical I Do! I Do!
I Do! I Do!
I Do! I Do! is a musical with a book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt which is based on the Jan de Hartog play The Fourposter. The two-character story spans fifty years, from 1895 to 1945, as it focuses on the ups and downs experienced by Agnes and Michael Snow throughout their...
. The play also appeared under its original name at the Theatre New Brunswick
Theatre New Brunswick
Theatre New Brunswick is the only professional theatre company in New Brunswick Canada. It began operation in 1968, and has been successfully operating since that time.-Artistic directors:*Walter Learning *Malcolm Black...
in 1974.
Jan and Marjorie de Hartog took a 90-foot Dutch Ship (called "The Rival") and transformed it into a houseboat which they lived on. In 1953, during Holland's severe flooding, "The Rival" was transformed into a floating hospital, which de Hartog wrote about in "The Little Ark." It was entirely stripped-out and refitted with coffins.
Moving to America
In the late 50's the de Hartogs decided to take "The Rival" to the USA, via the deck of a freighter. There was difficulty in locating a dock with hooks large enough to lift the houseboat from the freighter, until they found Houston, Texas. They decided they liked it there, and stayed.While Jan was giving lectures in Houston regarding play writing, Marjorie was out looking for community volunteer opportunities for both of them to participate in. They found Jefferson Davis County Hospital (now the Ben Taub Memorial Hospital). Conditions at the hospital were bad at that time, and with the hospital being significantly underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded, it showed no signs of getting better.
Jan decided to document the conditions there, resulting in the historical memorial The Hospital (1964), which exposed the horrid conditions of Houston's
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
charity hospitals in the 1960s. The book received national response, but also a local response where, within a week of the book's release, nearly four hundred citizens volunteered at the hospital. It also led to significant reforms of that city's indigent healthcare system through the creation of the Harris County Hospital District
Harris County Hospital District
The Harris County Hospital District is a governmental entity with taxing authority that owns and operates three hospitals and numerous clinics throughout Harris County, Texas, United States, including the city of Houston...
. It also led, however, to considerable hostility and many anonymous threats which finally forced de Hartog and his wife to move away from Houston.
In 1967, de Hartog wrote The Captain
The Captain (1967 novel)
The Captain is a 1967 novel by Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.Ocean-going tugboats, a highly specialized field of nautical enterprise in which the Dutch have always taken the lead, were the subject of De Hartog's book, "Hollands Glorie" - in which the highly skilled tugboat sailors were depicted The...
, which again revisited his love for the sea, using a main character that was loosely based on himself, called Martinus Harinxma, who had first appeared in the previously published The Lost Sea (1951). The book was a success for de Hartog, and later Martinus would go on as a primary character for several more sequels.
Before going to work on the second of the Martinus series, Jan wrote of his experience regarding the adoption of his two daughters who were Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
orphans. This book, called The Children, was written in 1969. He then wrote an important semi-fictional account of the origin of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The book, The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga
The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga
The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga is a historical novel in two parts by Quaker author Jan de Hartog. It describes the first meeting of George Fox and Margaret Fell, the latter's conversion, and a portion of the history of colonial Pennsylvania.Terry Linkletter of Amazon.com has said this...
, written in 1972, won him a nomination for the Nobel Prize, and was followed eight years later by another Quaker novel, called The Lamb's War in 1980.
He later released the next book of the Martinus series, entitled The Commodore (1986), while living in "The Walled Garden" in Somerset, England, followed by The Centurion in 1989, which explored an interest that he and his wife had become involved in: dowsing
Dowsing
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation , without the use of scientific apparatus...
. In the story, Martinus Harinxma dabbled with dowsing and was led on a journey that followed in the footsteps of a Roman Centurion from history. 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 1990, Jan and Marjorie "quietly" returned to Houston to a much improved atmosphere. Shortly afterwards he returned to the Quaker books to write the last of 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 again, was 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 year's "Special Guest" at the Netherlands Film Festival
Netherlands Film Festival
The Netherlands 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, all Dutch film productions of the previous year are exhibited. Besides feature films, the program also consists of short subjects, documentary...
.
Six years later, in 2002, Jan de Hartog died at the age of 88. Appropriately, his ashes were taken to sea by an ocean going tugboat, the SMITWIJS SINGAPORE, and scattered onto the surface of the sea at the coordinates 52.02.5 N – 004.05.0 E at 13.10 hrs LT, by his wife, Marjorie de Hartog, and his son, Nick de Hartog, while other family members spread flowers at the site.
A few years later, Marjorie de Hartog decided to compile and arrange a story that Jan had been working on some time ago, in the hopes of releasing it in his memory. In 2007, A View of the Ocean was released, a story, in essence about Jan de Hartog's own mother's death, and reveals his first contact with Quakers.
Media
Jan de Hartog wrote many of his plays, books, and magazine articles in Dutch. Also, some of his plays and books were adapted into movies. It is the intent of this section to document those of his works that were in English (including some that were translated from their original Dutch versions by outside sources).Books in English (incomplete)
- The CaptainThe Captain (1967 novel)The Captain is a 1967 novel by Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.Ocean-going tugboats, a highly specialized field of nautical enterprise in which the Dutch have always taken the lead, were the subject of De Hartog's book, "Hollands Glorie" - in which the highly skilled tugboat sailors were depicted The...
ISBN 0-7090-3110-6
- The Commodore: A Novel of the Sea
ISBN 0-06-039041-7
- The Flight of the Henny
- The Peaceable Kingdom: An American SagaThe Peaceable Kingdom: An American SagaThe Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga is a historical novel in two parts by Quaker author Jan de Hartog. It describes the first meeting of George Fox and Margaret Fell, the latter's conversion, and a portion of the history of colonial Pennsylvania.Terry Linkletter of Amazon.com has said this...
ISBN 0-449-21773-6
- The Centurion: A Novel
ISBN 0-06-039094-8
- The Lamb's War: A Novel
ISBN 0-06-010995-5
- The Trail of the Serpent
ISBN 0-06-039018-2
- Star of Peace
ISBN 0-06-039029-8
- The Peculiar People
ISBN 0-679-41636-6
- The Outer Buoy: A Story of the Ultimate Voyage
ISBN 0-679-43604-9
- The Lost Sea
ISBN 0-8488-0982-3
- Distant Shore
ISBN 0-8488-0981-5
- The Inspector
ISBN 0-88411-069-9
- Spiral Road
ISBN 0-88411-071-0
- The Hospital
- The Little Ark
- A Sailor's Life
- Captain Jan
(an English translation of Holland's Glorie)
ISBN 0-85617-979-5
- The Children: a Personal Record for the Use of Adoptive Parents
ISBN 0-241-01622-3
- Stella
(also published as The Key) - Waters of the New World: Houston to Nantucket
(with illustrations by Jo SpierJo SpierJo Spier was a popular Dutch artist and illustrator. He was born Joseph Eduard Adolf Spier in Zutphen, The Netherlands...
) - The Sailing Ship (#2 of The Odyssey Library collection)
(with illustrations by Peter SpierPeter SpierPeter Spier is a Dutch-born American author and illustrator who has published more than thirty children's books.-Biographical information:...
) - The Call of the Sea
- A View of the Ocean
(published in November 2007)
ISBN 0-375-42470-0
Stories appearing in Reader's Digest Condensed Books
- Mission to Borneo in Volume 30 - Summer 1957
- Duel with a Witch Doctor in Volume 31 - Autumn 1957
- The Artist in Volume 54 - Summer 1963
- The Captain in Volume 68 - Winter 1967
Movies
The Fourposter
The Fourposter
The Fourposter is a 1951 play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans thirty-five years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage...
(1952)
1952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
- 1hr 43min — Directed by Irving G. Reis
Irving Reis
Irving Reis, born May 7, 1906, in New York City – died July 3, 1953, in Woodland Hills, California, was a radio program producer & director, and a film director.Reis was the creator of the experimental anthology program on the radio, Columbia Workshop...
- Based on the play of same name.
- Won Venice International Film Festival — Volpi Cup for Best Actress (Lili Palmer)
- Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Cinematography — Black and white (Hal MohrHal MohrHal Mohr, A.S.C. was a famed movie cinematographer.-Career:In 1915, in an early example of an exploitation film peddled directly to theater owners, Mohr and Sol Lesser produced and directed a film The Last Night of the Barbary Coast...
) - Nominated for an Academy award for Best Cinematography (Hal MohrHal MohrHal Mohr, A.S.C. was a famed movie cinematographer.-Career:In 1915, in an early example of an exploitation film peddled directly to theater owners, Mohr and Sol Lesser produced and directed a film The Last Night of the Barbary Coast...
)
The Key
The Key (1958 film)
The Key is a 1958 war film set in 1940 during the World War II Battle of the Atlantic. It was based on the novel Stella by Jan de Hartog.-Plot:...
(1958)
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
- 2hrs 1 min — Directed by Carol Reed
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out , The Fallen Idol , The Third Man and Oliver!...
- Based on the novel Stella
- with William HoldenWilliam HoldenWilliam Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
and Sophia LorenSophia LorenSophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance... - Won a British Academy Award for Best British Actor (Trevor HowardTrevor HowardTrevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
)
The Spiral Road
The Spiral Road
The Spiral Road is a 1962 American drama starring Rock Hudson, Gena Rowlands, Burl Ives, Reggie Nalder and Neva Patterson. It was directed by Robert Mulligan with a screenplay by John Lee Mahin and Neil Paterson adapted from the novel by Jan de Hartog. It also featured an early score by composer...
(1962)
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
- 2hrs 25min - Directed by Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan was an American film and television director best known as the director of humanistic American dramas, including To Kill A Mockingbird , Summer of '42 , The Other , Same Time, Next Year and The Man in the Moon...
- Based on the novel of the same name.
- starring Rock HudsonRock HudsonRoy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
and Burl IvesBurl IvesBurl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
Lisa
The Inspector (1962 film)
The Inspector, is a 1962 British-American drama film directed by Philip Dunne, starring Stephen Boyd & Dolores Hart. Dolores Hart plays Lisa Held, a Dutch Jewish girl who has survived the horror of Auschwitz.-Plot:...
(1962)
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
- 1hr 52min - Directed by Philip Dunne
Philip Dunne (writer)
Philip Dunne was a Hollywood screenwriter, film director and producer, who worked prolifically from 1932 until 1965. He spent the majority of his career at 20th Century Fox crafting well regarded romantic and historical dramas, usually adapted from another medium...
- Based on the novel, The Inspector
- Released as The Inspector in the United Kingdom
- starring Dolores HartDolores HartDolores Hart is an American Roman Catholic nun and former actress. She made 10 films in 5 years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You .-Background:Dolores Hicks was the only child of the...
, Stephen BoydStephen BoydStephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
and Donald PleasenceDonald PleasenceSir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades... - Nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Picture - Drama"
The Little Ark (1972)
1972 in film
The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
- 1hr 40min - Directed by James B. Clark
- Based on the novel of the same name.
- Nominated for an Academy award for Best Song (Marsha Karlin and Fred KarlinFred KarlinFred Karlin was an American composer of more than one hundred scores for feature films and television movies. He also was an accomplished trumpeter adept at playing jazz, blues, classical, rock, and medieval music....
)
Television
The Fourposter (Play on TV) (1955) - 1hr 30min - Directed by Clark Jones- 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".
External links
- Biography of Jan de Hartog in the "Daily Shipping Newsletter" http://www.ibiblio.org/maritime/Scheepvaartnieuws/Pdf/scheepvaartnieuws/2002/specialeedities/hartog.PDF
- "The Looniverse", 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.
- The Quaker Liar, 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.
- Writers Info website (in Dutch)
- Summary of his book: "The Hospital" which also adds to the author biography
- WeberStudies Volume 4.1 - Spring 1987 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.
- Jan de Hartog - Schoorl (Plaats van Herinnering) -A YouTube video, possibly of interest, (though narrated entirely in Dutch) includes old filmstock of Jan.