Background
Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East Indies (currently Jakarta in Indonesia).
Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East Indies (currently Jakarta in Indonesia).
She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague and worked afterwards as a drawing teacher in secondary schools, living in The Hague.
Her book De brief voor de Koning was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century. She spent the largest part of her youth there, including three years in a Japanese prisoner"s camp during the Second World War between 1942 and 1945. She came to the Netherlands with her family after the war.
Tonke Dragt first published stories in the magazine Kris Kras, and her first book appeared in 1961.
She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps. Apart from writing and illustrating her own books, Tonke Dragt also made illustrations for some other books, including work by Paul Biegel, East. Nesbit, Rosemary Sutcliff, and the novel Elidor by Alan Garner.
The work of Tonke Dragt has been translated into many languages, including German, English, Afrikaans, Czechoslovakian, Spanish, Danish and Indonesian. Many of the books and stories by Tonke Dragt are situated in a fantasy or science fiction environment, although usually closely related to or intertwined with the real world.
De brief voor de koning, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, and a few short stories, are set in a fictional medieval world.
Torenhoog en mijlenbreed, Ogen van tijgers, and related stories, are near-future science fiction stories, where the action happens on Venus and Earth. De Torens van Februari alternates between our world and a parallel world. De Zevensprong is most firmly set in a realistic setting.
Tonke Dragt uses elements of legends and fables, most clearly in Verhalen van de tweelingbroers.
Her stories are mainly focused on one or a few male protagonists, often teenagers. They go on a personal quest, a search that may be externalized in an item like the letter in De brief voor de koning, but which results in a discovery of their own persona.
The book The Letter for the King (Dutch: De brief voor de Koning) has sold over 1 million copies so far. The book has been translated many times, and reached its 22nd printing in Dutch in 2007.
In 2007, it premiered as a musical theater piece.
This was the second theater production based on the works of Tonke Dragt, after an adaptation of De Zevensprong. In 2015 a sequel, The Secrets of the Wild Wood, was translated into English. The movie based on the book, starring Derek de Lint was released in the summer of 2008.
1963: Kinderboek van het Jaar (Children"s book of the Year, the predecessor of the Gouden Griffel) for De brief voor de koning 1971: Nienke van Hichtum Award for Torenhoog en mijlenbreed 1976: Staatsprijs voor kinderen jeugdliteratuur (the highest award in the Dutch language area for a youth author, can be won only once per author) 1995: Buxtehuder Bulle, an Award for youth literature given by the city of Buxtehude, for the German translation of De torens van Februari 2004: Griffel der Griffels for De brief voor de koning (award for the best Dutch children"s book of the past fifty years) 2005: Victorine Hefting Award, an award for women in The Hague who have contributed to the cultural emancipation of women.
