(Jan De Hartog's heartwarming story of the bravery of Jan ...)
Jan De Hartog's heartwarming story of the bravery of Jan Brink and his sister Adinda, and their companions in the adventure: a puppy, a kitten, a white rabbit, and a cockerel. Together they brave and survive the storm that breached the dykes in Holland in 1953. As they move from adventure to adventure, witnessing murder, the best and worst behavior of adults, watch bravery and cowardice, comedy and tragedy they survive with their tiny companions to watch the water recede.
(An idealistic Quaker ambulance driver stationed in Europe...)
An idealistic Quaker ambulance driver stationed in Europe marries a young Dutch girl recently liberated from a Nazi concentration camp and returns with her to America, where they take up the cause of the American Indians.
(When the colonial Dutch survivors of the Japanese capture...)
When the colonial Dutch survivors of the Japanese capture of Indonesia in 1941 petition the captain of a World War I salvage ship to rescue them, the captain, a hunchbacked atheist, demands that the priests and nuns among them renounce God.
(Called back from retirement to undertake a mysterious and...)
Called back from retirement to undertake a mysterious and dangerous assignment, the Commodore finds himself aboard a huge new tug transporting an oil rig the size of a small island to the Far East.
Johannes "Jan" de Hartog was a Dutch novelist and playwright, who became famous for his sea adventure stories and for the Broadway hit comedy "The Fourposter." De Hartog's books reflected his personal experience; he was socially active and wrote on burning issues.
Background
Johannes de Hartog was born on April 22, 1914, in Haarlem, Netherlands. He was a son of Arnold Hendrik, a Calvinist minister and professor of theology at Amsterdam University, and Lucretia de Hartog, a lecturer in medieval mysticism. De Hartog's vivid imagination was encouraged by his father. Johannes had an early love for the sea. At 10, he ran away to sea and became a cabin boy, called a ''sea mouse,'' on a fishing boat. His father had him brought back home, but when he was 12 he ran away to sea again, this time on a steamer in the Baltic. De Hartog later said his shipmates were ''as evil a collection of pirates as ever sailed the sea,'' but they took him under their wing and confirmed the boy's love of the sailor's life.
Education
Growing up to be an experienced salt, Johannes de Hartog attended the Netherlands Naval College in 1930-1931 but did not graduate. In 1985, de Hartog was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Whittier College. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Houston.
Career
From 1932 to 1937, Johannes de Hartog worked at the Amsterdam Municipal Theatre, where he acted and wrote a play. During this period, de Hartog wrote a number of popular detective novels under the pseudonym F. R. Eckmar. His first publishing success, however, came not in the detective genre but with the adventure novel Hollands Glorie (1940), later translated into English as Captain Jan (1976), which was a bestseller in the Netherlands. ''This Time Tomorrow,'' his first play in the United States, opened on Broadway in 1947. It was followed in 1948 by ''Skipper Next to God,'' starring John Garfield as the Dutch sea captain of a ship filled with Jewish refugees on a journey to find freedom. Award-winning The Fourposter had its Broadway debut in 1951. It was a two-character comedy about a decades-long marriage. Starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, and directed by Jose Ferrer, it had a long run on Broadway, was made into a film starring Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, and was later turned into the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical, ''I Do! I Do!,'' starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston.
From the late 1930s through the 1960s, de Hartog worked steadily as a successful playwright and novelist. His 1940 novel Hollands Glorie was based on de Hartog's own experiences as a sailor, but it became a symbol of the Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupation of World War II and was banned. Wanted by the Nazis, De Hartog hid in an Amsterdam home for senior citizens, disguised as an old woman. The Fourposter, his most successful play, was written during this period of hiding. Escaping to England, he became a correspondent for the Netherlands Merchant Marines in 1943.
De Hartog moved to Texas at the beginning of the 1960s. There, he and his wife Marjorie Eleanor Mein became known for their many humanitarian efforts throughout the world. In 1962, he was a writer-in-residence and lecturer in playwriting at the University of Houston. During that time, the couple volunteered at Jefferson Davis Hospital (later renamed Ben Taub Hospital). As a volunteer, de Hartog was exposed to the horrible conditions facing patients and staff at Harris County's charity hospital. His work, The Hospital, exposes the conditions and treatment received by patients at Jefferson Davis Hospital. His book received national acclaim, drawing attention to needed changes in the charity hospital system in Houston. The book helped renew calls for the Harris County Commissioners to order an election to create a hospital district. In early 1965, voters had their say on the matter, but despite endorsements from de Hartog and county leaders, the measure was defeated. In the wake of The Hospital's publication, the de Hartogs became a target of threats and unwanted harassment which ultimately led to the couple leaving Houston in 1964. But on November 20, 1965, county residents finally approved the creation of a hospital district to oversee operations of Jefferson Davis and Ben Taub hospitals.
In 1963, he and his wife aided survivors of a flood in the Netherlands, out of which came his book The Little Ark. The de Hartogs remained active in progressive social causes, using the proceeds from The Hospital book to finance aide programs. Further involvement in peace and social justice efforts lead the couple to become advocates of charity to Korean and Vietnamese war orphans, and in the process, they adopted two Korean children. He chronicled these events in the 1969 work, The Children.
De Hartog's long and varied career also included having several works adapted for the screen. His novel, Stella (1951), was adapted for the screen with Sophia Loren and William Holden, as was The Spiral Road (1957), which starred Rock Hudson. His other notable works included novels The Captain (1967), The Commodore (1986), a trilogy fictionalizing the history of the Society of Friends - The Peaceable Kingdom (1972), The Lamb's War (1980) and The Peculiar People (1992), The Centurion (1989), and The Outer Buoy (1994).
Johannes de Hartog became a bestselling Dutch writer whose novel Holland's Glorie inspired the national spirit of Netherlanders during the early years of the German occupation in the Second World War. It sold 500,000 copies. His play "The Fourposter" received Tony Award. His non-fiction memoir "The Hospital" helped transform healthcare in Houston, Texas. In 1972, he was nominated for Nobel Prize for "The Peaceable Kingdom."
Johannes de Hartog considered himself a resistance fighter by nature and sanguinity.
Interests
Writers
Thomas Stearns Eliot
Connections
Johannes de Hartog had a brief marriage as a young man in the Netherlands. He had two children from this marriage: Sylvia and Arnold. In 1946, de Hartog married the daughter of the English writer J. B. Priestly, Angela Priestly, who gave birth to two children: Catherine and Nicholas. In 1961, he married Marjorie Eleanor Mein, with whom he adopted two Korean girls: Eva and Julia.
