Background
Setske de Haan was born on 24 November 1889 in Oranjewoud, a village in the northern province of Friesland in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of IJnze de Haan, a headmaster and history teacher, and Froukje de Groot.
Setske de Haan was born on 24 November 1889 in Oranjewoud, a village in the northern province of Friesland in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of IJnze de Haan, a headmaster and history teacher, and Froukje de Groot.
She is best known for her series of Joop ter Heul novels. In 1914, she met Leo Beek, who was a department store manager as well as a reserve infantry officer During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Beek was arrested and later executed in the Westerbork transit camp in 1944, though it was 1946 before De Haan learned of his fate.
She died in Bussum on 31 October 1948.
Cissy van Marxvelt embarked on her literary career by writing articles and stories for Dutch magazines. The books, similar in theme to Louisa May Alcott"s Little Women, contain many diary entries and letters.
The series consists of five volumes:
The High School Years of Joop ter Heul (1919)
Joop ter Heul"s Problems (1921)
Joop ter Heul Gets Married (1923)
Joop and Her Boys (1925)
Joop ter Heul"s Daughter (1946)
Van Marxveldt also wrote many other young-adult books, of which Een zomerzotheid ("A Summer Folly") was a particular hit.