Hella Haasse, Dutch writer, died she was 93.

Hélène "Hella" Serafia Haasse^[1] was a Dutch writer, often referred to as "the Grand Old Lady" of Dutch literature,^[2] and whose novel Oeroeg (1948) was a staple for generations of Dutch schoolchildren.^[3] Her internationally acclaimed Magnus opus is "Heren van de Thee", translated to "The Tea Lords".^[4] In 1988 Haasse was chosen to interview the Dutch Queen for her 50th birthday after which celebrated Dutch author Adriaan van Dis called Haasse "the Queen among authors".^[5]
Haasse has the first Dutch digital online museum dedicated to the life and work of an author. The museum was opened in 2008 on her 90th birthday.^[6]
Haasse is the only Dutch author to have an asteroid named after her.^[7]

(2 February 1918 – 29 September 2011)

Dutch East Indies literature

An important segment of her literary work consists of Dutch Indies literature. Her debut Oeroeg (1948), is set in the Dutch East Indies, where Haasse was born and lived for most of the first 20 years of her life. Even more autobiographical texts and books about her life in the East Indies, includes books such as Krassen op een rots (1970). The East Indies continued to play an important part in her work as can be seen in her last novel Sleuteloog (2002), which has the same theme as Oeroeg: is a friendship between a Dutch and an Indonesian child possible and can they really understand each other?
Her successful debut book Oeroeg was well received and often reprinted, but did experience some controversy due to the critical reception by the older author Tjalie Robinson. The Indo (Eurasian) Tjalie Robinson pointed out why he did not find the characters in the story credible. Moreover as Tjalie Robinson himself was still living in the Dutch East Indies at that time, hoping for and working towards fraternization between the Dutch and Indonesians his sharp criticism was directed against what he considered the defeatist nature of the book.^[8][9]
The movie Oeroeg based on the book premiered in 1993.^[10]

Tea plantation, Java, Dutch East Indies, 1910-1940.

Her internationally acclaimed Magnus opus "Heren van de Thee" was translated to ‘The Tea Lords’ in 2010. It is a historical novel set in the Dutch East Indies of the 19th and 20th century, based on a trove of documents and letters deposited in the Netherlands by the heirs and relations of the book’s characters.

”I can only say that realising her characters were once flesh and blood made me feel I had read the most humane sort of biography, in which the writer inhabits every emotional recess and significance. That may make The Tea Lords sound like half a novel; but read it and you might agree that it is more in the nature of an improvisation, a graceful, marvellously achieved improvisation that only a novelist of the greatest imagination and sympathy could have written.” Julian Evans.^[11]

Awards

Her great commercial success and critical acclaim is reflected in the numerous prizes she has been awarded over the years. She has won prizes for both her first novel in 1948 as well as her last novel in 2003. Prestigious awards for her entire oeuvre up to that time include the Constantijn Huygens Prize in 1981 and the P. C. Hooft Award in 1984. Various other prizes include the ‘’Annie Romein Prize’’and the ‘’Dirk Martens Prize’’. She has also won the ‘’Prize of the Public of the NS’’ twice and is the only author who has written the prestigious annual "Boekenweekgeschenk" thrice, in 1948, 1959 and 1994 respectively.

International recognition

Haasse lived in France for many years (1981–1990), and much of her work has been translated into French. The '‘Académie Française’' awarded Haasse the Diplôme de médaille Argent in 1984. The next year she delivered a presentation on colonial literature at the University of Dakar. She was awarded the Officier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur in 2000.
Haasse received an honorary literary doctorate from the University of Utrecht in 1988 and from the Belgian University of Leuven in 1995. In 1987 she had already been given an honorary membership of the Belgian Royal Literary Academy (Belgische Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde (KANTL)) in Gent.
The Chilean Ministry of Education (‘El Ministerio de education de Chile') awarded her a prize for her “universal contribution to culture” in 1996.
In 1989 the city of Boston awarded her the ‘Boston Certificate of Recognition’, for her book ‘’In a Dark Wood Wandering’’: “In recognition and appreciation of your outstanding contributions to the City of Boston and its residents.”
In 1992 Haasse attended the opening of the IKAPI ‘International Book Fair’ in Jakarta. It was the last time she would visit her birthplace, Java, and the year her Dutch Indies literature masterpiece Heren van de Thee was published.

Gallery

• 

  Lake Telaga Hideung on Java, close to where Hella Haasse grew up as a child and which prominently features in her debut book Oeroeg.
• 

  Tea plantation in the Preanger mountains, East Java, the area where Haasse's novel The Tea Lords is situated and which she visited.

Bibliography

• Oeroeg (1948)
• Het woud der verwachting - 1949 (translated into English as In a dark wood wandering, 1989)
• De verborgen bron - The hidden source (1950)
• De scharlaken stad - 1952 (translated into English as The scarlet city. A novel of 16th-century Italy, 1952)
• De ingewijden - The incrowd (1957)
• Cider voor arme mensen - Cider for poor people (1960)
• Een nieuwer testament - A newer testament (1966, translated as Threshold of fire. A novel of fifth century Rome, 1993)
• De tuinen van Bomarzo - The gardens of Bomarzo (1968)
• Huurders en onderhuurders - Tenants and Undertenants (1971)
• De Meester van de Neerdaling - The Master of Descent (1973)
• Een gevaarlijke verhouding of Daal-en-Bergse brieven - A dangerous affair or Daal-en-Bergish letters (1976)
• Mevrouw Bentinck - Mrs. Bentinck (1978, 1982 and 1990)
• Charlotte Sophie Bentinck (1978 and 1996)
• De wegen der verbeelding - The roads of imagination (1983)
• Een vreemdelinge in Den Haag - 1984 (translated into English as A stranger in The Hague. The letters of Queen Sophie of the Netherlands to Lady Malet, 1842–1877, 1989)
• Berichten van het Blauwe Huis - Messages from the blue house (1986)
• Schaduwbeeld of Het geheim van Appeltern (1989) - Shadow picture or the Secret of Appeltern
• Heren van de thee - The Lords of Tea (1992) (translated into English by Ina Rilke as The Tea Lords, 2010. )
• Een handvol achtergrond, 'Parang Sawat' - A handful of background, 'Parang Sawat' (1993, translated into English as Forever a stranger and other stories, including Oeroeg, 1996)
• Transit (1994)
• 1995 - Overeenkomstig en onvergelijkbaar
• 1996 - Toen ik schoolging
• 1996 - Ogenblikken in Valois (essays)
• 1996 - Uitgesproken opgeschreven. Essays over achttiende-eeuwse vrouwen, een bosgezicht, verlichte geesten, vorstenlot, satire, de pers en Vestdijks avondrood
• 1997 - Zwanen schieten
• 2000 - Lezen achter de letters (essays)
• 2000 - Fenrir: een lang weekend in de Ardennen
• 2002 - Sleuteloog, (won Dutch prize: NS-Publieksprijs 2003)
• 2003 - Het dieptelood van de herinnering (autobiographical)
• 2004 - Oeroeg - een begin (facsimile-edition on the occasion of Dutch prize: Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren)
• 2005 - Over en weer (stories)
• 2006 - Het tuinhuis (stories)
• 2006 - Een kruik uit Arelate (available as podcast^[12])
• 2007 - Sterrenjacht (1950 Het Parool publication)
• 2007 - De handboog der verbeelding (Interviews)
• 2008 - Uitzicht

To see more of who died in 2011 click here