Jan Wolkers. Photo by Harry Cock, cropped by User:Zanaq. Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Jan Wolkers


 

Jan Hendrik Wolkers known with the novels Back to Oegstgeest of 1965 and Turks delight of 1969 was a Dutch writer , sculptor and painter born on October 26, 1925.

Wolkers always indicated that he felt himself first and foremost a sculptor in spite of his great fame as a writer.

In 1982 Wolkers was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize but he declined it.

He was also awarded the PC Hooft Prize in 1989 but he also declined it as was the case with several other prizes he was awarded.

The top 10 interesting facts about Jan Wolkers include the following.

1. Wolkers Was Dropped Out Of School Due To Poor Grades

Oegstgeest. Photo by Steven Lek. Wikimedia Commons

Wolkers’s parents were Jan Hendrik Wolkers sr and Jannetje van der Heijde  who were originally from Amsterdam.

Wolkers was the third born in a family of eleven children.

His father owned a poorly running grocery store in Oegstgeest  before the Second World War

Wolkers attended secondary school, but he didn’t last long as he dropped out of school due to poor grades.

2.Painting Was The Only Skill That Wolkers Graduated In

Leiden University. Photo by Vysotsky. Wikimedia Commons

 After dropping out of school, Wolkers helped at the store. He later became a zookeeper in a laboratory of Leiden University. He painted landscapes when he became a gardener.

Wolkers first worked as the youngest employee in the distribution office in Oegstgeest during the war but later went into hiding. 

At the Leiden painting academy Ars Aemula Naturae, he took lessons in painting; the only skill in which he would ever graduate.

3. Wolkers Dealt With Sad Events In His Life In His Writing

Jan Wolkers. Photo by Harry Cock. Wikimedia Commons

 Wolkers’s first marriage was to Maria de Roo in 1947 with whom they were blessed with three children. On 10th June 1951, his daughter Eva died as a result of a bathroom accident.

In his 1963 novel A rose of flesh, Wolkers dealt with the traumatic event of losing his daughter.

The novel Turkish Delight was inspired by his short  second marriage to Annemarie Nauta. Nauta inspired the main character,Olga in the book.

Wolkers symbolized the grieving process he went through after breaking up with Nauta, with Olga’s cancer and her death in in the novel.

4. Wolkers Was One of The First to Write Openly and Explicitly Over Sex

Wolkers was famed as an author mainly for his graphic descriptions of sexual acts, which were often subject of controversy in the 1960s.

According to some, an apt summary of Wolkers’s work was sex and wickedness. 

Wolker’s candid descriptions of sex, and his opposition to the reformed milieu in which he grew up, largely made him famous among the general public.

5. Wolkers Was Opposed To The Reformed Milieu In Which He Grew Up

Wolkers was opposed to the reformed milieu in which he grew up into and that was best demonstrated in his 1964  novel The Dog with the Blue Tongue.

Wolkers describes the suffocating atmosphere in a family on Easter Sunday in the novel; in the story of ‘The Eighth Plague.

In the story the male protagonist (“I”) has a strong dislike for his father, who personifies the strict Calvinist morality which Wolkers grew up into.

6. Wolkers’s Mix Of Sex And Death In His Literally Works  Confounded Many

In one of his early novels the main character a boy is engaged in an unnatural act with a hen.

The boy finds the chicken laying an egg and ends up performing an unnatural act with it which eventually leads to its death.

The same theme of death is also carried in his other famous book the 1969 Turks Fruit.

In the novel Olga, the girlfriend of the main character eventually dies of a tumor after declining physically for some time.

In the still compartmentalized Netherlands of the early 1960s, passages like these caused waves of protest and indignation.

7. Several Of Wolkers’s Novels Have Been Made Into Films

Several of Wolkers’s novels have been made into films, such as the Turkish Delight which attests that his influence extended beyond literature.

Part of the ‘canon’ of Dutch-language films was the Turkish Delight made in 1972.

The lead roles in the film were played by Monique van de Ven and Rutger Hauer.

8. He Designed The Well-known Auschwitz Memorial in Amsterdam

Auschwitz memorial.Photo by FaceMePLS. Wikimedia Commons

The well-known Auschwitz memorial in Amsterdam in Wertheim Park was designed and built in 1993 by artist and writer Jan Wolkers.

The memorial was built in remembrance of the Nazi Concentration camp at Auschwitz.  

The Nazi Concentration camp at Auschwitz is one of the most tragic occurrences in Europe in the recent past.

The monument is made of broken glass that reflects the permanent wounds that man has caused in the sky in the recent past.

Auschwitz was one of the concentration camps that earned quite a notorious reputation as over 90,000 Jews perished there.

9. Wolkers’s Contribution Was Honored In Various Ways

Island of Texel. Photo by Cycletours Holidays. Wikimedia Commons

In his honor a television series known as Jan Wolkers ‘ Backyard premiered for two seasons in Villa Achterwerk in 2002 and 2003.

In this program Jan Wolkers took the viewer on a journey of discovery through his own backyard on the island of Texel.

Wolkers was on the list of the Party for the Animals as the list pusher for the 2004 European Parliament elections and the 2006 parliamentary elections.

In the island of Texel, Wolkers became an honorary citizen in 2006.

Streets, canals and avenues have been named after Jan Wolkers in Oegstgeest , Leiden , Voorschoten , Groningen , Kloetinge and Utrecht in his honor.

The Jan Wolkers Prize is awarded annually to the best Dutch nature book since 2013 in his honor.

10. Wolkers Refused To Be Praised

Wolkers book Serpentina’s petticoat was awarded the literature prize of the City of Amsterdam in 1963.

Wolkers returned the prize in protest against the actions of the police during the riots surrounding the marriage of Beatrix and Claus in 1966.

Due to his view that his previous work was misunderstood, Wolkers refused the Constantijn Huygens Prize  awarded to him in 1982.

Due to the fact that  comic book author Marten Toonder had never received a major literature prize  he declined the PC Hooft Prize  awarded in 1989.

He also declined  because he felt that he had already earned prizes for  books he had authored.

Since he was expected to refuse, a procedure to give him a royal decoration was halted.

The 1991 Busken Huet Prize for his essays Tarzan in Arles is the  only prize Wolkers did accept

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