Cees Nooteboom

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Cees Nooteboom
Portrait of Cees Nooteboom
Cees Nooteboom in 2011
Born Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria Nooteboom
(1933-07-31) 31 July 1933 (age 90)
The Hague, Netherlands
Occupation Novelist, poet, journalist
Language Dutch
Nationality Dutch
Period 1954–present
Spouse Fanny Lichtveld (1957–1964)
Partner Liesbeth List (1965–1979)
Website
www.ceesnooteboom.com

Literature portal

Cees Nooteboom (Dutch pronunciation: [seːs noːtəboːm]; born 31 July 1933) is a Dutch novelist, poet, and journalist. He has won numerous literary awards and has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature.[1]

Life

Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees" Nooteboom was born on 31 July 1933 in The Hague, Netherlands.[2]

His father was killed there in 1945 by a British air raid. After his mother remarried in 1948, his Catholic stepfather enrolled Nooteboom in several religious secondary schools, including a Franciscan school in Venray and a school run by the Augustinians in Eindhoven. He finished his secondary education at a night school in Utrecht.[3]

After his first job with a bank in Hilversum, Nooteboom traveled throughout Europe. In addition to his writing, he has worked for the weekly magazine, Elsevier, from 1957 to 1960, and at the newspaper de Volkskrant from 1961 to 1968. In 1967, he became the travel editor of the magazine Avenue.

In 1957 Nooteboom hired on as a sailor on a freighter to Surinam in order to earn money and ask for the hand of his first wife, Fanny Lichtveld. They divorced in 1964. Some of his experiences are recounted in the book De verliefde gevangene (1958). He was also in a relationship with the singer, Liesbeth List. Currently he is married to Simone Sassen and divides his time between Amsterdam and the island of Minorca.

In addition to his many literature awards, Nooteboom was awarded honorary doctorates from Radboud University in Nijmegen in 2006 and the Free University of Berlin in 2008.[4]

Literary works

Nooteboom (right) with Liesbeth List, Frans Myts & the Sunday Times (1967)

Nooteboom's first novel, Philip en de anderen (Philip and the Others, 1988), was published in 1954 and won the Anne Frank Prize. His second novel, De ridder is gestorven (The Knight Has Died, 1990), published in 1963, was to remain his last for 17 years. In 1980, his novel Rituelen (Rituals, 1983) brought him wide acclaim in the Netherlands and won the Pegasus Prize. It was also his first translated into English. Other novels include Een lied van schijn en wezen (A Song of Truth and Semblance, 1984); Allerzielen (All Souls' Day, 2001) and Paradijs verloren (Paradise Lost, 2007). His best-known work to English-speaking audiences is perhaps The Following Story (Het volgende verhaal, 1991), which was written for the Dutch Boekenweek in 1991 and won him the Aristeion Prize in 1993.[5]

Nooteboom is also a well-known travel writer. Some of his travel books include Een middag in Bruay, Een nacht in Tunesië, and De omweg naar Santiago (Roads to Santiago, 1997); this book inspired the musical work "Six Glosses" (2010) by Spanish composer Benet Casablancas. His experiences living in Berlin are detailed in the book Berlijn 1989-2009, which is a collection of his earlier books Berlijnse notities and Terugkeer naar Berlijn and new material.[6]

The book De omweg naar Santiago inspired several Spanish and Dutch composers, and has been the subject of the tournée of concerts celebrated in 2010 in The Netherlands by the Ensemble 88 from Maastricht.[7]

Bibliography

Novels and story collections

  • 1954 Philip and the Others (Philip en de anderen). English: LSU Press, 1988.
  • 1958 De verliefde gevangene
  • 1963 The Knight Has Died (De ridder is gestorven). LSU Press, 1990.
  • 1980 Rituals (Rituelen). English: LSU Press, 1983.
  • 1981 A Song of Truth and Semblance (Een lied van schijn en wezen). LSU Press, 1984.
  • 1982 Mokusei!
  • 1984 In the Dutch Mountains (In Nederland). LSU Press, 1987.
  • 1986 Het Spaans van Spanje
  • 1988 De brief
  • 1991 The Following Story (Het volgende verhaal). English: Harcourt Brace, 1994.
  • 1998 All Souls' Day (Allerzielen). English: Harcourt, 2001.
  • 2004 Lost Paradise (Paradijs verloren). Grove Press, 2007.
  • 2007 Rode Regen
  • 2009 The Foxes Come at Night (’s Nachts komen de vossen). English: Maclehose Press Quercus, 2011.

Poetry

  • 1956 De doden zoeken een huis
  • 1959 Koude gedichten
  • 1960 Het zwarte gedicht
  • 1964 Gesloten gedichten
  • 1970 Gemaakte gedichten
  • 1978 Open als een schelp – dicht als een steen
  • 1982 Aas. Gedichten
  • 1982 Het landschap verteld. Paesaggi narrati
  • 1984 Vuurtijd, ijstijd. Gedichten 1955–1983
  • 1989 Het gezicht van het oog
  • 1991 Water, aarde, vuur, lucht
  • 1999 Zo kon het zijn
  • 2000 Bitterzoet, honderd gedichten van vroeger en zeventien nieuwe
  • 2005 De slapende goden / Sueños y otras mentiras with Lithographs by Jürgen Partenheimer

Essays and reporting

  • 1968 De Parijse beroerte
  • 1980 Nooit gebouwd Nederland (Unbuilt Netherlands. Rizzoli, 1985)
  • 1993 De ontvoering van Europa
  • 1993 Zelfportret van een ander. Dromen van het eiland en de stad van vroeger

Travel writing

  • 1963 Een middag in Bruay. Reisverslagen
  • 1965 Een nacht in Tunesië
  • 1968 Een ochtend in Bahia
  • 1971 Bitter Bolivia. Maanland Mali
  • 1978 Een avond in Isfahan
  • 1981 Voorbije passages
  • 1983 Waar je gevallen bent, blijf je
  • 1985 De zucht naar het Westen
  • 1986 De Boeddha achter de schutting. Aan de oever van de Chaophraya
  • 1989 De wereld een reiziger
  • 1990 Berlijnse notities
  • 1991 Vreemd water
  • 1992 Roads to Santiago (De omweg naar Santiago). In English: Harcourt Brace, 1997
  • 1992 Zurbarán
  • 1993 De konig van Surinam
  • 1995 Van de lente de dauw. Oosterse reizen
  • 1997 De filosoof zonder ogen : Europese reizen
  • 1997 Terugkeer naar Berlijn
  • 2002 Nootebooms Hotel (Nomad's Hotel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009; the German edition with the same title appeared first in 2000)
  • 2005 Het geluid van Zijn naam. Reizen door de Islamitische wereld
  • 2009 Berlijn 1989/2009
  • 2010 Scheepsjournaal

Awards

References

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  2. (Dutch) Dick Welsink, "Cees Nooteboom: een leven in data", Cees Nooteboom. Ik had wel duizend levens en ik nam er maar één! (1997). Retrieved on 2012-10-10.
  3. [1]
  4. Invitation to Press Conference: Cees Nooteboom to Be Granted Honorary Doctorate from Freie Universität
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  6. Nooteboom, Cees. Berlijn 1989/2009 (De Bezige Bij, 2009), p. 413.
  7. See http://www.ensemble88.nl/concertagenda_2010.aspx
  8. Nooteboom krijgt zijn dierbaarste prijs, de Volkskrant, 19 nov 2009

External links