Remco Campert
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Remco Campert (born in The Hague on 29 July 1929) is a famous Dutch author, poet and columnist.
Remco Wouter Campert was born in The Hague, son to author Jan Campert (creator of the famous poem 'De achttien dooden') and actress Joekie Broedelet. His parents separated when he was three years old, causing him to sometimes live with either of his parents and sometimes his grandparents, depending on situations and circumstances. His father died in 1943 in the Nazi concentration camp Neuengamme, after which he went to live with his mother. They returned to Amsterdam after the second World War, in 1945, after having spent the 3 preceding years in the town of Epe.
Back in Amsterdam, he started a secondary education at the Amsterdam Lyceum, occasionally writing articles or drawing comics for the school's newspaper. As the years went on, he skipped more and more classes and spent increasing amounts of time in cinema's, jazz clubs or pubs. After having decided for himself that he'd become a great writer; he left school never to return.
Together with Rudy Kousbroek, a school friend, he founded the magazine 'Braak' in May 1950.
By then, Campert was married to Freddie Rutgers after their wedding in 1949. They separated five years later. In order to finance his living, Campert resorted to writing commercial texts or jingles as well as translating foreign literary works.
He later married author Fritzi ten Harmsen van der Beek, with whom he lived together in the town of Blaricum until 1957, after which he returned to Amsterdam, where he married Lucia van den Berg in 1961. Feeling tired of the city, they decided to move to Antwerp in 1964 but Campert returned to the Dutch capital on his own two years later. There, he met art gallery owner Deborah Wolf, with whom he lived together until 1980. He has mostly kept quiet about his life in the following years, however, he once explained his situation in 1994, in an interview to Cees van Hoore, journalist of newspaper 'Nieuwsblad van het Noorden'. He was quoted as saying; "I don't choke myself. I'm my own best company. Whenever I lived together with someone, I felt like being underwater for days on end. To be together is to be twice alone and I don't need that. I'm more than happily married to my career."
Campert fell prey to the classical 'writers block' in the seventies and barely produced any new work at all. By the end of that period, he explained to journalist Jan Brokken of newspaper 'Haagse Post' that; "I couldn't write for years on end. I didn't feel like it. I felt a physical repulsion towards it. I thought about it, but was paralysed by doubts."
However, he went back to his art in 1979 and continued to write (amongst other works) the 1985 National book week gift of 'Soberman's actie'. From 1989 until 1995, Campert starred in theaters throughout the nation and beyond in a play he had created together with Jan Mulder (author and ex-football player). Their shows were based on both their literary works. 1995 was also the year he read his bestseller novel 'Het leven is vurrukkulluk' on the radio.
Dutch people of younger generations will most likely associate his name with 'CaMu', the partnership between Remco Campert and Jan Mulder that wrote daily front-page columns for national newspaper 'De Volkskrant' from 1995 up to the summer of 2006. These columns have been traditionally bundled into books entitled 'CaMu Jaaroverzicht' at the end of each year.
[edit] Primary bibliography
- 1950 'Ten lessons with Timothy' (poems).
- 1951 'Vogels vliegen toch' (poems).
- 1952 'Een standbeeld opwinden' (poems).
- 1953 'Berchtesgaden' (poems).
- 1953 'Eendjes voeren' (short stories).
- 1955 'Alle dagen feest' (short stories).
- 1955 'Het huis waarin ik woonde' (poems).
- 1955 'Met man en muis' (poems).
- 1956 'Lodewijk Sebastiaan' (short stories).
- 1956 'Van de wijs' (short stories).
- 1958 'De jongen met het mes en andere verhalen' (short stories).
- 1959 'Bij hoog en bij laag' (poems).
- 1960 'Een ellendige nietsnut en andere verhalen' (short stories).
- 1961 'Het leven is vurrukkulluk' (Novel).
- 1962 'Dit gebeurde overal' (poems).
- 1962 'Het paard van Ome Loeks' (short stories).
- 1963 'Liefdes schijnbewegingen : een leesboek' (novel).
- 1964 'Nacht op de kale dwerg' (short stories).
- 1965 'Het gangstermeisje' (novel).
- 1965 'Hoera, hoera' (poems).
- 1968 'Fabeltjes vertellen' (short stories).
- 1968 'Mijn leven's liederen' (poems).
- 1968 'Tjeempie! of Liesje in Luiletterland' (novel).
- 1969 'Hoe ik mijn verjaardag vierde' (short stories).
- 1970 'Betere tijden' (poems).
- 1971 'Campert Compleet' (short stories).
- 1972 'James Dean en het verdriet' (short stories).
- 1974 'Basta het toverkonijn' (short stories).
- 1974 'Op reis' (novel, written together with Willem Malsen).
- 1976 'Alle bundels gedichten' (poems).
- 1976 'Luister goed naar wat ik verzwijg' (thoughts and philosophies).
- 1978 'Waar is Remco Campert?' (short stories).
- 1979 'Theater' (poems).
- 1980 'Na de troonrede' (short stories).
- 1980 'De tijden' (novel).
- 1982 'Een beetje natuur' (short stories).
- 1983 'De Harm & Miepje Kurk Story' (novel).
- 1983 'Scènes in Hotel Morandi' (poems).
- 1984 'Amsterdamse dagen' (poems).
- 1984 'Drie vergeten gedichten' (poems).
- 1984 'Kinderverhalen van Remco Campert' (short children's stories).
- 1984 'Wie doet de koningin?' (short stories).
- 1984 'Zeven vrijheden' (poems).
- 1985 'Somberman's actie' (novel).
- 1985 'Somberman's maandag' (novel).
- 1985 'Zijn hoofd verliezen' (novel).
- 1986 'Collega's (poems).
- 1986 'Rustig' (novel).
- 1986 'Tot zoens' (short stories).
- 1987 'Eetlezen' (columns).
- 1988 'Een neger uit Mozambique : een keuze uit de gedichten' (poems).
- 1988 'Toen ik je zag' (Poems accompanying photographs of Peter Dejong).
- 1989 'Zachtjes neerkomen' (novel).
- 1990 'Gouden dagen' (novel).
- 1990 'Graag gedaan' (columns and short stories).
- 1991 'Campert compleet vervolg : verhalen 1971-1991' (short stories).
- 1991 'Dansschoenen' (novel).
- 1992 'Rechterschoenen' (poems).
- 1993 'Het bijzettafeltje' (columns).
- 1994 'Fiebelekwinten' (short stories, written together with Jan Mulder).
- 1994 'Restbeelden : notities van Izegrim' (poems).
- 1994 'Straatpornografie' (poems).
- 1994 'Vele klein meisjes' (columns).
- 1995 'Ik hou vooral van pijpen' (poems).
- 1995 'Oh ik word er hard genomen' (novel).
- 1996 'ik neuk hoeren in hun kont' (columns).
[edit] Literary prices received
- 1953 - Reina Prinsen Geerligs price for 'Berchtesgaden'
- 1955 - Poetry price of Amsterdam for 'Gedicht met een moraal'
- 1956 - Jan Campert price for 'Met man en muis en Het huis waarin ik woonde'
- 1958 - Anne Frank-price for 'Vogels vliegen toch'
- 1959 - Proza price of Amsterdam for 'De jongen met het mes'
- 1960 - Price of the Amsterdamse Art-council for 'De jongen met het mes'
- 1976 - P.C. Hooft-price for his poetic works
- 1987 - Cestoda-price
