Hendrik Johannes Adrianus Hofland (Rotterdam, July 20, 1927) is a Dutch journalist, commentator, essayist and columnist. H.J.A. Hofland, as he is also commonly know, is often referred to as the éminence grise of Dutch journalism. In 1999 he was named Dutch "Journalist of the century" in a nationwide poll among his peers.[1] He once described himself as belonging to the "anarcho-liberal community" and in his work his political orientation emerges as fitting in with the secular middle of society.[2][3]
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Hofland was born in Rotterdam. As a twelve-year-old boy he witnessed the bombing of the city on May 14, 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands, when the heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed, killing 900 civilians and leaving 80,000 homeless. It was an episode that marked his life: "On May 15, I woke up in a completely different world. It is an experience that stays with you your entire life. The bosses were not bosses anymore, the city was on fire, and the villains had the upper hand."[4]
In 1946 he started to study at the Nyenrode Business University where he met Willem Oltmans, but he never finished his studies.[5] In 1950 he moved to Amsterdam and he started his journalistic career at the Algemeen Handelsblad in 1953 at the foreign desk, first as a three-month holiday job, but he simply remained. At the Handelsblad he worked with Hans van Mierlo and Jan Blokker, which became lifelong friends, just as the writer Harry Mulisch.[4][5]
In October 1956, he went to Budapest where the revolution against the Soviet occupation had been going on for several days. On the night of November 3, he heard the Russian tanks arrive in the capital and witnessed the surrender of the resistance. Hofland later declared “I knew that freedom had lost and that the West wouldn't help.”[6]
In 1960, as the paper’s junior foreign editor, he went to the United States in the US State Department’s Jointly Sponsored Journalists project that organised the placement of foreign journalists with American provincial newspapers. He followed a course in journalism at the Pennsylvania State University and worked with the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. He covered the Presidential primaries in New Hampshire and West Virginia and heard John F. Kennedy speak, an experience he remembered as “flamboyant, unforgettable”. Although he shook Kennedy’s hand, he was too shy to ask a question at the time.[7]
In 1962, he became deputy editor in chief of the Handelsblad, and subsequently its editor in chief in 1968. In 1972, two years after the Handelsblad had merged with the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (NRC), becoming the NRC Handelsblad, he resigned his post after a bitter conflict with the publisher about the disconnect between the liberal editorial staff of the newspaper and the more conservative readership.[1][5]
As a freelance journalist he continued to publish articles, essays and reports for the NRC. In 1972 he published the book Tegels Lichten (Lifting Tiles), containing essays on postwar Dutch domestic politics and various high profile ‘affairs’, such as the decolonization of Indonesia, the Dutch-Indonesian dispute about New Guinea and in particular the "anguish of Dutch authorities." . He wrote the book out of anger and frustration about the Dutch cover-up culture in politics and business.[5]
Operating along the lines of the American New Journalism he made the television documentary Vastberaden, maar soepel en met mate (Determined, but flexible and cautious), with television journalists Hans Keller and Hans Verhagen in 1974 for the VPRO. They provided the rich tradition of the Dutch documentary with an effective narrative style, and especially a new social engagement.[8][9]
Under the alias Samuel Montag, a pseudonym he took from a British banking house, he writes ruminations on everyday aspects of life. A frequent New York resident, he often voices exasperation at modern phenomena such as advertising, linguistic deterioration, free market ideology and growing car ownership.[1] From 2002 he also writes a column for the weekly De Groene Amsterdammer.
Hofland is often called the nestor of Dutch journalism and won many awards. In 1999 he was named ‘Dutch journalist of the century’ in a nationwide poll among his peers.[1][2]
In 2011 he received Holland's most prestigious literary prize, the P.C. Hooft Award. The honour is rarely given to a journalist. The jury praised Hofland for his effortless style, unflagging ethos and balanced views. "No one in this country has over the past sixty years sounded its social developments with so much vigilance and impartiality, with so much sprezzatura as well as persistence and continuity, evidence of an iron discipline."[1][3][10]
His columns and essays have been collected in some 30 books. He has also published several novels and short stories. One of his favourite authors is the journalist Curzio Malaparte.[4]