Wilhelmus Henricus Maria van den Hout ('s Hertogenbosch, June 3, 1915 – Den Haag, February 24, 1985) was a Dutch writer and publicist, known for writing the Bob Evers series of children's books using the pseudonym Willy van der Heide.
Van den Hout also used the pseudonyms Willy Waterman, Willem W. Waterman, Sylvia Sillevis, Victor Valstar, Victor H. Huitink, Joke Raviera, Zsa Zsa Ferguson and C.B. McInverness, M.D., Ph.D., and translated English literature into Dutch.
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Willem van den Hout was born June 3, 1915 in 's Hertogenbosch, his father a teacher. In 1937 van den Hout joined the Philips company. He married Louise Grossouw the same year. They had two sons.
For Philips, van den Hout traveled to the United States and visited Hollywood. He used the experience to write a satire about the film industry.[1]
During World War II van den Hout briefly was a member of the Nationaal Front[2] and he worked for several Nazi propaganda media. He was arrested after the war, spent three years in jail, and was banned from working as a journalist for ten years.[3] He divorced in 1948 and married Anneliese Jülkenbeck in 1952. After divorcing his second wife in 1956, he married Marjon Niemeijer in 1958. They had a son and a daughter.
In the 1970s he founded the Manicheese Wereldkerk (English: Manichaean World Church), a one-man religious organisation attempting to use a loophole in tax laws.[4]
Willem van den Hout died February 24, 1985 of a heart attack.[5]
May 19, 1949 van den Hout signed a contract with publishers M. Stenvert & Zoon (later De Eekhoorn) to publish his Bob Evers series.[6] The books revolve around three boys: Arie Roos, Jan Prins and American Bob Evers.
The Bob Evers series originally consisted of 32 volumes published from 1949 to 1963. From 1965, the series were published as pocket books with some minor updates, and the order of the first six volumes was changed.[7] In 1967, van den Hout sold all rights to Stenvert publishers for ƒ100,000. When the series became a much bigger success than anticipated,[8] this led to a conflict with Stenvert.
In 1977, he published two more volumes (34 and 35) with another publisher, in breach of his contract with Stenvert.
After van den Hout died, volumes 34 and 35 were partly re-written by author Peter de Zwaan. De Zwaan also completed van den Hout's unfinished manuscripts for volumes 33 and 36 and continued to write Bob Evers books, extending the series to 50 volumes. In September 2010 volume 51 is expected.
Three of the books have been translated into Afrikaans, and several of the books have been re-published as comics in the Algemeen Dagblad and as comic books.