Querido and Maria Dermoût The development from publisher to friend Leiden University MA Thesis Department of Media Studies Programme Book and Digital Media Studies Name: Colinda Verhelst Student ID: s0904562 Supervisor: prof. dr. P.G. Hoftijzer Second reader: prof. dr. O.J. Praamstra Date: 31 October, 2016 Word Count: 28.386 Querido and Maria Dermoût The development from publisher to friend C. Verhelst Leiden University – MA Book and Digital Media Studies 2 Index Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1: Biography on Maria Dermoût ................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Querido and its publishers ...................................................................................... 17 2.1 Emanuel Querido ................................................................................................ 17 2.2 Alice von Eugen - van Nahuys............................................................................. 20 2.3 Frederic von Eugen ............................................................................................. 24 2.4 Tine van Buul ...................................................................................................... 26 2.5 Reinold Kuipers ................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 3: Honorarium, translations, and ancillary rights ....................................................... 31 3.1 Honorarium and fees on Dutch novels ................................................................ 32 3.2 Translations ......................................................................................................... 33 3.3 Musical-, cinematic and other ancillary rights ................................................... 42 Chapter 4: Design and other artistic decisions ......................................................................... 47 4.1 Titles and author’s name ..................................................................................... 47 4.2 Internal and external design choices .................................................................. 48 4.3 Other images and photos ..................................................................................... 52 4.4 Corrections .......................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 5: Personal relationships............................................................................................. 57 5.1 Johan van der Woude .......................................................................................... 57 5.2 Alice von Eugen & Tine van Buul ....................................................................... 58 5.3 Irma Silzer ........................................................................................................... 63 5.4 Hans Warren ....................................................................................................... 68 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 72 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 75 Archival sources............................................................................................................. 75 Secondary Literature ...................................................................................................... 76 Websites ......................................................................................................................... 78 Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 80 Appendix A: Bibliography of works by Maria Dermoût ............................................... 80 3 Other publications ...................................................................................................... 99 Translations .............................................................................................................. 105 Appendix B. Schedules of honoraria, royalties and sales ............................................ 107 1. Honorarium per title ...................................................................................... 108 2. Earnings per title in Dutch on annual basis .................................................. 109 3. Earnings per foreign title on annual basis .................................................... 111 4. Annual accounts 1951-1962 .......................................................................... 113 Appendix C: Letters between Querido and Maria Dermoût ........................................ 128 4 Introduction For years, I have had an interest in ‘other’ cultures and history: from India and its Hinduism to Irish folklore, and from the Japanese Samurai to the Maori in New-Zealand. When reading Maria Dermoût’s The Ten Thousand Things, this sparked my interest in former Dutch-Indonesia and the corresponding culture and literature, and more importantly in the author who introduced me to this period. Combined with my interest in publishing and its history, which was fuelled during the MA programme Book and Digital Media Studies, it was a small step towards a study on the relationship between Maria Dermoût and her publishers. The most important question of this study is what the connection between Querido publisher Alice von Eugen and author Maria Dermoût was like. How did Alice von Eugen take care of her responsibilities as a publisher, and how did she defend Maria Dermoût’s position abroad? Subsequently, the question arises how decisions regarding Maria’s novels were taken: did Alice consult Maria before making a decision, or did Maria have the power to put forward her own ideas? Finally, I want to know which personal matters, if any, were discussed between Alice and Maria, and how this compares to relationships Maria had with others in the publishing world. The structure of this essay is divided into five chapters. The first two deal with the historical background. They present an account of Maria Dermoût’s life and work, followed by brief biographies on the publishers at Em. Querido’s Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V.: the firm’s founder Emanuel Querido, his assistant Alice van Nahuys and her husband Frederic von Eugen, and finally Tine van Buul and her partner Reinold Kuipers. The third chapter discusses formalities in the contracts like Maria’s honorarium, translations abroad and the division of some ancillary rights, while the fourth chapter delves deeper into the book as a physical object, which leads towards an inquiry on the design of her books as well as other artistic decisions. The final chapter investigates the personal contacts Maria Dermoût had with her publishers, based on the remaining correspondence, as well as her relationship with her Swiss translator Irma Silzer and the poet Hans Warren. Three appendices have been added: the first provides a bibliography of Maria Dermoût’s literary works; the second gives more insight into Dermoût’s earnings, royalties and sales; and the third presents transcripts of some of the correspondence between Dermoût and Querido. 5 6 Chapter 1: Biography on Maria Dermoût1 For a query of the Algemeen Handelsblad in 1952 amongst authors, Maria Dermoût wrote: “Until the twelfth year and after that from the seventeenth until the forty-fifth year (with short interruptions) been in the Indies.”2 This is the theme that returned her entire life. Two quotes from her works describe Maria Dermoût best. The first one originates from her partly autobiographical first novel, Nog pas gisteren (1951): “She needed time to lose it all.”3 The girl Rick from the story, born and raised in the Dutch East Indies, is sent to high school in the Netherlands. And although she is excited to go there, she first needs time. Time to lose it all, to give it a place: the people, the things she loved, the beautiful nature and the tropical climate, her place in the world until then – just like Maria Dermoût needed time to get used to the Netherlands. The second quote originates from the work she became renowned with throughout the world, De tienduizend dingen (1955): Then the lady of the Small Garden whose name was Felicia stood up from her chair obediently and without looking round at the inner bay in the moonlight—it would remain there, always—she went with them, under the tree and indoors, to drink her cup of coffee and try again to go on living.4 After she left the Dutch East Indies, Maria had to give her memories a place. They were the islands she loved dearly, where she was born and where a major part of her life had taken place. The inner bay can be seen as a metaphor for the Dutch East Indies: it would remain in her mind always; but for now, she had to try to go on living, as she had done 1 This biography has partly been used before in C. Verhelst, Door bewondering gedreven. Een onderzoek naar de relatie tussen Maria Dermoût en Hans Warren (Leiden, unpublished BA thesis, 2013), pp. 4-7, and is based on K. Freriks, Geheim Indië. Het leven van Maria Demoût 1888-1962. (Amsterdam: Querido, 2000), unless specified otherwise. 2 ‘tot het twaalfde jaar en daarna van het zeventiende tot vijf-en-veertigste jaar (met korte onderbrekingen) in Indië geweest.’ Freriks, Geheim Indië,