Anne de Vries

Dutch Christian teacher and prolific writer of educational children's books, most known for "Bartje", "Reis door de nacht" and his children's bible.

Anne de Vries was the fourth child of the poor pipefitter Hendrik de Vries (28 Nov 1871, Bovensmilde - 8 August 1950, Assen) and Anna Mast (22 May 1868, Kloosterveen - 9 June 1933, Assen), who married 24 February 1897 in Assen. They got seven children, of which the only son Anne, was born on the birthday as his mother. It was an Easter Sunday.

His very principal Christian reformed father was unable to give and receive love, as is well described in his party autobiographical book Bartje. The father was described as a Demiurg like tyrannical person, that reacted with the whip (klabatse) when his young son Bartje said: "Ik bid nie veur bruune boonen" (I do not pray for brown beans, never, never) as he hated brown beans. But his Christian father, who had to work long days to sustain his family, had little mercy with the preferences of his son. The mother on the other hand was described as a soft and broadly interested woman, who tried to compromise between her husband the children and to give the children the warmth they lacked from their father.

In the Dutch educational system bright children with a poor background, could be selected by their teachers to become a school master. This would also become his faith. But his father was initially opposed to it, and sent him to a gardener. But after two years he could follow the Normaalschool in Assen to study for schoolmaster.

In 1923 Anne became a school teacher in Tweede Exloërmond. In 1926 he became a school teacher in the Christian institute for the blind and visually impaired children "Bartiméus" in Zeist. Having the dialect of the poor inhabitants of the province of Drenthe in the more mundane Zeist, he started to stutter and stumble again. Because of homesickness for his native region, he wrote his first children's book "Evert in Turfland" (1930, Evert in Peat Land).