Anton Van Straaten

Dutch headmaster, professor of English and lexicographer who was the author and leader of The Central Esperanto Propaganda Commission from 1926 until at least 1933.

Anton van Straaten wrote the first valuable Esperanto dictionary for Dutch speakers. In 1933 he published the extensive "Esperanto-Woordenboek, Esperanto-Nederlandsch / Nederlandsch-Esperanto" at the important Dutch publishing house W. J. Thieme & Cie. The Dutch text is spelled "De Vries en Te Winkel". It was a luxurious edition, beautifully bound with a hard cover. The layout was such that the two parts could be considered separate books, but they were never separately bound. The page numbering resumes in the second part, and that part also has a front page. In total the dictionary covers 696 pages (4 + 134 + 4 + 554). In the preface the author states that he wishes to deliver not only translations of words and an explanation of grammatical categories, but especially to deal with expressions and syntagms which are not literally translatable. He states that he drew abundantly from Zamenhof's Proverbs. The dictionary is, in both parts, extremely rich in expressions. Therefore it also became the basis on which all subsequent lexicographers continued the work.

In 1936, its second edition appeared, completely unchanged, despite the fact that in the meantime Flanders had adopted a new spelling system and that the Netherlands was in full discussion of spelling reforms. But in the same year, 1936, it appeared, in the same publishing house and in the same form: “Beknopt Esperanto-Woordenboek, Esperanto-Nederlands / Nederlands-Esperanto” (Concise dictionary). The concise version had been adapted from the new Marchant spelling. Again the two parts can be considered as separate books, in a single binding. One important difference though: the page numbers do not restart but continue.