Ferdinand Bordewijk

Dutch writer of magic realistic novels and short stories, poet and lawyer. With Simon Vestdijk Bordewijk belonged to the major Dutch writers of fiction in his time.

Bordewijk was born as Ferdinand Johan Wilhelm Christiaan Karel Emil Bordewijk, but on 13 March 1919 he changed his name to Ferdinand Bordewijk at the court in Den Haag.

Bordewijk spent the first ten years of his youth in Amsterdam. In 1894 his family moved to the more aristocratic The Hague. He studied law at the prestigious Leiden University. He dissertated on 3 May 1912 at 4h00 PM in Leiden with thirty propositions to become a Doctor in Law. In 1913 he became a lawyer. That year he started to work as a junior at a Rotterdam law firm. He wrote about in his novel Karakter (1934). He would stay a practising lawyer until his dead in 1965.

On 1 August 1914 he married the classical music composer Johanna Roepman (b. 4 August 1892). Her first (magical: "without instruction") composed Variations II, op. 6 for piano (1919) were dedicated to her husband. He wrote the libretto for her opera Roundabout (1941) and the symphonic poem Plato's death (1949).

In 1916 he published his first poetry "Paddestoelen" (toadstools) under the pseudonym "Ton Ven" ("Anton Fen"). But he became famous as a writer of prose. Only in 1964 he would publish poetry again: "Jade, jaspis en de jitterbug".

In 1918 he published "A king of the phrase" and from 1991-1924 the short stories series "Fantastic tales".

In 1931 he published his breakthrough "Blokken"(Blocks), soon to be followed by "Knorrende Beesten" (Growling Animals, 1933) and Bint (1934). Although he considered "Blokken" a misfit, it is still a much read novel, that was compared to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932).

His books are still read by Dutch literature students and during his lifetime he got major Literature awards:

In 1953 he won the P.C. Hooftprijs.

In 1957 he was awarded the Constantijn Huygensprijs.