Cissy van Marxveldt

Cissy van Marxveldt
Born Setske de Haan
(1889-11-24)24 November 1889
Oranjewoud, Netherlands
Died 31 October 1948(1948-10-31) (aged 58)
Bussum, Netherlands
Pen name Cissy van Marxveldt
Nationality Dutch
Spouse Leo Beek (1916–1944)
Children Leo and IJnze

Setske de Haan (24 November 1889 – 31 October 1948), better known by her pen name Cissy van Marxveldt, was a Dutch writer of children's books. She is best known for her series of Joop ter Heul novels.

Biography

Setske de Haan was born on 24 November 1889 in Oranjewoud, a village in the northern province of Friesland in the Netherlands. She was the daughter of IJnze de Haan, a headmaster and history teacher, and Froukje de Groot.[1]

In 1914, she met Leo Beek, who was a department store manager as well as a reserve infantry officer. De Haan and Beek married on 2 February 1916 and had two sons, Leo and IJnze. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Beek was arrested and later executed in the Westerbork transit camp in 1944, though it was 1946 before De Haan learned of his fate. She died in Bussum on 31 October 1948.[1]

Career in writing

Cover of the first Joop ter Heul novel

Cissy van Marxvelt embarked on her literary career by writing articles and stories for Dutch magazines. In the year she married (1916), she published the first book in what was to become a series of novels about a headstrong girl, Joop ter Heul. The books, similar in theme to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, contain many diary entries and letters. They chart the fortunes of Joop, her sister and her school friends, from girlhood through marriage. The series consists of five volumes:

Van Marxvelt's Joop ter Heul novels for teenage girls had a notable influence on the writings of Anne Frank, who addressed her diary letters to an imaginary friend named Kitty. Anne Frank scholars, as well as Anne's friend Kitty Egyedi, are united in their belief that Frank's Kitty was based on a character created by Van Marxveldt: Kitty Francken, a friend of Joop's and a frequent recipient of her letters.

Van Marxveldt also wrote many other young-adult books, of which Een zomerzotheid ("A Summer Folly") was a particular good seller, that made her affluent.

She dedicated her last book She Suffered Too to her husband, after she learned of his execution by the Nazi-occupant forces, because he had been a resistance fighter.

Bibliography

During her lifetime, Cissy van Marxveldt published 27 books. Two books were published posthumously.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Gelder, Henk van (13 March 2008). "Haan, Setske de (1889–1948)". Huygens Institute of History. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
  2. ↑ "Cissy van Marxveldt 1889–1948". National Library (The Hague). Retrieved 2008-07-26.
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