Fun Facts Friday: Maria Dermoût

Maria Dermoût (15 June, 1888 – 27 June, 1962), was a novelist who is considered to be of the most important writers in Dutch indies literature.

Books by Maria Dermoût*

Fun Facts about Maria Dermoût:

1. She was born on the island of Java, in the Dutch East Indies as Helena Anthonia Maria Elisabeth Dermoût-Ingerman.
2. Her parents were descendants of employees of the Dutch East India Company.
3. Most of Ms. Dermoût’s childhood was spent on a sugar plantation.
4. The author was educated in Holland and continued writing in Dutch.
5. When visiting the writer Johan van der Woude in 1949, Ms. Dermoût showed him some of her writings. He immediately put her in contact with his publisher.
6. Even though Ms. Dermoût wrote all her life, most of her writings were published after she was in her early 60s.
7. The author was awarded with immediate success (if you can call 60 years of writing “immediate”) with her first publication.
8. During the 1960s she had many short stories published in magazines.
9. Ms. Dermoût’s son died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
10. The translation of The Ten Thousand Things (1958) was named by Time Magazine as one of the best books of the year (together with Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, Doctor Zhivago by  Boris Pasternak and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov).

Books by Maria Dermoût*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account