Frans Kellendonk, Dutch Writer

b. 7th January 1951
d. 15 February 1990

Professor of English language and literature in the Netherlands. He was also a novelist, who won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 1987 for his novel Mystiek lichaam. This work attracted criticism in gay circles for its alleged homophobia, but Kellendonk was himself gay, and died of complications following AIDS a month after his 39th birthday.

Kellendonk studied English Language and Culture at the University of Nijmegen. He also studied for a time in England, and later worked at Utrecht University, the Free University and the University of Amsterdam. Besides his academic career as lecturer in English language and literature, Kellendonk wrote several stories and novels which brought him literary fame.His stylistic skill was praised, but his cultural criticism often maligned.Kellendonk's alleged neo-conservative world view, with a revaluation of traditional values, was far from fashionable in the Netherlands of the eighties. Kellendonk's literary home. from 1978 to 1983 was the magazine The Government  where he was editor in chief .

He debuted as a writer in May 1977 with the collection of stories “Bouwval“ (Ruin), for which he was awarded.the Anton Wachter Prize, established in that year. The novel  "Mystiek Lichaam" (Mystical Body)(1986) is his most successful work. The book was acclaimed, awarded the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize and was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, but it also drew allegations against Kellendonk of anti-Semitism and homophobia. .In gay circles, where Kellendonk was known to be homosexual, the vision of homosexuality as "sterile lifestyle" was controversial. Kellendonk defended himself against this criticism with the classic argument that an author can not be held responsible for the ideas of his fictional characters.

Kellendonk belonged to the generation of AFTh. van der Heijden and de Jong Oek .

Mystical Body confirmed his place in Dutch literature. Even before the publication of that book, the first symptoms of AIDS were revealed to Kellendonk. A book about the Kerwin Duinmeijer affair that he had prepared, therefore remained unfinished.

He died one month after his 39th birthday and was buried in Amsterdam Cemetery Zorgvlied .

In accordance with instructions he left, his complete works were published in 1992. In 2006 publishing Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep began to reissue Kellendonk's works. In 2006 the archives of Frans Kellendonk came under the management of the Library of the Society of Dutch Literature, University of Leiden .

Hans Warren, Dutch poet, writer and literary critic

.b. October 20, 1921
d. December 18, 2001

Johannes Adrianus Menne Warren was a Dutch writer, much of whose fame in the Netherlands derived from a collection of diaries, published under the title, "Geheime Dagboek (Secret Diary)" in which he described his early life and homosexual experiences, with a frank account of his awakening as a homosexual in the countryside, his tempestuous relations with his mostly North African lovers and with his wife, who gave birth to several children. He also explains his divorce and the start of a new life, first living alone, later with his lover Mario.

He is also renowned for a fictionalised account of these early years, describing what it was like to be both Jewish and gay in the Netherlands under the Nazi occupation, in "Secretly Inside".

The publication of his series of diaries caused some concern among Warren's friends and colleagues: as the title implies, the diaries are quite frank. Warren openly describes his own life and experiences, and offers his opinions on everyone, including his friends. The twentieth volume covered the years 1996 to 1998, with one more volume to be published.

In 1952 he married an English woman, and they had three children. Soon after their marriage his wife was offered a position in Paris, where Warren's repressed homosexual feelings found an outlet in many contacts with North African boys. Although this created tension in his marriage, it also sparked his poetic career: Warren published three collections of poetry during his years in Paris, and the marriage, in the end, lasted until 1978.

In 1958 the family returned to Zeeland, and Warren produced little writing until the end of the 1960s, when the publishing company Bert Bakker published a collection of new poems by Warren, Tussen hybris en vergaan. In 1969 Warren met Gerrit Komrij and the two poets began a long and mutually inspiring friendship. During the next ten years, Warren published a new book of poetry every year.

In 1978 Warren met Mario Molegraaf, forty years his junior (Warren was 57 at that time). The two began a tumultuous love affair that lasted until Warren's death. Molegraaf was a talented writer himself, and together they published a number of translations: the entire work of Constantine P. Cavafy, several poems by George Seferis, works by Plato and Epicurius, and the four gospels.

From 1985 until 2002, Meulenhoff published a Warren calendar with a poem each day. Together with Molegraaf, Warren published several popular poetry anthologies.

October 20th in Queer History: Hans Warren

Born this day

Hans Warren (1921 - 2001)
Dutch poet, writer and literary critic, born in Borsele, whose full name was Johannes Adrianus Menne Warren. He published a an extended series of candid diaries of his life ans sexual experiences as a gay man in the Netherlands, including the early years when married and closeted, coming out, and later living and writing as openly gay. He is also notable for a fictionalized account of what it was like to be both Jewish and gay under Nazi occupation, in the novel "Secretly Inside".

Sodomy in History, October 20

1896 — The Iowa Supreme Court permits divorce on cruelty grounds due to one spouse’s violating a sodomy statute.

1941 — South African police are called in to quiet a disturbance at a gold mine caused by the dismissal of 122 miners for refusing to stop dances in which boys are squeezed and kissed.

1941 — The Arkansas Supreme Court rejects the request of a sodomy defendant to be sent to a hospital to determine his mental status.

Source:
Calendar of Sodomy, October

Catharina Isabella "Ien" Dales, Dutch Politician

b. October 18, 1931
d. January 10, 1994

Born in Arnhem.  Miss Dales, a career politician and member of the Labor Party, was elected to Parliament in 1981, mayor of Nijmegen from 1987 to 1989, Deputy Minister for Social Affairs from 1981 to 1982, and Minister of Home Affairs 1989-1994.  

Some sources claim that she was "often rumoured to be lesbian, and was finally outed after her death by the Dutch prime-minister Ruud Lubbers". However, a scholarly article about diversity management in Dutch employment practices, groups her with Pim Fortuyn and  Boris Dittrich as prominent Dutch politicians who were open about their homosexuality.

Ien Dales (Dutch Labour Party, died in office in 1994), the late Pim Fortuyn (founder of the right- wing LPF Party, murdered in 2001) and Boris Dittrich (D66, Social–Liberal Party leader up to 2004) were all open about their homosexuality and championed equal rights for this group