Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees"Nooteboom (Dutch pronunciation:[seːsˈnoːtəboːm]; born 31 July 1933) is a Dutchnovelist,poet andjournalist. After the attention received by his novelRituals (Rituelen, 1980), which won thePegasus Prize, it was the first of his novels to be translated into an English-language edition, published in 1983 byLouisiana State University Press (LSU Press) of the United States. LSU Press published his two earlier novels in English in the following years, as well as other works up until 1990.Harcourt (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) andGrove Press have since published some of his works in English.
Nooteboom has won numerous literary awards and has been mentioned as a candidate for theNobel Prize in literature.[1]
Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees" Nooteboom was born on 31 July 1933 inThe Hague, Netherlands.[2] His father was killed there in the 1945bombing of the Bezuidenhout during World War II.[3]
After his mother remarried in 1948, his Catholic stepfather enrolled Nooteboom in several religious secondary schools, including a Franciscan school inVenray and a school run by the Augustinians inEindhoven. He finished his secondary education at a night school inUtrecht.[4]
After his first job with a bank inHilversum, Nooteboom travelled throughout Europe. In addition to his independent writing, he worked for the weekly magazineElsevier, from 1957 to 1960, and at the newspaperde Volkskrant from 1961 to 1968. In 1967, he became the travel editor of the magazineAvenue.
In 1957 Nooteboom was hired on as asailor on a freighter toSuriname in order to earn money and ask for the hand of his first wife, Fanny Lichtveld. They married but later divorced in 1964. Some of his travel experiences are recounted in the bookDe verliefde gevangene (1958).
He was also in a relationship with the singerLiesbeth List. Nooteboom is married to Simone Sassen and divides his time betweenAmsterdam,Germany and the island ofMenorca.
On 2 September 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate fromUCL, London.[5]
Nooteboom's first novel,Philip en de anderen (Philip and the Others, 1988 English translation), was published in 1954 and won theAnne Frank Prize. His second novel,De ridder is gestorven (1963) (The Knight Has Died, English edition, 1990) was his last for 17 years. During that period, he was working for publications and writing poetry and travel books.
In 1980, his third novelRituelen (Rituals, 1983) brought him wide acclaim in the Netherlands, winning thePegasus Prize. It was his first novel to be translated into English and was published by Louisiana State University Press, which published two of his earlier novels in English, as well as others through to 1990.
Other novels by Nooteboom includeEen lied van schijn en wezen (A Song of Truth and Semblance, 1984);Allerzielen (1998) (All Souls' Day, 2001), andParadijs verloren (Paradise Lost, 2007). His best-known work to English-speaking audiences is perhapsThe Following Story (Het volgende verhaal, 1991), which was written for the DutchBoekenweek in 1991. It won theAristeion Prize in 1993.[6]
Nooteboom is also a well-known travel writer. Some of his travel books includeEen middag in Bruay,Een nacht in Tunesië, andDe omweg naar Santiago (Roads to Santiago, 1997), an anthology of his writings on Spain. This last book inspired the musical workSix Glosses (2010) by Spanish composerBenet Casablancas. Nooteboom's experiences living inBerlin, Germany, are detailed in the bookBerlijn 1989–2009, which collects his earlier books,Berlijnse notities andTerugkeer naar Berlijn, and new material.[7]
The bookDe omweg naar Santiago inspired several Spanish and Dutch composers. It has been the subject of the tournée of concerts celebrated in 2010 in The Netherlands by theEnsemble 88 from Maastricht.[8]
^(in Dutch) Dick Welsink, "Cees Nooteboom: een leven in data",Cees Nooteboom. Ik had wel duizend levens en ik nam er maar één! (1997). Retrieved on 2012-10-10.
^The Dutch Foundation For Literature (17 November 2009)."Cees Nooteboom". Retrieved22 July 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Nooteboom, Cees.Berlijn 1989/2009 (De Bezige Bij, 2009), p. 413.
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