August Aimé Balkema
August Aimé (Guus) Balkema (6 October 1906, in
Life and career
Early years
Balkema was born in Avereest in Overijssel, the son of Sijbrand Harkes Balkema and Antje Tjitske Gelderman. On 18 January 1936 in Zandvoort, he wed Anna Stehouwer.[1]
Amsterdam
After studying French literature, in 1936 he opened a bookstore in the
In 1943 Balkema, along with Adriaan Morriën en Fred Batten, started the series Het Zwarte Schaap. After the war, this series was taken over by the publishing house De Bezige Bij.[3]
During renovations of the Huis aan de Drie Grachten in 2005, a hidden compartment was uncovered containing an archive of wartime documents, including manuscripts and correspondence. The compartment may also have served as a hiding place for (Jewish) onderduikers (people hiding from the Germans). The archive was donated in 2006 to the library of the Koninklijke Vereniging van het Boekenvak ('Royal Association of the Book Trade'), which is housed in the library of the University of Amsterdam.[3][5]
South Africa
In 1946, after the end of the war, Balkema sold his bookstore in Amsterdam and left for South Africa to pursue a career as a publisher there. That same year, he published his first book in South Africa, Vyjtig Gedigte by the South African poet C. Louis Leipoldt.[4]
Balkema quickly established his name by publishing specialist books which had often been refused by the more established publishing houses. These included such works as the Hertzog Prize-winning Die Vrou op die Skuit by Elise Muller (1957). Before long, many South African writers began to approach Balkema of their own accord to request that he publish their work. These included Jan Rabie whose Ons, die afgod was the first Afrikaans-language anti-apartheid novel, evoking much criticism and controversy when it was published in 1958. Balkema's status was definitely established when he was asked to handle the official publication of the Daghregisters (journals) of Jan van Riebeeck in 1952.[4]
Balkema was known for the high quality of the books he published, in particular the
His perhaps greatest contribution was to Afrikaans-language nonfiction. A large number of books on South African nature, architecture, culture, and history were authored and published on his initiative, and are still considered standard works in their respective fields. He also published English-language literature and academic books and journals.[2][4]
Later years
In the 1960s, Balkema decided to end his career as a publisher. During a visit to his family in the Netherlands in 1986, he fell severely ill. He and his wife Annie decided to re-settle in the Netherlands, where they remained until their deaths, hers in 1994 and his in 1996.[2]
Legacy
In 1984 a liber amicorum in his honour was published by Vriende van die S.A. Biblioteek, Liber amicorum pro A.A. Balkema.
Balkema was included in
His son started a technical and scientific publisher in Rotterdam, naming it A A Balkema Publishers after his father. This imprint is now part of the Taylor & Francis Group as CRC Press / Balkema.[2]
His son (also named A.A. Balkema) is a mathematician who proved, together with Laurens de Haan, the epynomous Pickands–Balkema–De Haan theorem.
References
- ^ "Kwartierstaat August Aimé (Guus) Balkema", Genealogie familie Boelen-Pieterse (Dutch)
- ^ a b c d e Hanli Deysel, "AA Balkema – seminal publisher at the Cape of books on South African architecture", Artefacts.co.za
- ^ a b c "UB Amsterdam verwerft archivalia van boekhandel/uitgeverij A.A. Balkema", press release Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam/Koninklijke Vereniging van het Boekenvak (Dutch)
- ^ a b c d e ""August Aime Balkema", South African History Online; extracted from Human, K. (1999) "August Aime Balkema", They Shaped our Century: The Most Influential South Africans of the Twentieth Century, Human & Rousseau, pp.442- 445". Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
- ^ Jaarverslag Stichting Bibliotheek van het Boekenvak 2005–2006 Archived 2012-03-30 at the Wayback Machine (Dutch)