Tonke Dragt
Tonke Dragt | |
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Born | Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt 12 November 1930 Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Present day Jakarta, Indonesia) |
Nationality | Dutch |
Alma mater | Royal Academy of Art, The Hague |
Period | 1961–present |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | "De zevensprong", "De brief voor de koning" ("The Letter for the King") |
Notable awards | Various |
Signature | |
Website | |
www |
Antonia "Tonke" Johanna Willemina Dragt (born 12 November 1930) is a Dutch writer and illustrator of children's literature. Her book
Biography
Childhood in Batavia
Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East Indies (currently Jakarta in Indonesia) as the eldest daughter of a Dutch insurance agent based in Batavia. Dragt was initially called "Tonneke" (Dutch for 'tubby'), a name she disliked "because I was tall and thin".[1] She attended the Nassau School.[1] Her family environment was creative: her father and one of her sisters were also interested in writing and the Dragt family had their own 'house library'. The inspiration for several of her early novels such as De brief voor de koning en Geheimen van het Wilde Woud were taken from her yearly Summer holidays at Puncak and Situgunung.[2]
During the
After the Second World War ended, Dragt was reunited with her father and family moved to the Netherlands, where they first came to live in Dordrecht in 1949 and subsequently moved to The Hague.[4] Dragt could never return to Indonesia, initially because she lacked money, later because her health would not allow it anymore.[3]
Life in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, she completed her HBS exams and subsequently was enrolled at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague. Her dream was to become a full-time artist, but her parents encouraged her to do something which would lead to making enough income to take care of herself.[1] As a result, she focused on becoming an art teacher.
Dragt afterwards did most of her writing at night time while working as a drawing teacher at primary schools during the day. She had problems with controlling her classroom as a teacher, as classes were often filled with forty to fifty children due to the
In 1956, her first work was accepted in several magazines and newspapers, most notably the magazine Kris Kras. Five years later, her debut book appeared and was received well by critics.[6] She made a big name for herself with her second novel in 1962, De brief voor de koning (The Letter for the King), which won the award for being the best Dutch children's book of the year. She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps.[7]
Apart from writing and illustrating her own books, Tonke Dragt also made illustrations for some other books, including work by Paul Biegel, E. Nesbit, Rosemary Sutcliff, and the novel Elidor by Alan Garner.[8]
Throughout the decade, the work of Tonke Dragt was translated into many languages, including German, Afrikaans, Czech, Spanish, Danish and Indonesian. It would take until 2013 before her first novel was translated into English.
Style and themes
Many of the books and stories by Tonke Dragt are situated in a fantasy or science fiction environment, although usually closely related to or intertwined with the real world.[6] De brief voor de koning, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, and a few short stories, are set in a fictional medieval world. Torenhoog en mijlenbreed, Ogen van tijgers, and related stories, are near-future science fiction stories, where the action happens on Venus and Earth. De torens van februari alternates between our world and a parallel world. De zevensprong is most firmly set in a realistic setting.
Dragt uses elements of legends and fables, most clearly in Verhalen van de tweelingbroers. Her stories are mainly focused on one or a few male protagonists, often teenagers. They go on a personal quest, a search that may be externalized in an item like the letter in De brief voor de koning, but which results in a discovery of their own persona.[6] Dragt admitted that she used male characters as it was more logical in her historic settings, for example the Middle Ages in De brief voor de koning, in which females played a smaller role. On top of that, she called the traditional "girl books" of her time "slow", preferring to read books aimed at boys.[1]
Tonke Dragt's style and themes were considered to be unique in Dutch children's literature as up to the 1960s, most Dutch children's literature was set in a day-to-day realistic setting, involving young children. In the 1960s, Dragt, alongside Thea Beckman started pioneering children's literature with their thick books involving protagonists in historical fantasy and science fiction settings.[9]
Dragt long admired British children's literature for its fantasy tradition, stating that Dutch literature demanded realism.[10] In a 2019 interview, Dragt therefore recalled her first call with Miep Diekmann, who worked as an editor at Leopold at the time and was not entirely convinced by the first Verhalen van de tweelingbroers manuscript, stating that fables were out of fashion. Diekmann was also concerned with the thickness of the book, totalling over 350 pages, which was unusual for a children's book at the time. However, she was charmed by the illustrations and storytelling ability, calling Dragt "talented".[1]
Dragt's first books and their illustrations were mainly inspired by her childhood in
Success of The Letter for the King
The book The Letter for the King (Dutch:
In 2007, it premiered as a musical theater piece. This was the second theater production based on the works of Tonke Dragt, after an adaptation of De Zevensprong.[12]
In 2015 a sequel, The Secrets of the Wild Wood, was translated into English.
The
Bibliography
Title | Year | Translations | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
Verhalen van de tweelingbroers | 1961 | German, English, Japanese, Spanish | Renamed to De goudsmit en de meesterdief in 15h edition in 2018[16] |
De brief voor de koning | 1962 | Catalan, Czech, Danish, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish (2017), Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish | |
De blauwe boekanier | 1964 | German | Offered for free as the yearly Kinderboekenweekgeschenk
|
Geheimen van het Wilde Woud | 1965 | Danish, German, Japanese, Spanish, English, Hungarian, Polish, Swedish (due 2020) | Sequel to De brief voor de koning |
De zevensprong | 1966 | Danish, German, Japanese, Spanish, English, Hungarian | Later turned into a TV series |
De trapeze | 1967 | Collection of stories | |
De blauwe maan | 1968 | A series of 8 short books | |
Torenhoog en mijlenbreed | 1969 | German, Czech, Afrikaans | |
De torens van februari | 1973 | English, Spanish, German, Danish | |
Water is gevaarlijk | 1977 | Collection of stories | |
Het gevaarlijke venster en andere verhalen | 1979 | German, Spanish | Collection of stories. A follow-up on De brief voor de koning and Geheimen van het Wilde Woud. |
Ogen van tijgers | 1982 | German | Sequel to Torenhoog en mijlenbreed |
Het geheim van de klokkenmaker, of De tijd zal het leren, of De tijd zal je leren | 1989 | German, Spanish | |
Aan de andere kant van de deur | 1992 | German | Sequel to Het geheim van de klokkenmaker: an announced third part hasn't been published thus far. |
De robot van de rommelmarkt / Route Z | 2001 | German, Slovenian | Two stories, one a prequel to Torenhoog en mijlenbreed |
De blauwe maansteen | 2005 | German, Spanish, Japanese | |
Het dansende licht | 2005 | Collection of stories | |
Wat niemand weet | 2007 | Illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen | |
Dichtbij ver van hier | 2009 | ||
Als de sterren zingen | 2017 |
Awards
- 1963: Kinderboek van het Jaar (Children's book of the Year, the predecessor of the Gouden Griffel) for De brief voor de koning[6]
- 1971: Nienke van Hichtum-prijs for Torenhoog en mijlenbreed[17]
- 1976: Staatsprijs voor kinder- en jeugdliteratuur (the highest award in the Dutch language area for a youth author, can be won only once per author)[17]
- 1995: Buxtehude Bull, an Award for youth literature given by the city of Buxtehude, for the German translation of De torens van Februari[18]
- 2004: Griffel der Griffels for De brief voor de koning (award for the best Dutch children's book of the past fifty years)[17]
- 2005: Victorine Hefting Award, an award for women in The Hague who have contributed to the cultural emancipation of women[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Claus, Sybilla (30 March 2019). "'De brief voor de koning' krijgt een Netflix-serie. 'Nu moet ik nog een poosje blijven leven'". Trouw. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-258-6114-8.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b "Pena Wormer - Surat untuk Raja". www.wormerjaya.co.id.
- ISBN 978-90-258-7374-5.
- ^ a b "Literatuur zonder leeftijd. Jaargang 15 · dbnl". DBNL.
- ^ a b c d "Tonke Dragt" (in Dutch). Leopold. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- ^ Van Gool, Jef (1977). Refleks. p. 76.
- ^ Van Gool, Jef (1977). Refleks. p. 77.
- ^ Huseman, Jonathan (28 April 2001). "Schrijfster Tonke Dragt gaat uit van de intelligentie van het kind". Trouw.
- ^ a b Pauli, Michelle (19 September 2015). "Tonke Dragt interview: 'I was born a fairytale teller'". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
- ^ "De ambassade van Tonke Dragt" (in Dutch). De Standaard. 10 November 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
- ^ a b Sonja De Jong (25 September 2007). "Tonke overtuigd: ridders zingen toch" (in Dutch). Het Parool. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
- ISBN 978-90-83120-80-5
- ^ "Derek de Lint in De brief voor de koning" (in Dutch). Trouw. 17 January 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
- ^ "Carta al rey | Sitio oficial de Netflix". Netflix.
- ^ "De goudsmid en de meesterdief". 13 June 2018.
- ^ a b c d "Victorine Hefting-prijs 2005 voor Tonke Dragt" (in Dutch). The Hague. 13 May 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
- ^ "Buxtehuder Bulle für "Lagune der Galeeren"" (in German). Abendblatt. 30 September 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
External links
- Official website (in Dutch)
- Biography at her publisher Leopold (in Dutch)
- Tonke Dragt at Library of Congress, with 13 library catalogue records