Arthur Japin
Encyclopedia
Arthur Valentijn Japin is a renowned Dutch
novelist.
in Amsterdam
, where he trained as an actor. He was also briefly an opera singer at De Nederlandse Opera
in Amsterdam.
His first novel, De zwarte met het witte hart (1997), translated as The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, was the story of two Ashanti princes, Kwame Poku and Kwasi Boachi, who were taken from today's Ghana
and given as gifts to the Dutch
king Willem II
in 1837. Based in part on Japin's own traumatic youth, and based on ten years of research in the Netherlands
, Germany
, Africa
, and Indonesia
, the book became a bestseller and is considered to be a classic of modern Dutch literature. In November 2007, an opera based on the novel premiered in Rotterdam
, with an English libretto by Arthur Japin and music by the British
composer Jonathan Dove
.
His second book, De droom van de leeuw, (2002), is a novelized version of his relationship with the Dutch actress and novelist Rosita Steenbeek in Rome
, where Steenbeek became the last lover of the Italian
director Federico Fellini
.
His third novel, Een schitterend gebrek, translated as In Lucia's Eyes (2003), was a return to the historical novel, about Casanova's first lover, Lucia, who, he reports in his Memoirs, inexplicably abandoned him in his youth, only to resurface years later as a hideous prostitute in an Amsterdam
brothel
.
His forthcoming novel, De overgave, to be translated as Someone Found, takes the subject of the 19th-century Texas
Indian wars
, dramatizing the story of the Fort Parker Massacre
of 1836, in which a white girl, Cynthia Ann Parker
, was taken as a Comanche
hostage, later becoming the mother of the famous Comanche chief Quanah Parker
.
Japin has also published several volumes of stories. The first two, Magonische verhalen and De vierde wand, were gathered into the omnibus Alle verhalen, (2005). Magonische verhalen was made into the film Magonia
by the Dutch director Ineke Smits. Japin was the author of the Boekenweek
geschenk (Book Week Gift) 2006, De grote wereld, a short novel about a pair of circus-performing dwarves caught in Nazi Germany
, which had a record first printing of 813,000 copies. He has won almost every prestigious prize in Dutch literature, including the Libris Prize for In Lucia's Eyes.
with his partners since 2002, Benjamin Moser
, an American writer, and Lex Jansen.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/greathomesanddestinations/23gh-netherlands.html
panel game
QI
. The first episode was broadcast on 27 December, 2008.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
novelist.
Biography
His parents were Bert Japin, a teacher and writer of detective novels, and Annie Japin-van Arnhem. After a difficult childhood - his father killed himself when Arthur was twelve years old - Japin entered the KleinkunstacademieAmsterdamse Toneelschool & Kleinkunstacademie
The Theaterschool is a theater school in Amsterdam, and a division of the Amsterdam School of the Arts.It is runs four year Bachelor's degree courses, intended for new stage, film, cabaret and musical actors...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, where he trained as an actor. He was also briefly an opera singer at De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera , in Amsterdam, is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986....
in Amsterdam.
His first novel, De zwarte met het witte hart (1997), translated as The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, was the story of two Ashanti princes, Kwame Poku and Kwasi Boachi, who were taken from today's Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and given as gifts to the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
king Willem II
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
in 1837. Based in part on Japin's own traumatic youth, and based on ten years of research in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, the book became a bestseller and is considered to be a classic of modern Dutch literature. In November 2007, an opera based on the novel premiered in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, with an English libretto by Arthur Japin and music by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
composer Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove
Jonathan Dove is a British composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera , including in 1990 a famous 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des...
.
His second book, De droom van de leeuw, (2002), is a novelized version of his relationship with the Dutch actress and novelist Rosita Steenbeek in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where Steenbeek became the last lover of the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
director Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
.
His third novel, Een schitterend gebrek, translated as In Lucia's Eyes (2003), was a return to the historical novel, about Casanova's first lover, Lucia, who, he reports in his Memoirs, inexplicably abandoned him in his youth, only to resurface years later as a hideous prostitute in an Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
.
His forthcoming novel, De overgave, to be translated as Someone Found, takes the subject of the 19th-century Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Indian wars
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
, dramatizing the story of the Fort Parker Massacre
Fort Parker massacre
The Fort Parker massacre was an event in May 1836 in which members of the pioneer Parker family were killed in a raid by Native Americans. In this raid, a 9-year old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, was captured and spent most of the rest of her life with the Comanche, marrying a Chief, Peta Nocona, and...
of 1836, in which a white girl, Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker, or Naduah , was an American woman of old colonial stock of Scots-Irish descent who was captured and kidnapped at the age of nine by a American Indian band which massacred her family and...
, was taken as a Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
hostage, later becoming the mother of the famous Comanche chief Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
.
Japin has also published several volumes of stories. The first two, Magonische verhalen and De vierde wand, were gathered into the omnibus Alle verhalen, (2005). Magonische verhalen was made into the film Magonia
Magonia
Magonia is a British journal focused on UFO phenomena. Its name comes from Passport to Magonia, a book by Ufologist Jacques Vallée. Vallée in turn had borrowed the term from Magonia, a magical land described by French folklore....
by the Dutch director Ineke Smits. Japin was the author of the Boekenweek
Boekenweek
In the Netherlands, the Boekenweek is an annual "week" of ten days dedicated to Dutch literature. It is held in March since 1932. Each Boekenweek has a theme. The beginning of the Boekenweek is marked by the Boekenbal , a gathering that is attended by writers and publishers...
geschenk (Book Week Gift) 2006, De grote wereld, a short novel about a pair of circus-performing dwarves caught in Nazi Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which had a record first printing of 813,000 copies. He has won almost every prestigious prize in Dutch literature, including the Libris Prize for In Lucia's Eyes.
Personal life
Japin lives in UtrechtUtrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
with his partners since 2002, Benjamin Moser
Benjamin Moser
Benjamin Moser is an American writer who lives in Utrecht, Netherlands with Arthur Japin and Lex Jansen since 2002.-Biography:...
, an American writer, and Lex Jansen.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/greathomesanddestinations/23gh-netherlands.html
Prizes
- 1990 - Gorcumse Literatuurprijs for De klap van Ediep Koning
- 1995 - LIRA-prijs for De roering van het kielzog
- 1995 - Literaire prijs van de provincie Gelderland for De draden van Anansi
- 1998 - Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs for De zwarte met het witte hart
- 1998 - Halewijn-literatuurprijs van de stad Roermond for the body of his work
- 1999 - ECI-prijs voor Schrijvers van Nu for De zwarte met het witte hart
- 2004 - Libris literatuurprijs for Een schitterend gebrek
- 2005 - De Inktaap for Een schitterend gebrek
- 2008 - NS Publieksprijs for De overgave
Film
- 1996: Hoerenpreek, a television film by Ineke Smits
- 1996: De Wolkenfabriek, a television film by Ineke Smits
- 2000: Magonia, film version of Magonische verhalen by Ineke Smits, starring Dirk Roofthooft, Willem Voogd, Jack Wouterse, Linda van Dyck and Ramsey Nasr; also on DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
Television
Japin hosts the Dutch adaptation of the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
. The first episode was broadcast on 27 December, 2008.
External links
- www.arthurjapin.nl: the official website with information about the writer, his books, his schedule, etc. Also includes short video fragments featuring Japin reading his work.