Schierbeek, Bert 1918–1996

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Schierbeek, Bert 1918–1996

PERSONAL: Born June 28, 1918, in Glanerburg, Gröningen, Netherlands; died 1996.

CAREER: Poet and novelist. Editor of literary journal The Word, beginning c. 1950s. Military service: Fought in Dutch Resistance during Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

AWARDS, HONORS: Amsterdam community poetry prize, 1955, for De blinde zwemmers; Henriette Roland-Holst prize, 1959, for Het kind der tienduizenden; Vijverberg prize, 1971, for Inspraak; Herman Gorter prize, 1978, for body of work; Constantijn Huygens award, 1991, for body of work.

WRITINGS:

Terreur tegen terreur (novel; title means "Revolt against the Past"), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1945.

Gebroken Horizon, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1946.

Het boek ik (novel; title means "The Book I"), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1951.

De andere namen (novel), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1952, translation published as The Other Names, 1952.

Op reis door Spanje, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1952.

(With Jean-Paul Vroom) De blinde zwemmers, L.J.C. Boucher (s'Gravenhage, Netherlands), 1954.

(With Karel Appel and Henri Deluy) Het bloed stroomt door, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1954.

Op reis door Italië, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1954.

De derde persoon (novel), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1955, translation published as The Third Person, 1955.

(With Nico Jesse) Spanje: land en volk, A.W. Bruna & Zoom (Utrecht, Netherlands), 1955.

(With Cas Oorthuys) Hart van Spanje: Toledo, Avila, Segovia, Madrid, el Escorial, la Granja en Arranjuez, Alcala de Henares, Contact (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1956, translation published as This is Spain: Toledo, Avila, Segovia, Madrid, the Escorial, La Granja and Arranjuez, Alcala de Henares, H.N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1977.

De gestalte der stem, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1957.

De tuinen van Zen; een essay over het Zenbuddisme, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1959.

De dichter en de dingen, J.H. Gottmer (Haarlem, Netherlands), 1960.

Het kind der tienduizenden, J.H. Gottmer (Haarlem, Netherlands), 1960.

Het dier heeft een mens getekend, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1960.

Taal & teken, Vereeniging (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1960.

(With Ad Windig) Drie vel in het wapen: 250 jaar nv Berghuizer Papierfavbriek vh B. Cramer, Berghuizer Papierfabriek (Wapenveld, Netherlands), 1961.

(With Cas Oorthuys) This Is Enschede, Contact (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1962.

(With Karel Appel and John Vandenbergh) The Beastdrawn Man (also see below), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1962.

Een groot dood dier, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1963.

Ezel mijn bewoner, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1963.

Het kind der tienduizenden; De tuinen van Zen; Een groot dood dier; Een broek voor een oktopus, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1963.

(With Jef Diederen) Jef Diederen, Eerven E. van de Geer, 1963.

(With Karel Appel) Karel Appel: Zürich, 4 Oktober-9 November, 1963, Gimpel & Hanover Galerie (Zurich, Switzerland), 1963.

De Experimentelen, Meulenhoff (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1964, translation by Estelle Debrot-Reed published as The Experimentalists, 1964, published as The Experimental Artists, Meulenhoff (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1969.

Een broek voor een oktopus, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1965.

Tellem: verkenning van een oude Afrikaanse cultuur, W. De Haan (Zeist, Netherlands), 1965.

(With Gust Gils) Meesters der Nederlandse vertelkunst na 1945, Meulenhoff (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1967.

(With Kees Scherer) Spain, Methuen (London, England), 1967.

Een grote dorst: een kettingreactie, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1968.

Inspraak, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1970.

(With Cornelis Buddingh) W & W of Voor moeders is het altijd het ergste. Grondtekst voor een toneelstuk, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1970.

(With Else Madelon Hooykaas) Zazen, Kluwer (Deventer, Netherlands), 1971.

De deur, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1972.

The Fall (and an Extract from The Beast-drawn Man), Transgravity Publications (London, England), 1973.

In-en uitgang, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1974, translation published as Inside Out, 1985.

(With Lucebert and Ad Petersen) Dames en heren, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1976.

Vallen en opstaan, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1977.

Weerwerk: 't platteland (novel), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1977, translation by Charles McGeehan published as Keeping It Up: The Countryside, Katydid Books (Rochester, NY), 1990.

Chambre-Antichambre, Bzztôh ('s-Gravenhage, Netherlands), 1978.

Verzameld werk, deel 2: Het boek ik; De andere namen; De derde persoon, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1978.

Antonio Saura. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 11 okt. t/m 25 nov. 1979, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1979.

Bert Schierbeek, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1979.

Betekkingen, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1979, translation by Charles McGeehan published as Cross Roads, Katydid Books (Rochester, NY), 1988.

Terreur tegen terreur, Gebroken, Horizon, Het Boek, Le Cocq, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1979.

Binnenwerk, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1982.

(With Martin van Amerongen and Martin Mooij) Asiel: vluchtelingen in Nederland; vraaggesprekken en gedichten, Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1983.

(With Reyer Kras and M.E. Muntz) Ijmuider Kring, Reflex (Utrecht, Netherlands), 1984.

(With Nono Reinhold and Charles MacGeehan) Nono Reinhold: esten = etchings, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1984.

Formentera, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1984, translation by Charles McGeehan published in Formentera; Followed by The Gardens of Suzhou, 1989.

(With Peter Plompen) A Hole toward Space: 16 stemmig gemengd koor a cappella, Donemus (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1985.

De tuinen van Suzhou; gedichten, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1986, translation by Charles McGeehan published in Formentera; Followed by The Gardens of Suzhou, 1989.

(With Willy Rieser) Theaterkeningen: toneel, opera, ballet 1958–1965, Uniepers (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1987.

(With Toon van Severen) Bert Schierbeek 70, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1988.

Door het oog van de wind, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1988.

Formentera; Followed by The Gardens of Suzhou, translated from the Dutch by Charles McGeehan, Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1989.

(With Lotti van der Gaag) Tekeningen = Dessins, Institut Néerlandais (Paris, France), 1992.

De zichtbare ruimte: gedichten (poems), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1993.

Vlucht van de vogel: gedichten (poems), De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1996.

Also author of Bert Schierbeek opent op vrijdagavond 7 oktover te 20.30 uur de tentoonstelling van Hesselius: schilderijen, beelden en collage's, van 8 tot 29 oktober 1966 in galerie 'De drie Hendricken,' Druk: Frisch' Boek-en Steendrukkerij (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

SIDELIGHTS: Bert Schierbeek was born in 1918 in Glanerburg in the Dutch province of Gröningen, in the northern Netherlands. His mother died when he was born, and he was raised by her parents, who lived in the village of Beerta. He attended school in a nearby village, where his father was a schoolteacher. Another teacher, who ran the local library and wrote a book review column for a weekly paper, introduced Schierbeek to poetry and philosophy at an early age. He was also taught a sense of precise craftsmanship by his maternal grandfather, who was a carriage maker; as a boy, Schierbeek played in the attic where the remains of some of his grandfather's carriages were stored.

During World War II, Schierbeek fought in the Dutch Resistance against the Nazi occupation of his country. His first novel, Terreur tegen terreur, was written during the German occupation of the Netherlands, and already showed signs of his unique writing style, according to Rainer Schulte in World Literature Today. The novel describes the exploits of a resistance group similar to the one Schierbeek belonged to, and features moments of terror interspersed with the members' speculations about the future after the war. According to William Jay Smith, in his introduction to Keeping It Up: The Countryside, Schierbeek once said, "I wasn't among those who stood on the sidelines cheering when [the war] was over. That is when it began."

In 1951 Schierbeek's first experimental novel, Het boek ik, was published. The book emphasized a blurring of the boundaries between self and other, self and the world. In this work, he used an inner monologue, or "stream-of-consciousness," similar to that used by Irish novelist James Joyce. He had not yet read Joyce, but gleaned this technique from a similarly experimental novel, Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry. At about this time, he became an editor of the literary journal The Word, and was considered a founder of the modernist movement in Dutch literature. From then on, he became known for his novels, which Fred J. Nichols described in World Literature Today as "experimental," and "devoid of conventional plot and written in a freeform somewhere between prose and verse." Schierbeek believed that assuming that one can write "real-life" stories is false. In the introduction to Cross Roads, Yann Lovelock noted that Schierbeek believed that "real life consists of many unrelated events coexisting side by side … so the novel should not falsify by linear progression and the overstructuring of reality." Schulte wrote that because of this technique, Schierbeek has become known as "one of the most innovative writers of the twentieth century, often compared to James Joyce." Only the fact that he wrote in Dutch has kept him from being more widely recognized and read, Lovelock contended.

Het boek ik forms part of a trilogy with Schierbeek's other autobiographical novels, The Other Names and The Third Person. For The Other Names, Schierbeek wrote down every conversation he overheard, saved scraps of paper with writing on them in various languages, and traveled and took notes on conversations, sights, and life forms, and then arranged them all to form the book.

In the verse collection De zichtbare ruimte: gedichten Schierbeek emphasized space, and the poems feature horizons, flying, boundaries between the sea and land, and the desert. According to Nichols, the poetry is self-conscious but rhythmic, with "the natural rhythm of the Dutch language."

In Keeping It Up: The Countryside, Schierbeek depicts the struggle of people in the country to survive. Set in Schierbeek's native province of Gröningen, the book describes the area's long, cold winters, endless toil, and high suicide rate. Schulte wrote that he creates "an atmosphere of fear and terror wherein people have lost all sense of direction and meaning and therefore take their own lives. The result is a work full of emotional energy that explodes through the violent juxtaposition of language and images." In the novel, Schierbeek uses the characters' typically laconic speech patterns to compress meaning; as Smith noted in his introduction to the book, "His characters say little, but they often say a great deal about themselves and about the world in a very short space." Smith also described the book as "a pure unadorned picture of human survival and a work of great imaginative power," and praised Schierbeek's "storyteller's gift, combined with a poet's precision and a painter's eye."

In the 1970s, Schierbeek began writing short poems which often featured word transformations, word patterns, or the consideration of specific themes. According to Lovelock, the poems demonstrate how "the phenomena of the physical world are stored in the subconscious, where they interpenetrate and act upon one another." According to Nichols, Schierbeek once wrote that poetry, which focuses on individual things or aspects of reality, "can draw in a whole piece of reality."

In 1991, Schierbeek was awarded the Constantijn Huygens award for his body of work. He died in 1996.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

McGeehan, Charles, Shapes of the Voice: Epic and Lyric Themes of a "Dutch" Poet: Cross-Sections from the Works of Bert Schierbeek, Twayne Publishers (Boston, MA), 1977.

Sader, Marion, editor, The Reader's Adviser, R.R. Bowker (New York, NY), 1994.

Schierbeek, Bert, Cross Roads, translated by Charles McGeehan, Katydid Books (Rochester, NY), 1988.

Schierbeek, Bert, Keeping It Up: The Countryside, translated by Charles McGeehan, Katydid Books (Rochester, NY), 1988.

PERIODICALS

Dietsche Warande en Belfort, January, 1978, "Spooksels van een tussentoestand," p. 47.

Forum der Letteren, September, 1984, "Tid en vertekening," p. 161.

De Gids, 1983, "Poezie en zwaartekracht," p. 385.

Maatstaf, 1969, "Biographie van een wereld," p. 48.

Nieuw vlaams Tijdschrift, July, 1983, "Binnenwerk," p. 591.

Ons Erfdeel, May-June, 1989, August Hans den Boef, "Enn mens is een wezen van woorden," p. 415.

Studies Germanique, 1978, "Le statut dualiste de la perception," p. 375.

De Vlaamse Gids, 1963, "Per ongeluk experimenteren in Holland festival," p. 577; 1978, "Gesprek met Bert Schierbeek," p. 4.

World Literature Today, spring, 1991, Rainer Schulte, review of Keeping It Up: The Countryside, p. 313; winter 1995, Fred J. Nichols, review of De zichtbatre ruimte: gedichten, p. 156.

Writing in Holland and Flanders, 1974, "Bert Schierbeek," p. 33.