VAN VRIESLAND, VICTOR EMANUEL

VAN VRIESLAND, VICTOR EMANUEL (1892–1974), Dutch poet, literary critic, and journalist. Born in Haarlem, Van Vriesland first worked as a journalist on the staff of De Nieuwe Gids and De Vrije Bladen, became literary editor of the daily Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant (1931–38), and in 1937 edited De Groene Amsterdammer.

After World War ii Van Vriesland published several collections of poetry, some of which was collected in Drievoudig verweer ("Threefold Resistance," 1949). Ten years later he published another collection, Tegengif ("Antidote"). His only novel, Het afscheid van de wereld in drie dagen ("Farewell to the World in Three Days," 1926; shortened version, 1936), had little success. He also wrote short stories, collected in De ring met de aquamarijn en andere verhalen ("The Ring with the Aquamarine and Other Stories," 1939), and some plays, notably De Havenstad ("The Seaport," 1933).

Van Vriesland was one of the few Dutch critics who dealt with Jewish literature in Western Europe. In his essay De cultureele noodtoestand van het Joodsche volk ("The Jewish People's Cultural State of Emergency," 1915), he adopted an extreme Zionist view in rejecting a future for Jewish art in Europe. Just before World War ii he wrote a study of Dutch verse, Spiegel van de Nederlandsche poezie door alle eeuwen ("Mirror of Dutch Poetry throughout the Centuries," 1939). A collection of his critical essays was published as Onderzoek en Vertoog ("Research and Exposition," 2 vols., 1958).

[Gerda Alster-Thau]