Gerrit Komrij  

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Gerrit Jan Komrij (Winterswijk, March 30, 1944) is a Dutch poet, novelist, translator, critic, polemic journalist and playwright. From 2000 to 2004 he was the Dutch Dichter des Vaderlands, or Poet Laureate. In 2006, he edited the scatological Kakafonie.

Life

Gerrit Jan Komrij was born in the eastern Dutch town of Winterswijk. In 1968 his first volume of poetry was published, Maagdenburgse halve bollen en andere gedichten. In the seventies he grew to be a critic of television, literature and architecture, well-feared for his colourful and sarcastic sense of language.

Prose

In the meantime the critic and poet also wrote several autobiographical works, for instance Verwoest Arcadië ('Arcadia Demolished', 1980) and Demonen ('Demons', 2003). He also authored several novels, Over de bergen ('Over the Mountains'), Dubbelster ('Double Star') and De klopgeest ('Poltergeist').

Books about books, anthologies

Komrij is a collector of rare and absurd books, and has written extensively about them. Old homosexual literature, quaint 18th and 19th century poets, and ancient literature about farting are some of his more remarkable subjects. Many of his book articles were put together in collections like Verzonken boeken ('Sunk Books'), Averechts ('The Other Way') and Kakafonie ('Cacaphonia')--the latter subtitled An Encyclopedia of Shit. In 1979 Komrij published a new standard Dutch poetry anthology, De Nederlandse poëzie van de negentiende en twintigste eeuw in duizend en enige gedichten (Dutch poetry of the 19th and 20th century in 1001 poems'), which quickly became the yardstick by which poets were measured. It was soon followed by a volume of 17th and 18th century poetry, an anthology of South African poets, and an anthology of medieval poems. He also edited various other anthologies, one about Mothers and one selecting poetry by Jacob Israël de Haan.

Gerrit Komrij translated all of Shakespeare's plays, besides writing several hermetic dramas himself which met with a lot of success. He emigrated in 1984 to Portugal, but often travels to the Netherlands, where his readers are living. His throaty voice and distinctive appearance are well-known to the Dutch television public.

Awards

His prose was recognized in 1979 when he was awarded the Busken Huet award. In 1993 Komrij received the P.C. Hooft Award, the chief literary accolade in the Dutch language area, for his prose. For his poetry, he won the poetry prize of the city of Amsterdam in 1970, for Alle vlees is als gras, and the the Herman Gorter prize in 1982, for De os op de klokketoren.

Select bibliography

Autobiography

• Verwoest Arcadië. [Arcadia Demolished, slightly fictional autobiography.] Privé-Domein 59. Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1980. ISBN 9029526947.
• Intimiteiten. [Intimacies; autobiographical essays.] Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1993. ISBN 9789029526845.
• Demonen. [Demons; "autobiographical stories."] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2003. ISBN 9789023411598.
• Eendagsvliegen. [Mayflies; diary entries 1965-2005.] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2005. ISBN 9789023417682.

Prose fiction

• Een zakenlunch in Sintra en andere Portugese verhalen. [A Businesslunch in Sintra and other Portuguese Stories; 28 short stories.] Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1995. ISBN 9029527005.
• De klopgeest. [The Poltergeist; novel.] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2001. ISBN 9023462440.

Prose criticism

• Lood en hagel. [Lead and Hail; anthology of 'ad hominem' essays.] Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1998. ISBN 9789029524520.
• Vreemd pakhuis. [Strange Warehouse; collection of essays on authors and literature.] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2001. ISBN 9789023470373.

Poetry

• Twee werelden. [Two Worlds; cycle of 8 sonnets on European unification in Dutch, Danish, German, English, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.] Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1987. ISBN 902952720X.
• Rook zonder vuur. [Smoke Without Fire; 20 sonnets.] The Hague: Stupers Van der Heijden, 1998. ISBN 9075618093.
• 52 Sonnetten bij het Verglijden van de Eeuw. [52 Sonnets on the Passing of the Century.] Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2000. ISBN 9035121457.
• Luchtspiegelingen: Gedichten, voornamelijk elegisch. [Mirages: Poems, mainly Elegiac; 47 poems.] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2001. ISBN 9789023448198.
• Komrij's patentwekker. [Komrij's Patented Alarm Clock; 12 poems detailing the rectal insertion of a burning candle to function as an alarm clock.] Illustrations by Dick Matena. Originally published 1974. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2007. ISBN 9789023422624.

Encyclopedia

• Komrij's Kakafonie: Encyclopedie van de stront. [Komrij's Cacaphonia: An Encyclopedia of Shit.] Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2006. ISBN 9023419073.

Anthologies

• De Afrikaanse poëzie in 1000 en enige gedichten. [African Poetry in 1001 Poems; anthology of South-African poetry.] Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1999. ISBN 9789035120419.
• De Afrikaanse poëzie, 10 gedichten en een lexicon. [African Poetry, 10 Poems and a Lexicon; 10 South-African poems with explications and glossary.] Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1999. ISBN 9789035120945.

Source

Bom, Onno. Het fabeldier dat Komrij heet. The Hague/Amsterdam: Letterkundig Museum/De Bezige Bij, 2004. ISBN 90-234-1235-4.