Havank
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Havank, (February 19, 1904 – June 22, 1964) was a Dutch writer, journalist and translator.
Born in Leeuwarden as Hendrikus Frederikus (Hans) van der Kallen, he took the pen-name of Havank and published over 30 crime-novels and stories, with as principal characters French police officers Bruno Silvère and Charles C.M. Carlier, the latter better known in Dutch as 'de Schaduw’ (the Shadow). In later books holding an honorary rank within the force Carlier was allowed to operate within Scotland Yard enabling Havank to move the venue from France to London and southern England. Havank's novels were widely popular not only because of his playful use of the Dutch language but also for their fairly accurate scenery descriptions.
Havank also translated into Dutch some 45 novels, mainly of fellow crime writers like Leslie Charteris, Raymond Chandler and E. Phillips Oppenheim. Since the mid 1950s his books were published in pocket book editions with covers designed by the illustrator Dick Bruna. They certainly were best-sellers: Havank is estimated to have sold more than 6 million copies in his lifetime. His books remained in print until the early 1980s when sales began to decline. However, they still are available in print-on-demand editions. To date, only two of the books have been translated into another language; both in German but published in Switzerland.
During World War II Havank worked as an editor and occasionally as a war correspondent for the London edition of the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland. Shortly after the war he was invited to ghost-write the memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel Oreste Pinto, the original spycatcher. These memoirs were serialized in the News Chronicle. In 1946 he married Willesden born Cynthia Vickers who at the time of their first meeting was a Red Cross ambulance driver. Theirs was not a happy marriage but the couple never divorced. Nevertheless Mrs Havank features as Carlier's (non-married) partner under the name of Aranea Forster.
Havank lived most of his life abroad in the south of France, on Majorca (Spain), and in England. It may, therefore, be considered quite remarkable that he suffered his fatal heart attack in his Leeuwarden’s Amicitia hotel room at a less than thirty yards distance from his birthplace.
