Anne de Vries was a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. 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...

 he became particularly famous for his novels. He was married to Alida Gerdina van Wermeskerken, the couple had five children. In 1972, de Vries got national recognition when his novel Bartje was made into a television series by Willy van Hemert

Willy van Hemert

Willy van Hemert was a Dutch theatre and television director, song writer, actor and comedian....

. Bartje then became the symbol of the Dutch province Drenthe

Drenthe

Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...

. De Vries wrote regional novels, most famously the coming-of-age novel "Bartje" and "Bartje seeks happiness". He also wrote Journey Through the Night

Journey Through the Night

Journey Through the Night is a novel, originally in four volumes , by Dutch author Anne de Vries centering on the impact of the Second World War in the Netherlands on a Christian family...

, a children's book published in four volumes (first in 1951, last in 1958) about World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The books on Bartje can be considered Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman

In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...

s.