Tonke Dragt
Encyclopedia
Antonia "Tonke" Johanna Dragt (born 12 November 1930) is a Dutch
writer and illustrator of children's literature. Her book De brief voor de Koning
was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century.
(currently Jakarta
in Indonesia
). She spent the largest part of her youth there, including three years in a Japanese prisoner's camp during the Second World War between 1942 and 1945. She came to the Netherlands
with her family after the war. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague
and worked afterwards as a drawing teacher in secondary schools, living in The Hague.
Tonke Dragt first published stories in the magazine Kris Kras, and her first book appeared in 1961. She became one of the best known Dutch youth authors in 1962 with her second book, De brief voor de koning ("The Letter for the King"), which won the Gold Pen award (Gouden Griffel) for the best Dutch youth book of the year. She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps.
Apart from writing and illustrating her own books, Tonke Dragt also made illustrations for some other books, including work by Paul Biegel
, E. Nesbit
, Rosemary Sutcliff
, and the novel Elidor
by Alan Garner
.
The work of Tonke Dragt has been translated into many languages, including German
, English
, Afrikaans
, Czech
, Spanish
, Danish
and Indonesian
.
and Earth
. De Torens van Februari alternates between our world and a parallel world. De Zevensprong is most firmly set in a realistic setting.
Tonke Dragt uses elements of legends and fables, most clearly in Verhalen van de tweelingbroers. Her stories are mainly focused on one or a few male protagonists, often teenagers. They go on a personal quest, a search that may be externalized in an item like the letter in De brief voor de koning, but which results in a discovery of their own persona.
) has sold over 1 million copies so far. The book has been translated many times, and reached its 22nd printing in Dutch in 2007.
In 2007, it premiered as a musical theater piece. This was the second theater production based on the works of Tonke Dragt, after an adaptation of De Zevensprong.
The movie based on the book, starring Derek de Lint
was released in the summer of 2008. Tonke Dragt is now considered to be the greatest Dutch female writer for children.
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...
writer and illustrator of children's literature. Her book De brief voor de Koning
De brief voor de Koning
De brief voor de koning is a book by Tonke Dragt. It was first published in 1962. The book has been published in Catalan, Danish, German, Greek, Estonian, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Czech. A sequel, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, was published in 1965...
was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Biography
Antonia Johanna Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East IndiesDutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
(currently Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
). She spent the largest part of her youth there, including three years in a Japanese prisoner's camp during the Second World War between 1942 and 1945. She came to 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...
with her family after the war. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
and worked afterwards as a drawing teacher in secondary schools, living in The Hague.
Tonke Dragt first published stories in the magazine Kris Kras, and her first book appeared in 1961. She became one of the best known Dutch youth authors in 1962 with her second book, De brief voor de koning ("The Letter for the King"), which won the Gold Pen award (Gouden Griffel) for the best Dutch youth book of the year. She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps.
Apart from writing and illustrating her own books, Tonke Dragt also made illustrations for some other books, including work by Paul Biegel
Paul Biegel
Paul Biegel was a successful and prolific Dutch writer of children's literature.-Biography:...
, E. Nesbit
E. Nesbit
Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
, Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, and writer for children, best known as a writer of historical fiction and children's literature. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote...
, and the novel Elidor
Elidor
-Plot introduction:Originally written as a short radio play, the book concerns the adventures of a group of young teenagers as they struggle to hold back a terrible darkness by fulfilling a prophecy from another world...
by Alan Garner
Alan Garner
With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget...
.
The work of Tonke Dragt has been translated into many languages, including German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
.
Style and themes
Many of the books and stories by Tonke Dragt are situated in a fantasy or science fiction environment, although usually closely related to or intertwined with the real world. De brief voor de koning, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, and a few short stories, are set in a fictional medieval world. Torenhoog en mijlenbreed, Ogen van tijgers, and related stories, are near-future science fiction stories, where the action happens on VenusVenus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
and Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. De Torens van Februari alternates between our world and a parallel world. De Zevensprong is most firmly set in a realistic setting.
Tonke Dragt uses elements of legends and fables, most clearly in Verhalen van de tweelingbroers. Her stories are mainly focused on one or a few male protagonists, often teenagers. They go on a personal quest, a search that may be externalized in an item like the letter in De brief voor de koning, but which results in a discovery of their own persona.
Success of The Letter for the King
The book The Letter for the King (Dutch: De brief voor de KoningDe brief voor de Koning
De brief voor de koning is a book by Tonke Dragt. It was first published in 1962. The book has been published in Catalan, Danish, German, Greek, Estonian, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Czech. A sequel, Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, was published in 1965...
) has sold over 1 million copies so far. The book has been translated many times, and reached its 22nd printing in Dutch in 2007.
In 2007, it premiered as a musical theater piece. This was the second theater production based on the works of Tonke Dragt, after an adaptation of De Zevensprong.
The movie based on the book, starring Derek de Lint
Derek de Lint
Dick Hein de Lint is a Dutch film and television actor.De Lint was born in The Hague. In 1977, he played the character Alex in the film Soldier of Orange, directed by Paul Verhoeven. In 1986 he played the role of Anton Steenwijk in The Assault, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language...
was released in the summer of 2008. Tonke Dragt is now considered to be the greatest Dutch female writer for children.
Awards
- 1963: Kinderboek van het Jaar (Children's book of the Year, the predecessor of the Gouden GriffelGouden GriffelThe Gouden Griffel is an important award given to authors of children's or teenager's literature in the Netherlands.Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek for the best children's books written in...
) for De brief voor de koning - 1971: Nienke van Hichtum Award for Torenhoog en mijlenbreed
- 1976: Staatsprijs voor kinder- en jeugdliteratuur (the highest award in the Dutch language area for a youth author, can be won only once per author)
- 1995: Buxtehuder Bulle, an Award for youth literature given by the city of BuxtehudeBuxtehudeBuxtehude is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany in the district of Stade and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . Buxtehude is a steadily growing medium-sized town and the second largest in the district of Stade. It lies on the southern borders of the Altes Land within easy reach of...
, for the German translation of De torens van Februari - 2004: Griffel der Griffels for De brief voor de koning (award for the best Dutch children's book of the past fifty years)
- 2005: Victorine Hefting Award, an award for women in The Hague who have contributed to the cultural emancipation of women