Jan Jacob Slauerhoff

[Liam]

Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (1898-1936) was a Dutch poet and novelist. Wikipedia says that he is considered to be one of the most important Dutch language writers, which is surprising because I have never heard his name mentioned, here or elsewhere.

Pushkin Press is releasing his novel The Forbidden Kingdom, about the Portuguese poet-in-exile Luís de Camões, in 2013:

[Eric]

A Dutch friend of mine, otherwise a musician rather than a man of letters, swears by Slauerhoff in his capacity as poet. I've not read much by him myself, but he is no doubt one of the many neglected Dutch authors that Pushkin (the press rather than the duellist) is giving a chance.

In Holland, you usually see his surname without the Christian names, so he is simply known as J Slauerhoff. This is the first time I've actually seen all his names. It's like when you suddenly see, in translation, a book by Wystan Hugh Auden, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Herbert George Wells, Edward Estlin Cummings, Antonia Susan Byatt, or David Herbert Lawrence, and wonder for a second who they might be.