Albert Alberts

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Albert Alberts, writing as A. Alberts (1911–1995) was a Dutch writer, translator, and journalist. He won numerous awards throughout his career, among them the 1975 Constantijn Huygens Prize.^[1]

A. Alberts was born on 23 August 1911 in Haarlem.^[2] He studied Indology at Utrecht University. There, he formed a circle of friends with Anton Koolhaas and Leo Vroman, who also became prominent writers. After his graduation (1936), he worked for several years as a civil servant for the Ministère des Colonies (Ministry of the Colonies) in Paris. In 1939, he received his doctorate in literature and philosophy with a thesis about the conflict from 1847 to 1851 between Jean Chrétien Baud and Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, two Dutch politicians (respectively, a colonial governor turned Conservative parliamentarian and a major Liberal reformer).

He subsequently served as a colonial administrator in the Dutch East Indies. After the Battle of Java (1942) he was interned by the Japanese on Java from April 1942 to September 1945. During his internment, he came into contact with the writer Han Friedericy. In 1946, he returned to the Netherlands and worked briefly at the Ministry of Overseas Territories, with Friedericy as his direct superior. He then served as executive secretary of the Kina Bureau for the trade in quinine products in Amsterdam until 1953.

Alberts was a political editor for De Groene Amsterdammer from 1953 to 1965. His last employer was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he retired in 1976.

In 1953 he published his first book, De eilanden (The islands) - a collection of short stories inspired by his experiences in the Dutch East Indies. A year later, he published the short novel De bomen (De bomen). Other works include De Vergaderzaal (The conference room), De honden jagen niet meer (The hounds no longer hunt), De Zilveren Kogel (The Silver Bullet - life and demise of John Graham of Claverhouse), De Utrechtse herinneringen van A. Alberts (An Utrecht Memoir by A. Alberts), and De vrouw met de parasol (The woman with the sunshade). He also produced translations, including of Diderot’s La Religieuse: De non, 1968

His Collected Works were published in 2005, in three volumes, counting over 2000 pages.

Albert Alberts died in Amsterdam on 16 December 1995.

• 1953 Prosa-Award from Amsterdam
• 1973 Marianne Philips Prize
• 1975 Constantijn-Huygens-Preis
• 1994 Silver Medal of the Utrecht University
• 1995 P.C. Hooft-prijs

• Profile at the Digital library for Dutch literature