Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager

Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager (Rotterdam, 26 August 1935 – Rotterdam, 18 March 1992), who generally published with only his initials as C. B. Vaandrager, was a Dutch writer and poet who lived and worked in Rotterdam. Later he came to be known simply by the shortened version of his name as Vaan.

Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandragere
Poem Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the porch of the building at the Morsweg 16 in Leiden, The Netherlands.
BornCornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager
26 August 1935
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died18 March 1992 (aged 56)
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Pen nameC.B. Vaandrager ; Vaan
OccupationWriter
LanguageDutch
ResidenceRotterdam
NationalityDutch
GenreNovels, short stories, poems, letters, speeches
Notable awardsAnna Blaman Prijs (1981)
Years active1950s–1992
PartnerHetty Smink[1]
Website
dbnl.org

Vaandrager was a leading writer, along with Hans Sleutelaar and Armando, in the group of experimental Dutch writers called De Zestigers (The Sixtiers),[2] who were preceded by De Vijftigers.

Life and work

Youth, education and early career

Vaandrager was born in the Pretorialaan in southern Rotterdam. His father was a postman and van driver, his mother a housewife. The family moved when he was six to the Brielselaan, where he grew up. He was a brilliant student at the Charlois Lyceum, where he received a straight A at his exam for his Greek translations of Homer and Herodotus. The principal urged him to go on to university, but Vaandrager opted to become a trendsetting poet, writer and artist.[1]

After his military service Vaandrager started working as copywriter for a local newspaper, and later for some publicity agencies. In the new paper Het Parool he published his first children's story.[3][4] He joined the artistic scene, taking part in the café night life with his school friend Hans Sleutelaar and such emerging pop artists as Woody van Amen and Daan van Golden.[1]

Together with Sleutelaar and painter-poet Armando, he joined the editorial board of the Flemish-Dutch literary magazine Gard Sivik (1955–64), which was then relocated from Antwerp to Rotterdam. Later the three were joined by the poet Hans Verhagen in starting the new magazine De Nieuwe Stijl (1965–66).[5]

Work

In 1960 Vaandrager made his prose debut with his 60-page coming of age story, Leve Joop Massaker (Long Live Joop Massaker), which was compared by critics to novels by Gerard Reve and Hugo Claus.[6][7][8] A year later came his poetry debut, Met andere ogen (With other eyes).[9][10] With those works he established his name as a promising local literary talent.[11]

Wall poem in Leiden with a mirror on the other side of the porch, which makes the poem readable

Vaandrager set his face against literary pretension and identified his work with the "dislocating, raw city mentality of punk and New Wave".[12] In the preface to his 1967 collection of poems (Gedichten) he claimed "not to give a shit about poetry".[13] Like several others in his generation, he took inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s concept of the readymade. At the heart of his "Dutch Railways", for example, there is a railway schedule, given context by the opening line "Tanya, it's up to you" and those following the train times: "Say hello to Amsterdam/ and no messing around". The poem tells a story without descending into the anecdotal.[14] Similarly, in "Tourist Traffic" the mind plays over three statements that juxtapose a river in motion and a moving bridge in "Fluent Dutch/ Fluent English and/ Fluent German".[15]

The element of collage also carried over into Vaandrager's 1970s prose works, including the highly autobiographical documentary novels: De reus van Rotterdam: Stadsgeheimen (The Rotterdam Giant, 1971) and De hef (The Head, 1975), detailing the city’s musical and literary scene during the sixties.[16] The two works were later issued together in 2002.[17] Another such work from the same period, the 'street-collage' Sleutels (Keys, 2012) was only published posthumously.[18]

Later decline and death

Vaandrager's life was now going downhill. Drug use began to dominate his life, as a result of which he became labelled as "the junky writer".[19] With severe clinical depression, he sometimes spent months in a psychiatric hospital.[20] In 1981 he was awarded the Anna Blaman Prize from the Prince Bernhard Fund for his entire work. Afterwards Vaandrager published only a few poetry collections, including Metalon (1987) and Sampleton (1990).

As a wandering eccentric, Vaandrager died lonely in 1992 at the age of 56.[21][22]

Publications

Poetry
  • Met andere ogen (1961)
  • Gedichten, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 1967
  • Martin, waarom hebbe de giraffe... , Rotterdam, 1973
  • Totale poëzie, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam,1981
  • In staat van oproer, Rotturdamse gedigte, Rotterdam, 1987.
  • Metalon, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 1987
  • Sampleton, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam,1990
  • Made in Rotterdam (collected poems), Amsterdam, 2008

Prose
  • Leve Joop Massaker (1960)
  • De avonturen van Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager I, 1963
  • De reus van Rotterdam (1971)
  • De Hef (1975)
  • Sleutels – a 'street-collage', (2012)
  • De Ramblers gaan uit vissen – collected stories, incorporating Leve Joop Massaker (2017)
Publications about Vaandrager
  • "C.B. Vaandrager Special". In: Passionate, jrg. 9 (2002) nr. 2 (maart-april)
  • Erik Brus ed. Vaan nu. C.B. Vaandrager met andere ogen. Rotterdam, Studio Kers, 2017. ISBN 978-94-91835-04-9
  • Menno Schenke: Vaan. Het bewogen bestaan van C.B. Vaandrager (biography). Amsterdam, De Bezige Bij, 2005
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References
  1. Frans Vogel. "Vaandrager in Vogel-vlucht," In: Passionate Magazine. Vol. 3, 1996. p. 12-26.
  2. Theo Hermans. A Literary History of the Low Countries. 2009. p. 603.
  3. C.B. Vaandrager."Kinderverhaal: De Rode Beker, geïllustreerd door Huik," Het Parool, Amsterdam, 1958/01/25, p. 10.
  4. C.B. Vaandrager."Kinderverhaal: De Rode Beker (Slot)," Het Parool, Amsterdam, 1958/02/01, p. 10.
  5. Yann Lovelock, The Line Forward, Bridges Books 1984, p.79
  6. J.G. de Haas, "Boekbespreking," Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, Groningen, 1960/11/11, p. 21.
  7. B.S. "Vaandrager: jongensidioom en schrijverstalent," Algemeen Handelsblad, Amsterdam, 1960/12/03, p. 3.
  8. Max Nord, "Nerdelandse novellen en vertalingen," Het Parool, Amsterdam, 1960/12/22, p. 11.
  9. Hans van Straten, "Met andere woorden: triest beeld van jongere poëzie," Het vrije volk : democratisch-socialistisch dagblad, Rotterdam, 1961/02/04, p. 2.
  10. Peter Calis, "Vaandrager: met de ogen van het gedicht". "Algemeen Handelsblad". Amsterdam, 1962/02/03 00:00:00, p. 3. Geraadpleegd op Delpher op 28 November 2019.
  11. H.J. Oolbekkink. "Kunstzaken: C.B. Vaandrager en zijn fanclub." Het Parool, Amsterdam, 1962/07/07, p. 15.
  12. Patricia van Ulzen. Imagine a Metropolis: Rotterdam's Creative Class, 1970–2000. 2007. p. 121.
  13. "Quotes", Nederlandse Spoorwegen
  14. Bertram Mourits, "The end of progress in art", in New Trends in Modern Dutch Literature, Peeters Publishers, 2006, p.70
  15. Poetry International archives
  16. Ed Schilders, "Een spoorbrug in leven en werken; De Hef als monument," NRC Handelsblad. Rotterdam, 1985/06/12, p. 16.
  17. Google Books
  18. bol.com
  19. Ronald Glasbergen, "Van Dale en 'Vaan'", Vers Beton, 9 November 2012
  20. Frank van Dijl, "Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager leeft en maakt het wel 'Jaren zat ik als een spons op de bank'," Het vrije volk : democratisch-socialistisch dagblad, Rotterdam, 1986/10/23, p. 16. Geraadpleegd op Delpher op 28 November 2019.
  21. B. Polak, "B. Polak meent," Het Parool, Amsterdam, 1992/04/04, p. 53.
  22. Reinjan Mulder. "Drie Rotterdamse dichters herdacht op Poetry festival," NRC Handelsblad, Rotterdam, 1992/06/13, p. 7.
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