Hella Haasse

Haasse has the first Dutch digital online museum dedicated to the life and work of an author. The museum was opened in 2008 on her 90th birthday. Haasse has an asteroid named after her.

Hella Haasse studied at University of Amsterdam. The recorded working language is Dutch. Works named in the authority record are Oeroeg, The Tea Lords and Sleuteloog. Distinctions recorded are Prijs van de Stichting Kunstenaarsverzet, ANV-Visser Neerlandia prize for drama, Littéraire Witte Award and Constantijn Huygens Prize.

Hélène Serafia Haasse was born on 2 February 1918 in Batavia (now Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). She was the daughter of civil servant and author Willem Hendrik Haasse (1889–1955) and concert pianist Katharina Diehm Winzenhöhler (1893–1983). She had a brother Wim who was born in 1921. The Haasse family was not very religious. Before Haasse's first birthday, the family moved from Batavia to Buitenzorg (Bogor), because her mother's health would benefit from the milder climate. In 1920, the family moved to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where her father got a temporary job at the city hall. In 1922, the family moved back to the Indies to Soerabaja (Surabaya). Here Haasse went to kindergarten and later to a Catholic primary school, because this was the nearest school. When her mother became ill and went to a sanatorium in Davos, Haasse was first sent to her maternal grandparents in Heemstede and then her paternal grandparents in Baarn, and she later stayed at a boarding school in Baarn. In 1928, her mother was recovered and all family members moved back to the Indies to Bandoeng (Bandung). In 1930, the Haasse family moved again to Buitenzorg, and a year later again to Batavia. Here she went to the secondary school Bataviaas Lyceum, where Haasse became an active member of the literary club Elcee. In 1935, the family visited the Netherlands, after which Haasse became aware of differences between the Dutch and East Indian society. Haasse graduated from the Lyceum in 1938. Haasse then moved to the Netherlands to study Dutch. She quickly abandoned this plan, and studied Scandinavian language and literature at the University of Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, she joined a student theater group and met her future husband Jan van Lelyveld, who invited her to become an editor for the satirical magazine Propria Cures in 1940.

Haasse lived in France for many years (1981–1990), and much of her work has been translated into French. The Académie Française awarded Haasse the Diplôme de médaille Argent in 1984. The next year she delivered a presentation on colonial literature at the University of Dakar. She was awarded the Officier dans l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur in 2000. Haasse received an honorary literary doctorate from the University of Utrecht in 1988 and from the Belgian University of Leuven in 1995. In 1987 she had already been given an honorary membership of the Belgian Royal Literary Academy (Belgische Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde (KANTL)) in Gent. The Chilean Ministry of Education ('El Ministerio de education de Chile') awarded her a prize for her "universal contribution to culture" in 1996. In 1989 the city of Boston awarded her the 'Boston Certificate of Recognition', for her book In a Dark Wood Wandering: "In recognition and appreciation of your outstanding contributions to the City of Boston and its residents". In 1992 Haasse attended the opening of the IKAPI 'International Book Fair' in Jakarta. It was the last time she would visit her birthplace, Java, and the year her Dutch Indies literature masterpiece Heren van de Thee was published.