Haisma, Nyckle 1907–1943

PERSONAL: Born May 18, 1907, in Ie, Netherlands; died of diphtheria, February 22, 1943, in Tjilatjap, Bandoeng, Indonesia; married Etsje van der Veen, 1929; children: one son, one daughter. Education: Earned teaching certificate.

CAREER: Taught in Dutch Indies.

AWARDS, HONORS: Gysbert Japicxprijs, 1946, for body of work.

WRITINGS:

Simmerdagen (for children), 1933.

De kar (for children), 1936.

Paed oer 't hiem, Osinga (Bolsward, Netherlands), 1937.

Suderkrús, 1938.

Paed nei eigen hoarnleger, 1940.

Peke Donia, de koloniaal (novel), Osinga (Bolsward, Netherlands), 1943.

Simmer, 1948.

Wrotters fan de Froskepôlle, In ferhaal ut Sumatra, translation by D.A. Tammings, Brandenburgh (Sneek, Netherlands), 1949.

It lân forline, Brandenburgh (Snits, Netherland), 1951.

Samle fersen, 1981.

SIDELIGHTS: Nyckle Haisma came from a farming background, but rather than join his father on the farm after elementary school, he insisted on getting a secondary education. He received a scholarship for a teachers' training college on the condition that he would spend time teaching in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). Shortly after their wedding in 1929, he and his wife traveled to Medan, Indonesia, in fulfillment of this obligation. During World War II, like most colonialists, Haisma was interred in a Japanese prison camp after the Dutch capitulation in 1942. There he contracted diphtheria and died in 1943.

Haisma wrote novels, children's books, and poetry. His double novel, Peke Donia, de koloniaal, captures the atmosphere of the Indonesian experience through the eyes of an immigrant. Haisma crafted his restless protagonist's character and the atmosphere surrounding him in a romantic work that captured the spirit of the time.