Louis Couperus

Louis Marie Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 – 16 July 1923) was a Dutch novelist and poet. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: lyric poetry, psychological and historical novels, novellas, short stories, fairy tales, feuilletons and sketches. Couperus is considered to be one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature. In 1923, he was awarded the Tollensprijs (Tollens Prize).

Couperus and his wife travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, and he later wrote several related travelogues which were published weekly.

Youth

Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was born on 10 June 1863 at Mauritskade 11 in The Hague, Netherlands, into a long-established, Indo family of the colonial landed gentry of the Dutch East Indies. He was the eleventh and youngest child of John Ricus Couperus (1816–1902), a prominent colonial administrator, lawyer and landheer or lord of the private domain (particuliere land) of Tjikopo in Java, and Catharina Geertruida Reynst (1829–1893). Through his father, he was a great-grandson of Abraham Couperus (1752–1813), Governor of Malacca, and Willem Jacob Cranssen (1762–1821), Governor of Ambon with a female-line, Eurasian lineage that goes back even earlier to the mid-eighteenth century. When Louis reached the age of five, his youngest sister, Trudy, was twelve years old and his youngest brother, Frans, eleven. going to school in Batavia.

Here he met his cousin, Elisabeth Couperus-Baud, for the first time. In his novel De zwaluwen neergestreken (The swallows flew down), he wrote about his youth: "We are cousins and have played together. We danced together at children's balls. We still have our baby pictures. She was dressed in a marquise dress and I was dressed as a page. My garment was made of black velvet and I was very proud of my first travesti." In the Dutch East Indies, Couperus also met his future brother-in-law for the first time, Gerard de la Valette (a writer and official at the Dutch Indian Government who would marry his sister Trudy), who wrote in 1913 about his relationship with Couperus: We met first at Batavia, when he was a boy of ten years and I was a young man. We saw each other at rather large intervals. Yet I saw him often enough, as a boy and a young man, that we developed a good and familiar relationship. Meanwhile, Couperus wrote a novella called Een ster ("A Star"), which was published in "Nederland" and made a journey to Sweden. In October that same year, he travelled to Paris, where he received a letter from his publisher-to-be, L.J. Veen, asking permission to publish Noodlot, which offer Couperus rejected because this book was supposed to be published by Elsevier. after Couperus finished his new book Extaze in October 1891 he wrote Uitzichten ("Views") and started with his new romantic and spiritual novella Epiloog ("Epilogue"). and wrote to Couperus to compliment him with his book. Meanwhile, a committee was formed to celebrate Couperus' 60th birthday and gather funds as a birthday gift. Couperus' health deteriorated rapidly and apart from lung and liver problems Couperus suffered from an infection in his nose. During Couperus birthday party a sum of 12,000 guilders was handed over to him and speeches were held by Lodewijk van Deyssel and minister Johannes Theodoor de Visser; Couperus was also appointed knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. During the following reception minister Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek and Albert Vogel, among many others, paid Couperus their respect. On 11 July 1923, Couperus was brought to hospital (in Velp), because the infection in his nose had not healed, but came back home a day later. He now suffered from erysipelas as well as sepsis in the nose. He fell into a coma on 14 July, remained in that state for two days with high fever and died on 16 July 1923. He was cremated at Westerveld, where Gustaaf Paul Hecking Coolenbrander (a nephew), among others, spoke to remember Couperus.