Robert Hans van Gulik was a Dutch orientalist, diplomat, musician, and writer, best known for the Judge Dee historical mysteries, the protagonist of which he borrowed from the 18th-century Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1963.
Louis Marie-Anne Couperus 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.
Joseph Lloyd Carr, who called himself "Jim" or "James", was an English novelist, publisher, teacher and eccentric.
Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is an outdoor fair or festival usually organized for charitable purposes. The term was derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) in the original Dutch language term, and was borrowed in English, French, Spanish and many other languages. It originally denoted a mass and patronal festival held on the anniversary of the foundation of a church and in honour of the patron saint. Such celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries, in Central Europe and also in northern France, and were accompanied by feasting, dancing and competitions of all kinds. The Kirchweih is the German equivalent, while church ale was a name of similar festivals in England. Many Catholic churches (parishes) still have patronal festivals of some sort for the anniversary of the church's founding, or the feast day of the saint it is dedicated to.
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first science fiction title in 1953. This was successful, and science fiction titles outnumbered both mysteries and westerns within a few years. Other genres also made an appearance, including nonfiction, gothic novels, media tie-in novelizations, and romances. Ace became known for the tête-bêche binding format used for many of its early books, although it did not originate the format. Most of the early titles were published in this "Ace Double" format, and Ace continued to issue books in varied genres, bound tête-bêche, until 1973.
Theodore Edwin White is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, as well as a music critic. He writes and edits as Ted White. In addition to books and stories written under his own name, he has also co-authored novels with Dave van Arnam as Ron Archer, and with Terry Carr as Norman Edwards. He won a Hugo Award in 1968.
Isabelle de Charrière, known as Belle van Zuylen in the Netherlands, née Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, and [Madame] Isabelle de Charrière elsewhere, was a Dutch and Swiss writer of the Enlightenment who lived the latter half of her life in Colombier, Neuchâtel. She is now best known for her letters and novels, although she also wrote pamphlets, music and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics of her age, and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest.
Jacob Lodewijk Gerard, Baron Walschap, was a Belgian writer.
The Old Timers is a rare, privately printed book published in 1957 by the school teacher, map-maker, publisher and author J. L. Carr during his second visit to teach at a public school in Huron, South Dakota, United States.
The Quince Tree Press is the imprint established in 1966 by J. L. Carr to publish his maps, pocket books and novels. The Press is now run by his son Robert Carr and his wife, Jane.
The Harpole Report is the third novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1972. The novel tells the story mostly in the form of a school logbook kept by George Harpole, temporary Head Teacher of the Church of England primary school of "Tampling St. Nicholas". The novel has attained a minor cult status within the teaching profession. The characters George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow reappear in Carr's eighth and final novel, Harpole & Foxberrow General Publishers and more briefly, What Hetty Did.
The Battle of Pollocks Crossing is the sixth novel by J.L. Carr, published in 1985. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1985 and followed a nomination in 1980 for A Month in the Country, his preceding novel.
A Season in Sinji is the second novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1967. The novel is set mostly at fictional RAF Sinji in west Africa during the Second World War and features a bizarre cricket match.
What Hetty Did is the seventh novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1988 when he was 76 years old. The novel describes the experiences of an 18-year-old girl. Hetty Birtwisle has been brought up by adoptive parents in the Fens; after a beating by her father, discovering that she was adopted, she flees to Birmingham where she has learnt she was born and alters her surname to Beauchamp.
Harpole & Foxberrow General Publishers is the eighth and last novel by J.L. Carr, published in 1992, just after his 80th birthday. The narrator of the story is Hetty Beauchamp, the heroine of What Hetty Did, who describes how George Harpole and Emma Foxberrow returned from working at a teacher-training college in Sinji, the setting of A Season in Sinji, to establish a small provincial publishing firm.
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup is the fourth novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1975. The novel is a comic fantasy that describes in the form of an official history how a village football club progressed through the FA Cup to beat Rangers in the final at Wembley Stadium.
A. den Doolaard is the pseudonym of the Dutch writer and journalist Cornelis Johannes George (Bob) Spoelstra Jr.
Klaziena "Ina" Boudier-Bakker was a Dutch novelist. Her most famous work is De klop op de deur, written in 1930.
Willy Corsari was the stage name and pen name of Wilhelmina Angela Schmidt, a Dutch actor, author and composer. She is noted for her detective fiction and has been termed the Dutch Agatha Christie. Born in Jette, a municipality of Brussels, the daughter of a singer and a musician, she spent an itinerant childhood living in the Dutch East Indies, Germany and the Netherlands. Corsari developed as a writer at an early age, being first published at age ten. In 1914, she had her musical debut at the cabaret De Kattebel, performing on stage until 1932. At the same time, she developed her writing career. In 1927, she published her first three books, including Misdaad zonder Fouten. Many more followed. She also produced plays for the stage and radio, and, in 1972 an album of songs that she wrote and composed entitled Liedjes in de Schemer. During the Second World War, she gave a German deserter refuge and was consequentially imprisoned in Scheveningen, although released due to insufficient evidence. After the war, Corsari continued to publish and reached a peak in 1958 with over 200,000 copies of her omnibus sold in a year. She continued to write, producing Spelen met de dood in 1983, although by that time her output had reduced to very low levels. She was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1990 and died in Amstelveen in 1998.
