An Rutgers van der Loeff (1910–1990)

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An or Anna Rutgers van der Loeff, née Anneke Basenau, was born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her parents were Jacob Basenau, a bacteriologist, and his wife Nora Goemans, a writer-translator. Anneke attended the Barlaeus Gymnasium and went to study classical languages ​​at the University of Amsterdam. However, after her father committed suicide in 1929, she gave up her studies to teach and do translation work.
In 1941, she made her literary debut with the book Het oude huis en we, a biography of her mother. Her breakthrough to fame came with De kinderkaravaan (1949; in English translation: Children on the Oregon Trail), about a family of pioneer children in the 1840s traveling to Oregon, loosely based on a real incident. She became known primarily as a writer for children's and youth, but also wrote eight novels for adults. The hallmarks of her work were meticulous research, realism, character development, and versatility. She did not limit herself to one genre, but wrote historical stories, psychological novels, and thrillers. Her work received many awards, including the Dutch State Prize for Children's and Youth Literature, the Austrian State Prize and the German Youth Book Prize. In 1976, she was awarded the Order of Orange-Nassau for contributions to Dutch children's literature.