Anna Blaman (1905–1960)

Anna Blaman was the pseudonym of Dutch poet and writer Johanna Vrugt. She originally trained and worked as a French teacher. She began her writing career with lyrical poems, but then turned to prose and published stories in various literary journals. Her first novel appeared in 1942, but she did not achieve fame until her 1948 novel Eensaam avontuur (Lonely Adventure), now considered her masterpiece. Her work was influenced by French existentialists such as Sartre and Camus. Anna Blaman never married, and lived with her mother and sister in a boarding house in Rotterdam for many years; but she was an active participant in literary circles and gave lectures, taught, wrote cabaret lyrics, and was involved in the rebuilding of her city after World War II. She died at age 55 from the effects of a brain embolism.