Hans Warren (1) (1921–2001)

Between 1981 and 2009, the complete diaries of Hans Warren were published in 23 volumes. I first started reading volumes since 1986, and I have read many but not all. Besides, I dit not always read them in the chronological order. This is quite well possible. Each volume usually contains diaries from two years, although there have been irregular volumes, with diaries of a single year, or more than two years.

Hans Warren came from a strict Christian family and grew up during the German occupation in a relatively poor and backward area. These oppressive circumstances held him back and life-long made him yearn for greater freedom, and adventure. Although Warren mainly seems to have been homosexual, he had a lon-term realtion with a woman with whom he was married. My alternating reading in the 1980s led to never really understanding how his relationship with Mabel developed and why it thrived.

Tussen Borssele en Parijs. Uit Geheim dagboek 1945-1951 is a selection from the early diaries. Having read the complete diaries already, you might say that this was a reread, but I read the diaries out of the chronological order, and often with long periods in between. Besides, while presumingly edited, the original diaries (in book form0 contain a lot of redundant information. Therefore, reading this selection was very welcome. It gave me a new view of his early life and reinforced my memory of the diaries I read nearly 38 years ago. It isn't that all of my reading of Warren is that long ago. I have been reading volumes for many decades, but often with years between the volumes.

Tussen Borssele en Parijs. Uit Geheim dagboek 1945-1951 is a good and representative selection which creates a clear and good impression of the author in his early years. All major themes are covered, and by the end of the slim volume, all main people that will remain of importance in the next few volumes have been introduced.… (more)

Geheim dagboek, 1987-1990 is volume 17 in the complete diaries of the Dutch author Hans Warren (1921-2001). When Warren started publishing his diaries in 1986, he said the aim was to publish all of his diaries from his earliest age, as a teenager till his dying days.

Up until the middle of the 1980s, Warren was a minor poet, barely recognized within the literary scene, but the publication of the diaries propelled him onto the mainstream literary scene. Particularly in the diaries written during the 1950s through 1970s, Warren appeared as very sexually promiscuous. The diaries describe how he tried to balance a marriage with Mabel MacLaurin from 1952 till their divorce in 1975, and sexual escapades with North-African boys in Paris.

Although volume 17, Geheim dagboek, 1987-1990, was written in the years 1987-1990, it was not published until 2005. In 1990, Hans Warren was 69 years old. 1987-1990 were also the years when he came to fame, based on the publication of the diaries written in his youth. The contrast could not be greater, having this elderly man in his late sixties building up a literary reputation on his very explicit homosexual diaries. Having divorced from his wife Mabel MacLaurin, Warren then lived with his much younger lover, Mario Molegraaf, who was more than 40 years younger than he. During the 1980s - 1990s, Molegraaf did not feature in the public image of Hans Warren.

In the later diaries, as in Geheim dagboek, 1987-1990, Hans Warren appears as a very thrifty, Calvinist and vain personality. He takes pride in dominating the jury of a literary prize, forcing it to proclaim and obscure author, Brigitte Raskin as the winner of the AKO prize winner in 1989. The diaries are pretty boring revolving around a limited number of obsessions: buying antiques, and worries about burglary; fine dining; and masturbation, and to a lesser extent, sexual intercourse with Mario.

While previous volumes were mainly set in Paris or North-Africa, Geheim dagboek, 1987-1990 describes Warren at home in the Netherlands. Descriptions of Zeeland and the contemporary scene in Amsterdam, are largely familiar to contemporary readers, particularly visits to literary venues, bookstores and restaurants, such as Le Pêcheur (now defunct).… (more)