Gerard Reve

Gerard Reve (1923-2006) was a writer and poet and is considered to be one of the most important Dutch writers of the post-war period. His debut De Avonden (The Evenings, 1947) remains his most widely read work, but the controversial, epistolary novels Op weg naar het einde (On My Way to the End, 1963) and Nader tot U (Nearer to Thee, 1966), with their frank discussion of homosexuality and the author’s conversion to Catholicism, were instrumental in establishing Gerard Reve as a public figure in the Netherlands. Over the years he published a large series of autobiographical epistolary books, and several novels: Oud en eenzaam (Old and Lonely, 1978), Moeder en Zoon (Mother and Son, 1980), Bezorgde Ouders (Parents Worry, 1989). Reve was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1968 and the Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2001.