Antoon Coolen

Antoon Coolen (actually: Antonius Franciscus Coolen, born April 17, 1897 in Wijlre ( in Heerlen ); † November 9, 1961 in Waalre ( near Eindhoven ) ) was a Dutch writer and journalist.

Life

After attending high school Coolen became a journalist and worked in Eindhoven, Maastricht and Utrecht. In 1920 he became editor of Hilversum Gooische post. In the 1930s, he increasingly devoted himself to literature. During the Second World War, he refused to accept the Rembrandt Prize of the former Hanseatic University and did not join the Reich Chamber of Culture, so he was not allowed to publish and submerged end of the war.

Coolen was married and had four sons, whom he had named after his models. He died in November 1961 of a heart attack after he had survived the fall from a moving train in the previous month. The causes of this crash were not released.

Coolen was regarded as the author of Peel, as many of his novels in this region played in the border area in the Southern Low provinces of North Brabant and Limburg. Some of his books have been filmed, some translated into other languages. The journalist Günther Steffen called Coolen 1952 in the time a " novelist of rank". A monument made ​​by sculptor Fons Bemelmans, located since 1997 in the vicinity of Coolens birthplace in Wijlre.

Works (selection)

• Brabant people. Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1933 ( Original title: Kinderen van ons folk ).
• The village by the river. Island, Leipzig 1936 ( Original title: Dorp aan de Rivier ).
• Jan, the cobbler from Brabant and his Viennese child. Leo & Co., Vienna / Amsterdam / Leipzig 1936 ( Original title: Jantje the Schoenlapper en zijn Weensch kiendje ).
• The inn of discord. Island, Leipzig 1940 ( Original title: Herberg 't Misverstand ).
• The woman with the six guards. Greven, Cologne, 1955 ( Original title: De vrouw met de indices slapers ).