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Dutch author Gerrit Komrij. Photo By Ruud Hendrick-

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts About Gerrit Komrij   

Gerrit Jan Komrij was a Dutch poet, novelist, translator, critic, journalist, and playwright. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s writing poetry that sharply contrasted with the free-form poetry of his peers.  

He acquired a reputation for his prose in the late 1970s writing satirical essays and columns often critical of writers, television programs, and politicians. 

As a literary critic and especially as an anthologist he had a formative influence on Dutch literature and his work quickly became the yardstick by which poets were measured. 

Here are 10 facts about Gerrit Komrij. 

1. Gerrit Was Born in the Netherlands 

Gerrit Jan Komrij was born on 30th March 1944 in the eastern Dutch town of Winterswijk, Gelderland.

He soon moved to Amsterdam where he studied Comparative Literature and began a literary career. Gerrit quickly became well-known as a poet, critic, and columnist.

He had a unique style, humour both caustic and hilarious, a controversialist irreverence towards all and sundry, and his adopted position as an outsider and dissonant voice in the choir of Dutch artists and intellectuals.   

2. His First Volume of Poetry Was Published in 1968 

Gerrit Komrij. Photo By Michiel Hendryckx –

Gerrit made waves as a surprising novelist, playwright, and translator of Shakespeare’s complete theatre works. In 1968 his first volume of poetry was published. 

He was a lone figure in Dutch poetry at the time of the appearance of his first collection of poems. From that year, he published several works annually until his death.  

He took on the back-breaking task of anthologizing Dutch poetry from the 12th to the 20th century in three volumes of over one thousand poems each. Gerrit achieved this by rereading all the accessible poetry in the country’s libraries.  

Gerrit also did an anthology of Dutch children’s literature and another anthology of medieval poems. He also edited various other anthologies, one about mothers and one selecting poetry by Jacob Israël de Haan. 

3. He Published Afrikaans Poetry 

Gerrit did not only anthologize Dutch poetry but he also published a large anthology of Afrikaans poetry. He reread and did similar research in South African libraries as well.  

In 1969, he became editor of the Bert Bakker-founded literary magazine Maatstaf. He also became a critic of television, literature, and architecture, well-feared for his colorful and sarcastic language. 

He also translated from many different languages, including all of Shakespeare’s plays.  

4. Gerrit lived in Portugal 

Photo By Michiel Hendryckx –

In the early 1980s, Gerrit moved to Portugal, not long after his play â€˜Het Chemisch Huwelijk’ premiered in Amsterdam.  

Between 1984 and 1988, he lived in Alvites, Trás-os-Montes, which inspired his first novel, Over de bergen (Over the Mountains, 1990).  

In 1988, he moved to Vila Pouca da Beira, which he portrayed in Vila Pouca, Portugese verhalen (Vila Pouca, Portuguese stories, 2009).  

A collection of his crónicas about Portugal was published as Een zakenlunch in Sintra (A Business Lunch in Sintra, 1996). In 2005, an anthology of his poetry was published in Portuguese, titled Contrabando. 

He is quoted to have said, ‘I am in love with Portugal, but not blindly so.’ Gerrit lived there for the rest of his life. 

5. He Took Part in Poetry Festivals  

As a poet, Gerrit participated in several Portuguese poetry festivals. He notably featured in the Lisbon and Porto Santo festivals among others. 

Gerrit also featured in countless festivals in the Netherlands, Belgium, and other countries. For the Portuguese public, apart from organizing an anthology of Dutch poetry, he also wrote the text of the photograph album Alfama – Lisboa (Antwerp: Pandora, 1998 – photographs by Hans Roels and Serge Vermeir).  

6. Gerrit Was an Award-Winning Writer 

Gerrit was a great writer. His form of writing was recognized in 1979 when he was awarded the Busken Huet award.  

In 1993, he received the P.C. Hooft Award, the chief literary accolade in the Dutch language area, for his prose. 

For his poetry, he won the poetry prize of the city of Amsterdam in 1970, and the Herman Gorter prize in 1982. 

7. He Was Homosexual 

Gerrit was homosexual. His life partner was Charles Hofman, a visual artist, whom he first met in 1964 in Amsterdam. They later moved to Portugal in the 1980s, where they shared a house for many years. 

He dedicated all his work to Charles and often referred to him or their relationship in his work, including in the poem Utrechtsestraat, zebrapad.  

In it, the poet describes their infatuation: ‘A black-clad faun on the sidewalk./A car brakes. The traffic light turns red./We don’t fear the danger for a second/And sprint. We are stronger than death.’   

Gerrit once wrote that Hofman was the most beautiful boy in Amsterdam: ‘Type of Italian chimney sweep.’ They always remained in love till death. 

8. He Collected Rare and Absurd Books 

Gerrit Komrij. Photo By Hans van Dijk –

Gerrit was a collector of rare and absurd books. This was a hobby he shared with some of his friends and has written extensively about them.  

Old homosexual literature, quaint 18th, and 19th-century poets, and ancient literature about farting are some of his more remarkable subjects.  

His articles and essays were collected in books such as Verzonken boeken (‘Sunk Books’), Averechts (‘The Other Way’) and Kakafonie (‘Cacaphonia’) with the latter subtitled An Encyclopedia of Shit.  

9. Gerrit Was Friends With Baudouin Buch 

In the 1970s and 1980s, Gerrit and his partner Charles Hofman befriended several Dutch authors.

On that list was the controversial Boudewijn Büch, who was not only a poet and writer but was also a bibliophile, collector, and television host. 

The two shared book hobbies and maintained lengthy correspondence. 

10. He Passed on in 2012 

Dutch author Gerrit Komrij. Photo By Ruud Hendrick-

Gerrit died in 2012. His death was met with widespread praise for his work. Poet laureate Ramsey Nasr, who cited Gerrit as one of his inspirations, wrote a poem for him. 

Queen Beatrix sent her condolences via telegram to Charles Hofman, saying that the Netherlands had lost a great poet. 

When Charles Hoffman passed away at 72 years in 2019, he was buried next to Gerrit at Vila Pouca da Beira in Portugal.