Pijpelijntjes

("Lines from De Pijp"), suggested translation from his bio in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Isra%C3%ABl_de_Haan

To my dear

A. Aletrino

(pre-winter 1904)

Arnold Aletrino, who this book was dedicated to, can be seen as the Magnus Hirschfeld of the Netherlands. He was a member of the Tachtigers, a group of young and revolutionary Dutch authors, who like the French Decadents, despised the pious poetry and prose of the mid-nineteenth century Dutch Victorian writers.

when however, he found himself portrayed, be it as a fictitious person named Sam, in this novel, he was deeply shocked, and tried to stop publication and when that did not succeed, he bought up most of the prints to prevent a scandal from arising.

read up on him at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Aletrino

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Pijpelijntes

Lines from De Pijp

The history of an 'immoral' book

by

Wim J.Simons

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In 1904 publishing firm Jacq van Cleef in Amsterdam released the 218 pages counting novel Pijpelijntjes, written by a 22 year old Amsterdam teacher Jacob de Haan. The book was dedicated:

'to dear A.Aletrino (prewinter 1904)'

Although Pijpelijntjes is his first novel, it was not his first publication. Apart from journalistic work verses from his hand had appeared in magazines like Nederland and De Gids. That first magazine in may 1903 also brought his 'Spel van verwoest Jeruzalem' Hardly readable,of little significance, to limited in sie to attrract attention or recognition . All that changed when Pijpelijntjes showed up in the vitrines of bookships. Not immediate recognition, but notoriety. Around this novel, of which the name is derived from the Amsterdam low quarter called de Pijp, where most of it plays out, shortly after publication a row broke out, caused by the 'scandalous' content of the book.

Pijpelijntjes presented the controversial story of a homo-erotic relationship of two young men, in the first print called Sam and Joop.

Jacob de Haan was born december 31st 1881 in Smilde as son of the religious teacher and Gazzan Izak de Haan and his second wife Betje Rubens

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Only just in that same year as his sister Carolina Lea, who had been born new years day of '81, and who later on as Carry van Bruggen would claim her place in Dutch literature. A year later the family moved to Friessian Gorredijke, and in 1885 to Zaandam. In her charming booklet "the little house at the ditch" she recorded her youth memories of their days in Zaandam, attractive narration giving us an impression of the environment in which Jacob and Carry grew up; but this publication certainly helped to start legend-forming around both these writers.

When Jacob turned fourteen he went to school at the very renownd RijksKweekschool in Haarlem, to study on for a teachers diploma. Here he got more and more distanced from his orthodox jewish environment, and also here his first encounters with socialism took place. He converted to Marxism and joined the S.D.A.P. As young teacher he ended up in Amsterdam, where he found employment at a public primary school at de Pijp. At first he lived in St. Willibroirdusstraat nr. 29. The SDAP surely wanted to make use of the considerable capacities of the young teacher. P.L. Tak, then editor in chief of Het Volk, atracted him as literairy contributor of Het Zondagsblad in which he also had a part with their children's columns. Diring the railwaystrike of 1903 he was the youthful and fanatic spokesperson and even got himself arrested once. Besides the fact that he had to search for spare time, as he was also prepairing for the state-exam, so he could start studies at the university.

About this period from the life of De Haan we have some curious information through a number of letters that have been preserved. These letters, directed to the later literature authority dr. Arnold Saalborn, then a young gymnast, have been published as "letters to a boy" in 1958. As an example of these letters

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a quote from one dated 1903 from the days when De Haan was working on Pijpelijntjes. He writes to Arnold Saalborn:

I'll be travelling when it's your birthday, but when I return you'll get a nice book from me. I'm very happy, that you lkike my style. I myself find it rather friable. Anyway. You should not fulminate that hard against "de Echo" and also not use angry words as 'stealing'. Nous autres journalistes, we don't steal, we just make excerpts. And then, angry fellow, does the Dutch publisher never steal from international writers? You know, a Dutch Joyzelle costs 65 cents less or just about 35 % because the French publisher pays copy fees to Maeterlinck and the Dutch publisher does not. When I want to do my exams? It will be like this: a While before the children's exhibition of 'De Telegraaf' I did my final exam gymnasium. I'd have done it sooner, but before that I did Gymnastics, Gereal teaching, French and the main certificate, so I couldn't have done it any earlier.. Next year I'll be doing my bachelor degree, I'm very sure, but no hurries. This winter I will be writing and prepare myself a very fat savings pot, just like the shawls to prepare you for winter. And then one day I will say 'Bonjour' to all the papers I work for, I'm going travelling, come back, work hard and do all exams. C'est simple comme bonjour. And my exams always go easy. I think, my little master, because I don't nag myself with the Thought (with capital T), if I will make it or not. I just go on a journey with my 500 brothers and sisters. Hell, no, nive o'clock is perfect time to go to bed. Some boys think it looks great to stay up late, but I would love to be able to go to bed at nine. But others would suffer when I do and no time would remain for friendly babbleletters.

The riot about Pijpelijntjes started with a letter that P.L. Tak wrote to De Haan on june 9th of 1904. Tak had suggested to De Haan to write a boysbook, but the novel he got on his table was quite different from what he expected. So he reacted without delay.

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Mister De Haan,

Yesterday, I received and read trough the book you published as 'Pijpelijntjes, It will be clear to you, that after the release of this book, which was a very undesirable surprise to me and many others, I'm sure, that I will have to terminate your coöperation with Zondagsblad and Het Volk. So we will not be expecting any more copy from you.

Sincerely,

P.L.Tak

To prove he was serious that same night Het Volk included a notice: "we inform you that mr. De Haan will no longerbe working with us on Zondagsblad."

Dating june 10th there is another note from Tak, after he had talked with Roukema, secretary of the S.D.A.P. about fellow partymember de Haan.

Dear De Haan,

I have, through a talk today with B. obtained some more insight in the creation of the book. And while as responsible person for Het Volk I had to reject you as associate, I will not do so in person, just in case you would want to talk to me as a somewhat older and wiser person, who knows life and the hardships you may have encountered in these for you so troubled days, against which you must feel weak and unarmed.

greetings, Tak

This letter for De Haan was oil-on-the-fire as if he did not have reason enough to feel offended? Within the S.D.A.P. not everybody agreed about the way Tak had taken his decisions about De Haan . Still Tak was undeniably a most respectable figure with only the best of intentions. Especially as editor in chief of a party-newspaper he was in a glass cage and the party in those days was sailing stormy seas anyway. But surely Tak could have acted with some more tact, more elegant.

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Mr.Maurits Mendels was annoyed, for instance, that in the anouncement that De Haan would no longer be part of Het Volk, there was talk of mister De Haan and not of (most usual and more friendly) comrade De Haan. Still we must not think too soon that Tak dealt in a hypocritical way, even if he was authoritarian and showing little or no democratic tolerance. The homo-erotic novel of De Haan had irritated him, and made him see his coworker in a dirrerent light. He felt he could show some consideration for De Haan's personality and his homosexuality, but just could not keep him at Het Volk. To say that here's a sign of antisemitism, is way too farfetched, and cannot be substantiated. We can at best see it as a sign of bourgeois mentality, certainly in the field of morals .

It didn't stop at breakng thge bond wit Het Volk, also his position in education became shaky. In all sections of the Union of Dutch Teachers there were negative judgements about Pijpelijntjes.

The hardest it must have been for de Haan that his literairy friends offered little support , but sooner resistance. Aletrino, to which De Haan had dedicated the book wa angry and dismayed and later wrote to Herman Robbers that at reading it he 'almost got a stupor of fright' Maybe a little strange, for a doctor-sexuologist who knew the young writer and also knew what was troubling him. De Haan had asked him if he could dedicate the book to him, but obviously Aletrino, just as Tak, had assumed it was aboys a boys adventure book. (well it was!!)

Presumablyit shocked him extra that both main character fom Pijpeklijntjes had the daily names op De Haan (Joop) and Aletrino (Sam). Did De Haan suggest there was something like an intimate relationship between them, or is the choice of names coincidental or circumstantial or did both play a role?

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We can only be sure that the release of the book meant the end of ftiendship between the two.

Aletrino endeavored to get Pijpelijntjes out of distribution and in that must have bought up most of the edition and destroyed it. De Haan himself also has coöperated with that. He even asked his brother in law Kees van Bruggen who'd married Carry (Lientje) de Haan, editor of the Deli-Newspaper, in order to -as he told me - buy all the copies that were in Dutch Indie (Indonesia).

It cannot have been many copies though. All in all, the first edition of Pijpelijntjes soon got off the market and to this day copies of that first edition remain one of the rarest and most precious Dutch books of the early 20th century. Nevertheless, in that same yearstill, (1904) a second edition of Pijpelijntjes saw the light. Now with the subtitle "the life of Cor Koning and Feliz Deelman".

The dedication to Aletrino had disappeared, instead of it there was an extensive citatin from Catullus.

The new print counted 228 pages, so ten more than the earlier edition. Apart from some small things the book remained the same. As is evident from the subtitle, the provocative names of the main characters were changed. Still the novel had been revised in its entirety, the style was changed and -unfortunately- many points-of-thought were inserted. Remarkable, in aspect of the content of the book, is the fact that at the end, where the main character starts a new relationship, in the first edition the boy was 'fourteen years old' and in the second 'not adult yet'.

To Arnold Saalborn, who obviously had heard anbout the rumours around Pijpelijntjes, De Haan wrote a letter which reveals that he himself did have reservations and second thoughts about the book:

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Dear boy, don't hold it against me, for not writing sooner and also not that I'm a bit abrupt with you: I have a lot of work to do and my heath suffered. No, my book is not fit for you to read, if you read it, it's not my responsibility, but you will not receive a copy from me, even though you're the friendliest friend I have. Evn for most older people it is not apropriate. There is another book howeven, that will be released soon and I'll gladly give that a 'hommage d'auteur' as proof of my affection.

Best regards to your family also from

Jacob de Haan.

The ather booklet he referred to, appearantly is the bundled stories 'Kanalje' that was released in 1904 by G.J. Lankamp publishers in Deventer and in which the publisher as recomendation added: 'author of Pijpelijntjes'

The second part of Pijpelijntjes never got published. Some fragments of outlines however were published in De Nieuwe Gids. The manuscript , unti;l this day, has never been found. Most likely it has been destroyed together with the letters to and from De Haan. There is proof that the manuscript got completed: in a letter to Herman Robbers de Haan wrote early 1907: " I finished the second part of Pijpelijntjes and will release it next year, when I've revised it: let the mobs roar "

A week after the first letter to Tak de Haan looked for support from Lodewijk van Deyssel, who'd also wrote an immoral book, to judge from a review by Frederik van Eeden in the third volume of De Nieuwe Gids about "a Love Affair 1888 by Van Deyssel"

"Dear mr. Van Deyssel, I've written a book called 'Pijpelijntjes' and it is about the life of a young homosexual guy. About that book people that I always honoured and respected highly, have, immediately after its release, made such an unprecedented uproar, that I felt obliged to retract it with the publisher. Now I'd like to ask you if I may be permitted to send that book to you and if you could be so kind as to tell me yur judgement about it. I assume you do not agree that we should not write about immoral (or so they say) things. True or not? It would be a tremendous pleasure if you could? I will send you my own copy, as all the others have been destroyed already.It would soo strengthen me. I hope I've now written you in a decent fashion and just want to reitterate my anger with all the pathetic little people. As if they are such innocent sweeties. I very much love Catullus and 'die Zeit':

Pedicabo ego vos etinrumabo

Qui me ex versiculis meis putastis

Quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum.

Nam castum esse decet pium poetam,

Versiculos e jus nihil necesse est

Please read the book ?

In highest esteem, kind regards,

yours,

Jacob de Haan

Proof of the support Van Deyssel offered the young writer is in the letter De Haan wrote on june 19th to Van Deyssel; also interesting for the inclusion of personal information.

Dear mister Van Deyssel, Here's my 'decent' reply. And, for starters, my most sincere gratitude for your letter, that has lifted my spirit in these awful times. If a book is artistically good, our lettered friends should have nothing further to do with it. That is the beautiful golden rule of Nieuwe Gids Magazine, as you say, we, even younger than you are, should most certainly maintain. People are exasperated about me, especially in social-democrat circles [ what's new? Ad@ ] they try to make my life very difficult: My main employment, of which I could run a decent life, and had to, has been cancelled from september, and it is highly questionable if this criminal person, writing you now, will find other livelihood.

Never before have I found people so brutal and barbaric, as today, and that is why I was so uplifted by your letter. Aletrino also is very angry wit me. He said he loved me, but this has been too much for him. These are wretched days. You see, if I'd been a bit older (I've passed 22 now), I would manage, but I have so little experience, to work myself out of this mess. And running up the first tree I see, that's too stoïc for me.

Dear mr Van Deyssel, I presume you can more or less feel the intensity, of the suffering I encounter from people ; it'ss really bad. People have written me such disgraceful scurrilous letters, it still disgusts and horrifies me. Meaning it was really awful. I think I'm at a crossroads in my life, and I really do not know which way to turn yet. Luckily it's sunday now and I do not have to meet people. Everything still is a daze to me. I first thought of going to Paris, away from here , but that would be too crazy and admitting defeat, so I won't. I have to stay in Holland and finish my books, don't you agree? And that is what I will do, dear mr Van Deyssel, so please, will you help me through this a little? I wanted to ask you permission to publish some kibbles of the book in De 20ste Eeuw. My presumption is that it will reassure people and stop them attacking me in such a beastly fashion as they did until now. If you agree, I will once again scrutinize and rework the section in question and send it to you. Could you venture with me? It would be such an extraordinary support. Because this I'm so sure about, after having worked so hard and long on this book and suffered soo much, I just cannot throw it in a corner. That would be the death of me. No, I will republish it. And now I'm asking you something very serious, I know that, but could you write a preface for the new release, like you have done for Boutens and for the late Henri Hartog? Maybe then people would leave me be again. And you can get through to the thick skulls of those brutes and get them to realise they are treating me wrong.

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I know, I ask a lot, but if you don't I have to struggle against tese devils all on my own, and if you give them a decent blow with your strong fists, most of their uproar will crumble. Everyvody left me to my own devices, so I'm writing from deep desolation. So please, help me through this and respond to my request. Maybe I will leave the country after all, as everything has turned so illogical anyway, and no action seems to follow from precious deeds and lack any guidance. If so I'll come by to say bye bye. For now I'll try to salvage what can be saved. Maybe it will not turn out all that bad,

so meanwhile ,

with highest esteem,

your humble servant,

Jacob de Haan

Van Deyssel did not take up de Haan's request of writing a preface for the new edition. Though many more letters followed, Van Deyssel more and more played hard to get. The already suspicious De Haan even suspected him to be not very honest and being influenced by otherd (amongst them Aletrino). Still, Van Deyssel did react positively at first, as shows from this letter published by De Haan:

"Dear honorable Sir,

In answer to your letter yesterday, I have the homour of informing you that even before you wrote me I had already read your book 'Pijpelijntjes' in full and with great curiosity. Of the understanding, which I will call "Het Nieuwe Gids Understanding", which has over the past 2 decades governed Dutch literature critique, there cannot be any generalizing remarks made about your book, but indeed it should be considered to the most exquisite published in recent years. For me you are a rare and decent artist.

Be it, that in recent years my own understanding of what a literary book should be has somewhat been revised and completed. As such I recently learnt that my novel "de Kleine republiek" was found in the librairy of a H.B.S. (Hoogere Burgerschool or Higher Civic School) and had to dis-approve emphatically.

Continuing alng that line, one comes to consider publication of a book as an act in society, and thus judge it less favorably if it encourages lifestyles, that are considered as not to be promoted. We are and will remain prducts of our recent cultural-historic past and irresistably feel as such . That is why, even seen from another psychic philosophy, this inclination must actually be seen as the noblest a human can abandon oneself to, as the men depicted in your work, something that we would not want to experience in our daily lives, and as such don't want to see promoted. Publications as yours encourage such behavior and feelings as yu som exquisitely and talentedly portrayed.

As I said, I admit my feelings in the matter don't quite fit the "Nieuwe Gids" theories, but it is right, when you apply the theory in its ultimate consequence, as you did in your sketches, thatb we become aware of where they are to tumble and fall, or driven too far. In this I hope to have clarified my appreciation of your work,

with collegial greeting,

sincerely,

Later Van Deyssel wrote:

Keep the faith, keep courage. You will live a lng and happy life,

and write other just as artful books, containing other feelings.

De Haan sure needed the courage wished to him. He'd lst his journalist appointment at Het Volk and was fired as teacher. It was next to impossible to find other employment and at times got struck by nervous attacks. From the Van Deyssel correspondence there's another letter worth quoting: a dated 14 juni 1905, signed Jacob Israel de Haan, the name he used from then on, which he officially got at his circumsision in january 1882.

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Magister Van Deyssel, magis, magistra veritas.

Very respected mister Van Deyssel,

the latest postman today brings me your letter, which in itself is a joy, but nevertheless with bitter sadness.

I will respond acact and in detail. Indeed, no, I have never met you, but there is something more from you to me, than just nothing, and that shows in the somewhat cantankerous tone of your writing.

(Van Deyssel was said to have blocked membership of the literati club because De Haan was not a literary artist W.J.S.) The case with the literaty club is this: I give you the names and fames of it, so it can become clear, who is telling unsubstanciated lies. I for sure am not one of them. I wrote to Quérido publishers, that I waived membership, because a contribution was part of it, and my beat-up financial situation holds no prospect of rainsing that amount. Also the fact that I could not think of two members remaining, who would vouch for me, as Borel obviously did not want to compromie himself. Quérido then wrote me, and that was in March, he wouyld very much have wanted me to join and would gladly support my aplication! And if Henri Borel did not want to do so, he surely would find two others that would. He then named Mr. Coenen and yourself, wondering if I'd agree with asking. I was not very enthousiasic (Coenen beig a friend of Aletrino, and you treated me, as I felt then, not in a respectful way) also Borel made himself number two. That's all I heard about the matter. Sunday I spoke with Borel, who told me it was you who spoke out against my membership, as your favorable opinion about my work had turned around. He'd heard that from Quérido (clash, boom: uproar with Quérido!) and only by his assistance I was pulled through. That is how I've been told and nothing else. you see, mr. Van Deyssel, I'm not an extraordinary good human, and my life has, frm earkly childhood, not been any better, because I was no better. But lying I have dne never, ever. It may very well be that I now will get told off by Borel or Quérid, but on a head s pinded into apathy, one does not feel five or six extra blows. Anyway, even if I would feel more pain and suffering, even then I would not remain silent. It may very well be I'm a loudmouth.

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But rather one loud mounth than two telling different stories. I now realise you have developed a resenting antipathy towords me, for that I'm sorry. But I know I did not deserve that, so it is not a reproachful regret. I have shown your letters to me to Borel. Don't you show letters that praise you to thers? Borel has written a reprimand about yu accusing you of not protecting me, showing himself as a brave practical person, defending your 'Nieuwe Gids' theories. You think I set up Borel to do so? If I'd have known, I would have advised against it. But I didn't. Yu think I was nt touched unpleasantly by it?

By the way, yu promissed me, you'd write abuot what happened. I would have appreciated that, not for praise or benefit for me, but for the sake of the scurrilously violated literary principle, that is and should remain sacred to us. You remained silent. Is not for you a promis something as dear as your own child? Why are you blaming and hurting me so deeply You are not a diminutive person, whose words only have ridiculous value, you are Lodewijk van Deyssel. Don't you know? And evry word, you send me, has its value through you. You accuse me, and that really hits hard, that I published Pijpelijntjes in the form I did, without having consulted Aletrino. Who told you thgat? It's a crying shame, nothing less. Aletrino knew I was writing the scetches, and that they were dedicated to him. Granted, he did not read them in advance, just as I had not read his novel "Zomeravond", that he dedicated to me. Does he really need to go berserk about me? I know, he now goes around telling I was just a nervous mental case for him. Well, if that was so, than his attitude towards all my other nervous dispositions ssure need revising. He will for sure walk up against other things.

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He tought me stuff with the sharpest attention, that one is not supposed to teach a twenty year old, yes, I had not even turned twenty then. I'm surely not complaining about that, even if my soul is poisned and my life ruined, s much so, that I'm now longing to die. Why does Aletrino act that way? God, what cowards people can be, and what an ultimate cissy Arnold Aletrino is. He would have supported me 'until death do us part' ? Well, let's not be too drastic. He must have his pains, you know him. And we always judge others sufferings much lighter than one's own. If he would not have been afraid of the alderman (Aletrino was a civil servant of the city of Amsterdam W.J.S.) he surely would not have deserted me in all my grief, but they threatened him with his employment. And he's getting on in years, and his eyes are getting poorly towards blindness, so he did not dare to speak out. One has to forgive him. Do you think I do not know all the details of those eventful days? They are exactly one year ago this week, so shall we organise a celebration of sadness? After he had read the book, and the vionent tunderstorms ad pulverised me, e came around to me, because I, wit my alledged mental disorder, could not safely visit him. One time, even, I did visit im and is wife, and we taslked about reserving the book's proceeds to benefit me. We never spoke of teir benefit. But I do not bow my head to people who are our lesser. Do you wish me to bow now? When that old-liberal alderman mingled into the affair, he witdrew support of me, not before.

The deciding moment, by te way, for all of Aletrino's actions is neiter his own reasoning, nor his own views, but the fear for his livelyhood, which sure is better and more secure than my own, but as you know, the more one has, the more frigtened one becomes of losing it. If indeed Aletrino has been thrown on the streets becuse of my scetches, then for sure, magister Van Deyssel, I have been dropped in the slurry pit. e's snugly back home with the misses, while I'm still in the gutter, downtrodden by all the little people. Arnold Aletrino, our mutual friend, was supposed to help me, like a factory director is morally obliged to help his workers, when they get injured at the job. Through the corrupt sexual teachings of Aletrino all tis has happened. Well, I may be a nervous wreck, but what is he then?

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Is morphine good for the nerves? He should keep quiet and recognise that he's just as much to blame for the birt of this book and all the consequences (because I sure will not bow) as a fater is about the birth of a child, even if not he but the mother carried it. Yes, he is denying this extramarital child and the mislead mother with it. That is the honorable thing to do ? But honesty stands before honour and fairness. I am guilty (if tere is any guilt) and so is he. He sould recognise his, as I do mine. Open and thrutfully. I will not repudiate anyting he's tought me, and was so delightful, and in that I honour him as the friend he was. Van Eeden has often warned me about him, but I did not want to forsake him, as long as he wanted me near. Dear mister Van Deyssel, I may very well be a vile person, but my friendship with mister Aletrino as been a sacrifice. Do you really want to reproac me for making te letter you wrote to me public? Te reading of tis letter may be too tiring for you, and writing it burdens me more than I can tell, or I would show you that surely people may condemn me, but not as much as you think. In your letter there's no talk of third parties, but if that is your fair verdict, than you should stand behind it, and if it is not, than you should not have written it.

I've asked you for a talk this summer, in remembrance of the starting words of Henry Hartog's book, that one only then comes to a good agreement. Then we could have discussed tings in person, as now I have to write. When my integrity was abused so shamefully in Het Volk, I urrgently pleeded for consent on publishing your letter to me in my defence. You did not even bother to answer me.

You were not obliged to do so, you may have been too usy, or felt I was of too little importance. I did not use your letter then. But nowe it has become to horrific, and I have no other options left.

I do beg your padon, for doing it, but it has to be done. You'd rather not speak of the the injustice and sorrow of my liufe; you ave no idea. It is of no consequence to you anyway, but it has snapped me irreparably, mister Van Deyssel,

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One does not die of a nervous disposition, and in every chart you can find ow long a person of 23 still has to live. It is long. So you should leave me alone with my sorrow, rather than weigh my nervous suffering against thegossip spread in name of Aletrino, totally in contradiction with your theories of decency, that one should not publish nor quote from private letters. Something that remains a questionable theory anyway. Are you angry abut this writ8ing? I'm telling it like it is and as I feel it. There are no lies in this letter. If you're angry, try to place yourself in my position. Gof forbid, yu'll ever get in a similar situation. Believe me, as I'm sure you do.

Your dedicated,

and still appreciative,

Jacob Israël de Haan

How the relationship between De Haan and Van Deyssel has been in reality is hard to deduct from this emotional letter. Obviously De Haan had a clear opinion on it. Over five years later Aletrino came back to the matter in a letter to Willem Kloos when De Haan offered fragmentsd of te second part of Pijpelijntjes t De Nieuwe Gids - of which both Kloos and Aletrino were editors - Aletrino resised teir inclusion in te magazine and wrote amongst other tings: "The history of the first part of Pijpelijntjes, was that of a tremendously perverse individual, with all kinds of gross indecencies, and for that idividual he had taken me as role-model, and depicted him so good and sharp in his appearance, that everybody who knows me immediately knew it was me. That is the basics of the history."

Aletrino kept on resisting publishing Pijpelijntjes II in De Nieuwe Gids. While the Haan kept insisting, as both Van Deyssel as Kloos had promissed to do so. When nothing came of it, De Haan asked assistance of Mr. H.Louis Israëls, advisor of the Literary Society. In the end a fragment did get published.

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Open letter

to

P.L. Tak,

Chief editor of Het Volk,

member of the party committee of the S.D.A.P.

member of Provincial States of Hoord Holland,

member of the city council of Amsterdam,

member of the schools commission of Amsterdam,

member of the health administration of Amsterdam

editor of "De Kroniek",

chairman of "Art to the People" society.

by

Jacob Israël de Haan

Motto:

'for truth, that's old will nowhere find salvation or consolation

This one calls wisdom, holds a finger on the mouth,

O, if only I mastered that art, but what at the base of the heart,

gropes me at the throat, so I've been pressed and stifled.

It woks like new wine, bursting at the brim,

If it still is imperfect, it's bound to grow to perfection. . .

--------------

Or now a reprobate will interpret it contradictory,

that I might allow the people against authorities . . .

Thus I shall flat-out repudiate it.

(VONDEL)

Amsterdam

Jacq van Cleef

1905.

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In above quoted extensive letter to Van Deyssel de Haan spoke about a letter from Van Deyssel that he intended to publish . That indeed happened, only a few days after De Haan had written the letter. At Jacq Van Cleef his 28 pages Open Letter to P.L.Tak was published, extensively listing all functions of the latter.

Anybody wh payed 15 cents, could purchase the open letter and read how De Haan turned his outrage inside-out. He denied Tak te right to act as he'd done, without consent of te party leadership.

One could see this Open Letter as the closing chapter in the Pijpelijntjes affair. De Haan indeed had finished raging. He'd gotten to know the true nature of his friends and foes and realised nothing would change.

Not that he intended on giving up his writing, nor leave the subject matter raised in Pijpelijntjes alone. In 1908 his second novel saw the light, Pathologiën, in which again a homo-erotic relationship of two boys took center stage. Contrary to Pijpelijntjes, this book has at certain stages an undeniable sadistic tendency. Evidently "Pathologiën, or the destruction of Johan van Vere de With" succeeded to be far more persuasive than Pijpelijntjes, but the author had grown older, wiser and more experienced. Still Frederik van Eeden, who, despite ups and downs, throughout his life remained a loyal friend of De Haan,also condemned this novel. He argued that this book could not be seen as art. As earlier he had typecasted Pijpelijntjes as "the most horrific book of Jacob de Haan".

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Socialy De Haan had recuperated quite a bit in the following years. With help of mr. G.A. van Hamel he had obtained a simple engagement at the Rijksverzekeringsbank. On november 23rd 1905 he graduated for law at the University of Amsterdam. Even more important to him was his marriage with Amsterdam cityphysician Johanna van Maarseveen, that took place on march 28th 1907. De Haan got to know his many years older bride when he was applying for employment as teacher and needed to have a medical examination. Through this marriage with an academically educated woman he disconnected from the petty-bourgeois environment in which he was raised; the marriage offered him a new status and provided the backbone for rebuilding a carreer. Even when the marriage which never was disbanded, ran aground within a short time.

On july 6th De Haan did his final law exam and established himself as repetitor. In 1916 he aquired a doctoral degree on a thesis about judicial signicicance. In that same year he was admitted as private teacher at the Amsterdam University where he held a lecture about "the essence and task of judicial significa".

The novel writer De Haan had become passed tense and disappeared into oblivion. The poet de Haan came to prominence, though.

In his "Liberarian Songs" (1914) his "Songs" (1919) and especially the beautiful "a New Carthasgo" (1919) and his poetic diary "Kwatrijnen" (1924) he will find inspiration once mre in homo-erotivc love, but never agtain did a resistance against it flare up as with Pijpelijntjes. Next to that De Haan would gain a reputation as poet of "the Jewish Song (1915, 1921) and as author of travel letters from Palestine where he settled in 1919 and his justicial employment. Here oo there were troubles when the Zionist De Haan showed himself more and more as ultra-orthodox

and was prepared to take position against zionism because in his views the "land of the book" did not prove to be the "land of the book" he envisioned.

Just before his return to Holland he was assasinated in Jerusalem on june 30th 1924. A political murder, not by Arabs, as long has been said and written, but by zionist jews. Nobody has written a better In Memoriam than P.N. van Eyck with much understanding and insight as a lasting valuable memory.

In love I follow the unrest of his travels

Around the world and through hisd heart,

The hands, in seach of the sweetest of sins,

Have stiffened in their last grasp.

But even the darkest urges of that life

have not quenched his thirst for god,

and this is the best he's given:

a slender flame, a cleansding glow.

It burns now, as it's silent where passions yield

and the body that drove them no longer cares,

Bright in the silvery glow of his poems

from the only oil that no flame consumes.

Wim J. Simons

‘kleefkloddertjes’

stickylumps ‘zinzeggen’ asentencesaying, ‘aandachtsheerlijkheid’ attention-deliciousness

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Hij wou 't graag, kreeg altijd een gulden, als hij met me meeging en 'snachts bij me bleef, en soms meer. Maar ik minachtte hem dan toch den jongen, die lui liever geld kreeg, dan dat hij het verdiende. ‘We kunnen wel trammen, geef me maar twee kaartjes.’ ‘Asjeblieft m'neer.’ Ik gaf hem een kwartje en hij blijbedankte. Maar ik wou toen niet met hem trammen, hij was zoo gering en zoo vuil. ‘Nee, we gaan toch maar loopen... daar heb je de kaartjes, hou dat kwartje maar.’ Gedwee liep hij met me mee, het donker mistige Rokin en de Reguliersgracht. ‘Je moet vannacht bij me blijven, m'neer Sam is er niet.’ ‘Ja, dat is best’. Naast mekaar liepen we door zwijgend. Nee, ik hield niet van 'm... maar hij was de mooiste jongen, dien ik kende.En weer zag ik hem zooals ik hem voor 't eerst zag. Midden in een gloedheeten zonzomerdag op 't plein, vuilprachtig met z'n goudbruin doorgloeide oogen en z'n blinkwitte tanden. En 't eerste gevoel van begeerte zonder liefde hervoelde ik nu. Voor mij stond hij zooals hij 't eerst naaktbevend voor me had gestaan, met z'n vuile prachtige vleesch. Kleefkloddertjes tusschen z'n onderbuikhaar , op z'n knieën een hardbruine vuilkorst met witte splijt-barstjes, twee vuilplekken op z'n borst... en later had hij zich altijd eerst in 't badhuis moeten wasschen.

Tegenwoordig zijn we een stuk meer gewend dan rond 1900 en als je Pijpelijntjes leest, is het niet schokkend meer, maar nog altijd verrassend open. Wel moet je even wennen aan de vele nieuwvormingen die De Haan gebruikt: hij verzint woorden als ‘zinzeggen’, ‘aandachtsheerlijkheid’ en ‘kleefkloddertjes’, iets wat ook andere schrijvers uit zijn tijd deden. Maar door het vele gebruik van de directe rede (gesprekken dus) leest het boek nog erg vlot.

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In 't warmgeworden bed lei ik achterover, de lamp was afgedraaid en een donkere schaduwlichtschijn donsde op de dingen, die onduidelijk contourden. Op de stoel lag m'n witte omslagdoek... ik keek er naar en werd bang.
‘Sam verleg die doek d'ris even... zoo... ja, zoo is 't goed... Sam, zeg, ben ik heusch anders dan anderen?’
‘Ja, 'n beetje wel... maar praat daar nou niet over.’
‘Jawel... laten we daar nou wel over praten... hou je veel van me?’
‘Dat zeg ik niet, dat weet je wel.’
‘Net als ik van jou?’....
‘Begint 't vaste vragenlijstje weer... nou maar ik zeg 't niet... altijd 't zelfde.’
‘Toe zeg 't dan nog een keer... net als ik van jou?’
‘Nee... dat weet je wel. Nou zeg ik 't nog een keer... maar dat is voor 't laatst. Jij houdt positief van mij, en soms vind je 't prettig, dat ik bij je slaap, maar ik hou veel van jou... maar anders... ik vind 't goed, wat jij wilt, maar ik zal 't je nooit vragen, dat weet je wel’...
‘Ja’....
‘En, zie je, jij houdt ook wel eens van andere jongens, en ik zou dat nooit van een ander willen’...
‘Nee... alleen van mij’....
‘Ja... ik ga nog wel eris trouwen, echt gewoon trouwen met 'n boterbriefie’...
‘Toe nou’... dan is 't zeker tusschen ons uit?’
‘Goddorie wor-je ernstig? Nee, maar dan ga ik’...
. 't Gele lampenschijnsel bluschte en 't vochtig-natte donker golfde over me heen....
‘Sam’....
‘Ja’....
‘Dag’....
‘Dag... blijf niet wakker liggen hoor, als ik met Siep mee ga, wordt 't laat, dat weet je wel’....
De deur dicht. En in 't strakke regengeluid braken zijn voetstappen... tot hij weg was en 't donzige donker er alleen was... geluidloos.