Literatuur Zonder Leeftijd. Jaargang 5

[p. 4]

‘He was a fine person’
In memoriam Jan. F. de Zanger
door Joke Thiel-Schoonebeek

Only four months ago we all met during IBBY's General Assembly at the 22nd IBBY Congress in Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.A. It was the time and the place to vote for the new officers of the IBBY Executive Committee. From among the sixteen candidates, Jan de Zanger, President of the Dutch IBBY Section, was elected to join the new eight-member IBBY Executive team. It was a very gratifying moment. Jan, quiet and trustworthy, was going to take an active part in IBBY's international board.

Just before the whole world was getting ready for yet another war, Jan de Zanger passed away. He died unexpectedly, leaving us all dazed and grieved with this irrevocable loss.

Jan was born in Schiedam, in 1932. As a young boy he was sent to Denmark, right after the liberation, to recover from the hardships of World War II. Denmark was to become another home land for him, and Danish his second mother tongue.

Jan studied the Dutch language, and was a high-school teacher for twenty years. From 1977 on he worked at the Nederlands Instituut voor Leerplanontwikkeling (Dutch Institute for Curriculum Development). In 1961, his first translation into Dutch of a Danish children's book was published, and more than a hundred books from the Scandinavian languages and German were to follow, both for children and adults. In 1962, his very first collection of verse was published. From 1981 on, most of Jan's writing was for young people.

His first novel for young adults appeared in 1981, and was entitled Ben is dood (Ben is dead). Ever since that moment, Jan de Zanger wrote books for the people that he knew so well, and that he cared for: the young generation. Many of his books have been translated, among others into German, Icelandic, Polish and Japanese. In 1988 he was awarded the German Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize for his novel Desnoods met Geweld (Dann eben mit Gewalt).

[p. 5]

Jan de Zanger died on 14 January 1991. He was only 58 years of age. We all know that we have lost a very dear friend and a most capable and versatile authority in the field of children's books.

Jan was, first of all, a very sensitive human being, an inspired author, a fine poet, a conscientious translator, an engaged teacher. Besides this, for the past eight years he was a devoted IBBY-man. Jan enjoyed meeting his fellow writers, as he did at the IBBY Congresses in Tokyo, Oslo, and Williamsburg, always pleading for more contact between people who share the same outlook on children's books, in his case that of the author.

Another thing that he highly valued was being in touch with his young public, his readers. He was always on the road, meeting them in schools, reading to them, talking with them. His books for young adults were made to measure. Plots that hold a fair degree of tension, with themes that are up-to-date, and problems that young people are facing in their everday life, in school, in the family, and in our multi-cultural society.

As a former high-school teacher, Jan de Zanger never forgot to further the cause of reading enjoyment. As a curriculum developer he made this enjoyment his credo. It made him explore and defend reading for pleasure's sake.

Jan, as the President of the Dutch IBBY Section, was a devoted and sincere colleague who had the ability to make friends in his own quiet way. Due to his personality, his dependable and consistent presence, IBBY was gradually gaining a place of its own in the Netherlands. It is so hard to believe that Jan will not be with us anymore. There is still so much to be achieved, especially in this world of today. We know that he wanted us all to continue to further IBBY's goals, and we will try to go on in his spirit.