Hein Boeken

Diagnoses

Vocation

Traits

Dutch classicist, poet, Dante translator, Tachtiger, school director and private teacher. Boeken studied classical letters in Amsterdam. He dissertated 7 July 1899 at 14:00 with "Adnotationes ad Apuleii Metamorphoseon". The thesis deals with Apuleius novel Metamorphoses, describing the adventures of a certain Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. The story of Cupid and Psyche is part of it. Boeken (his name means "books") was called a "childlike" spirit and poet, who read and wrote eight foreign languages, but lacked in the eyes of others the practical knowledge of the world. He wrote poetry Goden en menschen (1895) and Verzen (1920). For Boeken the mythological Gods were existing entities. He translated Dante's Divina commedia into the Dutch language (1907-10). Later editions (1922-28) can be found online (dbnl). He was a friend of Willem Witsen, editor of the Nieuwe Gids (1894-1933) and life-long suppporter of the poet maudit Willem Kloos. In 1893 they went to France and Italy. On 3 Augustus 1899 he married in Amsterdam Adriana Lina Coorengel (4 October 1865, Koepang, IND - 22 January 1916). They got a son Hendrik Jan Boeken (10 May 1902), who died early in 1903. His wife suffered from recurrent depressions and after the death of her child, they became worse. In 1916 she tried to commit suicide by drinking three bottles of laudanum, but as she had built up a tolerance for opiates, it did not succeed. The confused and terrified Boeken strangled his from coma woken up wife with a sheet and went to the police. He was not further persecuted by the court Amsterdam on 30 June 1916 on the basis of his mental state. Boeken died 10 October 1933 in Amsterdam. Link to Dutch Wikipedia