Josine Meijer

Vocation

Dutch astrologer, essayist and writer. She visited the Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague (1909-1915), where she had the later professor of history H. Bolkestein, the historian HA Leemans (the father of the poet Vasalis) and the classicist Aegidius Willem Timmerman as teachers. In 1959 and 1983 she wrote essays about Timmerman, later published in Old friends and a changing world. Meyer became in 1916 a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a forerunner of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN). Later she left under the influence of her friend Jacques de Kadt (30 July 1897, Oss - 16 April 1988, Santpoort), this party. In the 30s she was a member of the by De Kadt established Independent Socialist Party (OSP), a left split off from the SDAP. After the formation of the current Labour Party (1946), she turned to the PvdA. Meyer studied law in Leiden. She worked briefly as a volunteer at the law firm of Abel Herzberg, as an enumerator for the fight against tuberculosis and as leader on a Montessori school. After WW2, she acquired reputation as essayist in the magazines "De baanbreker" (the trailblazer), Libertinage and "Tirade" (rant), all published by Geert van Oorschot. She also wrote "Multatuli en Tine" (1950, Van Oorschot, Amsterdam) and "Inleiding tot het denken van Friedrich Nietzsche" (1953, Born, Assen). Meyers sister Lennie, with whom she lived from 1922 to Lennie's death in 1974, translated for publisher Van Oorschot some novels. In 1981 Gerard Reve published his (Letters to Josine M. 1959-1975). In 1994, an amplified reprint was published under the title Letters to Josine M. 1959-1982. Gerard Reve and Josine Meyer were friends for years and Meyer provided Reve astrological advice. A choice of Josine Meyers essays appeared in 1990 under the title "Oude vrienden en een veranderende wereld - Een keuze uit eigen werk" (Old friends and a changing world. A choice from own work) under Van Oorschot. She died 30 January 1991 in Den Haag. Link to Dutch Wikipedia