Writer Hella Haasse died on Thursday at her house in Amsterdam. She was 93.
Haasse is regarded as one of the Netherlands’ most important female authors, writes the Nos.

Haasse wrote nearly 70 books and received many awards, including the prestigious Constantijn Huygens prize (1981) and the PC Hooft prize (1984).
Her first book, Oeroeg, was published in 1948 as part of the annual book festival de Boekenweek. It is set in the Dutch East Indies and tells the story of the friendship between a native boy and a Dutch boy. It proved a controversial subject in post-war Holland.
Oeroeg was on the reading list of generations of secondary school students and was her most popular book by far. She was to write many more. ‘Het woud der Verwachting’ ( published in English under the title ‘In a dark wood wandering’) and ‘De scharlaken stad’ (‘The scarlet city’) were among her most acclaimed historical novels. She was also a literary critic and was invited to interview queen Beatrix when the monarch turned fifty.
Childhood
The ‘Grand old lady’ of Dutch literature was born Hélène Serafia Haasse on February 2 1918 in the former Dutch East Indies where she spent a large part of her childhood.
She was always going to be writer. Haasse wrote her first historical novel when she was eleven and wrote plays for her friends to perform.
She took her inspiration from the many history books on her father’s bookshelves. He was a finance inspector in the colonial government and an author himself, writing under the pen name of W.H. van Eemlandt. Her mother was a concert pianist.
Student days
In 1938 Haasse came to Amsterdam to study Scandinavian languages. When she found that the Nazis were using Scandinavian and German sagas for propaganda purposes she gave up her studies and, a year later, applied to go to acting school. She worked as an actor, directed and built stage sets but remained passionate about her writing. She tried her hand at poetry, plays and cabaret texts but very quickly turned to prose. Her novels sold well abroad and for years she was one of the most read Dutch writers internationally.
Haasse’s work is not only to be found on the bookshelf, she also has an internet site. On her ninetieth birthday the digital Hella Haasse Museum was inaugurated. It contains manuscripts, diary entries and photographs of the author with her husband and her three daughters.
This is an unofficial translation