author
August P. van Groeningen
1866–1894
A Dutch writer linked to the 1880s literary movement, he wrote with unusual sympathy for people on the social margins and died just before turning 28. His small body of work left a lasting impression because of its sharp realism and emotional intensity.
1 Audiobook
Een nest menschen
by August P. van Groeningen
About the author
Born on February 14, 1866, August Pieter van Groeningen was a Dutch writer who spent much of his short life in Rotterdam, where he also worked as a schoolteacher. He published under the name August P. van Groeningen and was associated with the literary world around De Nieuwe Gids, the influential magazine of the Tachtigers, or Writers of the Eighties.
He is best known for Een nest menschen, a work noted for its vivid, realistic picture of urban and working-class life. Contemporary and later sources describe him as a talented young author whose writing paid close attention to people living at the edges of society.
Van Groeningen died in Rotterdam on February 12, 1894, from tuberculosis, only two days before his 28th birthday. Because his life was so brief, his oeuvre is small, but he remains an intriguing figure in Dutch literature for the promise and power visible in his surviving work.