Elizabeth Bekker Wolff

Born in Vlissingen in 1738, Elizabeth Bekker Wolff wrote under the name Betje Wolff and became known as a novelist, poet, and playwright. She published early on with Bespiegelingen over het genoegen in 1763, showing the sharp voice and moral curiosity that would mark her writing.

After the death of her husband, the clergyman Adriaan Wolff, she formed a close literary partnership with Agatha "Aagje" Deken. Together they wrote a series of popular epistolary novels, most famously De historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart (1782), often described as the first Dutch novel or the first major Dutch epistolary novel, followed by works including Willem Levend, Abraham Blankaart, and Cornelia Wildschut.

Their fiction is remembered for its lively characters, everyday detail, and interest in manners, feeling, and social life. Wolff died in The Hague in 1804, just days before Deken, and the two remain one of Dutch literature’s most celebrated writing partnerships.