P. A. (Paul Adriaan) Daum

Born in The Hague in 1850, Paul Adriaan Daum grew up with little formal schooling and is generally described as largely self-taught. He began writing while working as an office clerk, then built a career in journalism and fiction, publishing as P.A. Daum and sometimes under the pseudonym Maurits.

Daum became especially known for novels that appeared as serials in newspapers, a format that gave his work its lively pace and strong sense of episode. He lived and worked in the Dutch East Indies, including in Semarang, and his best-known books include Uit de suiker in de tabak and Goena-Goena. His fiction is often noted for its realistic, unsentimental view of colonial society.

He died in Laag-Soeren in 1898. Even though he wrote in the nineteenth century, he remains an important name in Dutch-language literature, remembered as a keen observer of people and of the world around him.