Mr. Theodore Westerhof, a Dutch afficianado of juvenile and
young adult literature, ran across my post on the Dutch
policeman/writer A.C. Baantjer, and was kind enough to send
me some corrections and additional information which, with
his permission, I'm passing on to you:
> I hope you don't mind but your text on this
author
> needed some corrections.
>
> "This week I'll be looking at a few cop-writers
from
> other parts of the world. First up: Albert
Cornelis
> Baantjer of the Netherlands. Baantjer spent
more
> than 25 years as a homicide
> detective in the Amsterdam police. After
retiring,
> he began a long series of novels featuring
a
> Maigret-like Amsterdam cop named DeCock."
>
> You are making two mistakes here, "Appie"
Baantjer
> started both his writing carreer and the De
Cock
> before his retirement. He was as such a writing
cop,
> but of course not a British one. He wrote
together
> with Maurice van Dijk his first book in 1959,
about
> their lives a cops in a patrol car, published as
by
> A.C.M. Baandijk.
>
> "There are now over 50 books in the series,
which
> began appearing in the early '60s. about 30 or 40
of
> them have been translated and published in the
US.
> Oddly, in the American editions the character's
name
> is spelled
> "DeKok," apparently because of the sexual
> connotation in the word "cock." Reportedly,
Baantjer
> based the character on a colleague named
LeCoq,
> although this sounds suspicious since Lecoq is
the
> name of the famous French policeman created in
a
> series of 19th century novels by Emile
Gaboriou."
>
> De Cock is a name consisting out of two words
and
> is not written as one. The name is (pay
attention
> now because it is gonna be very international)
based
> on a coleague's whose real family name was
"De
> Haan", which translates from Dutch into
English
> either as "The Rooster" or "The Cock", the latter
is
> just coincidence but gives reason to think
that
> (some)people in the USA have either very dirty
minds
> or have forgotten what male poultry is, it also
has
> the meaning of a part of a gun that is set
into
> motion when a gun is cocked. De Haan had been in
the
> resistance during WW II and his nom de guerre
had
> been Le Coq, French for rooster. So DE from De
Haan
> and COQ from Le Coq, became the sound of that
name,
> the more as there was a second coleague "Hock"
who
> always introduced himself as "Hock with CeeKay".
De
> Cock, the result from that fusion of names
happens
> to be a very Dutch name suggesting a
strict
> protestant christian back ground. Something
the
> character has, but that is because he's mainly
based
> on the author and the cop the author had wanted
to
> be, a little more a servant of justice than one
of
> the law.
>
> "What's seems more likely is that Baantjer may
have
> been tipping his hat to Gaboriou, the
first
> successful European mystery writer, and,
according
> to some sources, the first writer to
extend
> detective fiction from the short story to
the
novel."
>
>
> I don't think so! Mind you, De Cock started as
a
> minor character in "Een strop voor Bobby",
best
> translated as "A noose for Bobby", in that the
main
> character was ALBERT Versteegh, who seems to be
the
> writer too. He only became the main character in
the
> second book of the series, so I don't think it
is
> likely to claim that an author would try and
honor
> another one if he himself gives another reason
for
> that name.
>
> "Baantjer (that single name appears as the
by-line
at
> least on the US editions) is something of
a
> publishing phenom in Europe. He's the single
most
> successful writer in the Netherlands."
>
> Really? I wouldn't say that like that, he is
the
> most succesful in this segment, you know crime
and
> such for adults. I gather you are not aware
that
> he's "The Police Detective" in a detective
series
> for children (both sexes) written by Robert A.
van
> Dijk, with "The secret of..." titles, I guess
that
> series is not published anymore, but the writer
of
> that series was a real life colleague of
Appie
> Baantjer and he is featured in the De Cock
books
> with his full middle name.
>
> "Each new DeCock novel regularly hits the
Dutch
> best-seller list, then repeats the feat in
other
> European countries. There is an
extraordinarily
> popular DeCOCK TV series shown in the
Netherlands,
> Belgium, and France, and a DeCock board game
is
> currently one of the highest-selling toys
in
Europe."
>
> Yep, the name of that TV-series is Baantjer.
The
> Belgian channel is the best version best as
they
> give the original sound, with subtitles but
without
> commercial breaks!
>
> "Baantjer's almost an industry."
>
> You can forget ALMOST, just not a world wide
one.
>
> "I've enjoyed the Baantjer books I've read,
though
at
> times the translations have seemd a bit awkward.
THe
> atmosphere, and sense of place have been
strong
> selling points for me, and I like the
lead
> character, a man in late middle age who's seen
it
> all, and still has managed to hold on to
his
> humanity. There's not a lot of overt violence,
and,
> while DeCock (or DeKok, since I've only read
the
> American editions) and his partner, Vledder,
are
> pretty tough cookies, it's difficult to say
how
> "colloquial" they are since I'm reading
> translations. Which a roundabout way of saying
that
> I don't know how hard-boiled most of you
would
> regard them."
>
> Not really hard boiled, but just tough with a
soft
> hearts. THEY ARE POLICE! If they would be
really
> hard-boiled, they would be in trouble with
their
> superiors not to say the military police all
the
> time. They are confronted with murder after
murder,
> work in a neighbourhood with more open
prostitution
> than most hard boiled ones are confronted with.
and
> especially De Cock knows people in the
"underworld",
> as very good friends. In that they resemble
the
> author in his days on the street, he has been
a
> detective/inspector for over 28 years and
finished
> his carreer without making personal foes. They are
a
> bit soft and understanding, the younger and
less
> experienced Vledder a bit less, but he grows
better
> in the run of the series. If you want a
more
> hard-boiled Amsterdam series I would
suggest
> "Grijpstra en De Gier".
JIM DOHERTY
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