Harry Mulisch

Biography

Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch was born on 29 July 1927 in Haarlem, Netherlands, and died on 30 October 2010 in Amsterdam. He was a Dutch writer whose work included more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical writings. His books have been translated into 38 languages, making him one of the most internationally known figures in Dutch literary history. Along with Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, Mulisch is considered one of the 'Great Three' (De Grote Drie) of Dutch postwar literature, a title that shows both the critical respect and cultural impact his work had over many decades.

Mulisch's life was heavily influenced by World War II, which often appeared in his fiction. His father was an Austrian-Jewish bank worker who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, a fact that spared the family during the occupation of the Netherlands. This complex family background gave Mulisch a unique perspective on war, guilt, and complicity, themes present in his major works. He also covered the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem as a journalist, an event that deepened his exploration of evil, responsibility, and history.

His novel "The Assault," published in 1982, follows a survivor of a wartime reprisal killing across decades of Dutch history. It was made into a film that won both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1987. His most ambitious novel, "The Discovery of Heaven," published in 1992, is a complex story about two friends, divine intervention, and the fate of the Ten Commandments. A 2007 poll by the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad voted it the greatest Dutch book ever written. Mulisch was often mentioned as a potential Nobel Prize winner in literature, though he never received the award.

Throughout his career, Mulisch won many prestigious awards. He received the P.C. Hooft Award and the Constantijn Huygens Prize, both in 1977, plus the Cestoda Prize in the same year. He was awarded the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize in 1963, the Multatuli Award in 1993, the Dutch Literature Prize in 1995, and the Libris Literature Prize in 1999. In 2002, he received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. France honored him with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2007 he won the International Nonino Prize in Italy. He was married to Sjoerdje Woudenberg.

Mulisch's philosophical interests shaped his fiction in unique ways. He was interested in themes of creation, cosmology, and the nature of evil, often blending historical and philosophical ideas into ambitious stories. His other notable works include "The Stone Bridal Bed," "The Procedure," and "Siegfried," the last of which imagines a fictional meeting between Adolf Hitler and his secret son. His ability to combine historical trauma with philosophical exploration set him apart from most of his peers in Dutch literature.