The Land of Letter-Lovers

Abstract

In comparison with the US and the UK, the term “life writing” came to the Netherlands rather late. It wasn’t until the first years of the twenty-first century that it was introduced to Dutch readers in publications like Marijke Huisman’s 2008 book Publieke levens: Autobiografieen op de Nederlandse boekenmarkt 18S0-1918 and in Dutch journals like Biografie Bulletin and De Gids. Yet the term is still being contested by Dutch biography scholars Hans Renders and Binne de Haan of the University of Groningen.