Janwillem van de Wetering


Jan Willem Lincoln van de Wetering was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch.

Biography

Van de Wetering was born and raised in Rotterdam, as the son of a rich businessman who dealt in a wide variety of commodities. In later years he lived in South Africa, Japan, London, Colombia, Peru, Australia, Amsterdam and in Surry, Maine, the setting of two of his Grijpstra and de Gier novels and his children's series about the porcupine "Hugh Pine".
Van de Wetering studied Zen under the guidance of Oda Sessō, together with Walter Nowick, at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. Van de Wetering lived a year in Daitoku-ji and half a year with Nowick outside the temple, and described his experiences in his book The Empty Mirror. The book includes an account of a visit to the monastery by Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, describing his own mixed thoughts about this representative of what he deemed an old-fashioned religion. He wrote the first draft in 1958, and the second draft in the summer of 1960, but only wrote the book that was published in 10 days in 1970. Sōkō Morinaga, Walter Nowick's Dharma brother, wrote in Novice to Master about traditional practices at that time.
Van de Wettering also encountered American poet and author Gary Snyder during his time at Daitoku-ji. Snyder was also studying under abbot Oda Sesso Roshi at that time.
His many travels, and his experiences in a Zen Buddhist monastery and as a member of the Amsterdam Reserve Constabulary lend some authenticity to his works of fiction and non-fiction.
Van de Wetering was awarded the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1984 for his novel Maine Massacre. He died in Blue Hill, Maine, aged 77.

Grijpstra and de Gier novels

Adjutant-Detective Henk Grijpstra and Detective-Sergeant Rinus de Gier, along with their never-named elderly superior, the Commissaris, are the most popular creations of Janwillem van de Wetering. They are police detectives in the Murder Brigade of the Amsterdam Municipal Police, and are featured in fourteen detective novels and several short stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Grijpstra, heavy, middle-aged, and less than happily married, is the senior partner of the duo. Though he was raised in Amsterdam, he is a Frisian born in the port city of Harlingen. In his youth he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician or a painter. When a set of drums mysteriously appeared in police headquarters he appropriated them.
De Gier, a younger man with deep brown eyes and curly hair, and most-often sporting a tasteful denim suit, is single, handsome, and very successful with women. He is an avowed bachelor and dedicated to his cats. He is a dreamer and a deep thinker, often pondering aloud on "the void," Zen, and life. A native of Rotterdam, de Gier is, like Grijpstra, an amateur musician. He often carries a small flute, and in odd moments he and Grijpstra improvise together in their office, where Grijpstra has his set of drums.
The Commissaris, small, elderly, and often nearly incapacitated by chronic rheumatism, supervises the partners' field investigations. Intelligent and broadly experienced, he often provides key insights into his juniors' cases, as well as philosophical commentary. A Frisian like Grijpstra, the Commissaris is fond of jenever and small cigars. Only his first name, Jan, is ever mentioned.
Grijpstra, de Gier, and the Commissaris first appeared in the novel Outsider in Amsterdam. The novels are:
  1. Outsider in Amsterdam
  2. Tumbleweed
  3. The Corpse on the Dike
  4. Death of a Hawker
  5. The Japanese Corpse
  6. The Blond Baboon
  7. The Maine Massacre
  8. The Mind-Murders
  9. The Streetbird
  10. The Rattle-Rat
  11. Hard Rain
  12. Just a Corpse at Twilight
  13. The Hollow-Eyed Angel
  14. The Perfidious Parrot
A complete anthology of short stories, The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories, was published in 1999, replacing two earlier anthologies, The Sergeant's Cat and Other Stories and The Amsterdam Cops and Other Stories.

Children's books

Little Owl, 1978Hugh Pine, 1980Hugh Pine and the Good Place, 1981Hugh Pine and Something Else, 1983Eugen Eule und der Fall des verschwundenen Flohs, 2001

Other fiction

The Butterfly Hunter, 1982Bliss and Bluster, 1982Inspector Saito's Small Satori, 1985 Murder by Remote Control, 1986 Seesaw Millions, 1988Mangrove Mama and Other Tropical Tales of Terror, 1995 Judge Dee Plays His Lute: A Play and Selected Mystery Stories, 1997 Die entartete Seezunge, 2004

Non-fiction

The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery, 1971A Glimpse of Nothingness: Experiences in an American Zen Community, 1975De doosjesvuller en andere vondsten, 1984 Waar zijn we aan begonnen?, 1985 Robert Van Gulik: His Life, His Work, 1988Afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student out on His Ear, 1999

Articles/stories not included in books

Translations

  • Alexandra David-Néel and Lama Yongden: The Power of Nothingness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982
  • Van de Wetering translated many books from English to Dutch and two books from French to Dutch.

Filmography

Grijpstra & De Gier, based on the novel Outsider in Amsterdam, script by Wim VerstappenRattlerat, script by Wim VerstappenDer blonde Affe, based on the novel ''The Blond Baboon''

Television

  • A TV series based on the Grijpstra and de Gier characters started airing on Dutch TV in 2004, 30 episodes are made, another 15 are ordered. Roef Ragas and Jack Wouterse play youthful versions of de Gier and Grijpstra.
  • CBS aired a TV special featuring the original Hugh Pine novel.

Radio

  • Van de Wetering wrote 4 radio plays for German TV, again based on the Grijpstra and de Gier series. The plays were aired during the early nineties. Among these is Das Koan, based on Van de Wetering's biography of Robert van Gulik, creator of the Judge Dee series. The English version, Judge Dee Plays His Lute, was included in the anthology with the same name.