Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker; 1820–1887) was born in Amsterdam and served as a colonial official in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) for almost twenty years. His protests against abuses in the Dutch colonial system led to tension with his superiors and eventually to his resignation in 1856. He hoped that the novel Max Havelaar (1860), by bringing the problems to public attention, would lead to meaningful reform and his reinstatement as a senior official. The book was a great success and provoked public and political debate, eventually leading to changes in colonial policy, and Multatuli became a celebrated author. Yet he argued that these changes did not truly address the issues he had exposed, and was disappointed that Max Havelaar had not propelled him into an illustrious career in public administration or politics. He eventually concluded that Dutch colonialism was doomed to fail. Multatuli’s social criticism continued in his later work, such as the popular play School for Princes (1872) and the semiautobiographical novel Woutertje Pieterse (1890), about a young boy in late eighteenth century Amsterdam. Today he is regarded as Holland’s greatest writer of the nineteenth century and the father of contemporary Dutch literature. His many admirers have included D.H. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud.

Ina Rilke is a translator of Dutch and French and has received the Vondel Translation Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize, and the Flemish Culture Prize for her translations. She lives in Amsterdam and Paris.



David McKay is a translator of Dutch literature living in The Hague. He received the Vondel Translation Prize in 2018 for War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925–2006) was born on the Indonesian island of Java. He is best known for the novels that make up his Buru Quartet, which relates the struggle of Indonesia to liberate itself from the Dutch. Among the honors he received were the PEN Freedom to Write Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award.