Nicolaas Beets

Nicolaas Beets was born in Haarlem, the son of a pharmacist. From 1833 till 1839 he studied theology at the university of Leiden where he received his doctorate.

In 1840 he became a minister at the Dutch Reformed Church in Heemstede. In the same year he married Aleida van Foreest. In 1848 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, when that became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851 he joined as member.[1] In 1854 he moved to Utrecht where from 1874 till 1884 he was a professor in church history at the University of Utrecht.

He wrote prose, poetry and sermons. As a poet, Beets came under the influence of Byronism.[2]

His most famous work is Camera Obscura, which he wrote under his pseudonym during his student years.[2] Of his poems, "De moerbeitoppen ruischten" is well-known and popular;[3][4] it is heavily anthologized, and even called "immortal" by one critic.[5]

The archive of Nicolaas Beets is available at Leiden University Library and digitally accessible through Digital Collections[6]

Beets had a sister, Dora Beets, who was also a writer.

Beets died of a brain haemorrhage at age 88, in Utrecht.

Hildebrand Monument in Haarlemmerhout, Haarlem, with characters from the Camera Obscura.

Attribution

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beets, Nikolaas" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. Missing or empty |title= (help)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nicolaas Beets.

• Works by Nicolaas Beets at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Nicolaas Beets at Internet Archive
• Works by or about Hildebrand at Internet Archive
• Works by Nicolaas Beets at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)