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WORK TITLE: An American Princess
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 4/6/1962
WEBSITE: http://www.annejetvanderzijl.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Netherlands
NATIONALITY: Dutch
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 6, 1962, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands; married.
EDUCATION:Received degrees from the University of Amsterdam and City University of London.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
AWARDS:M.J. Brusse Prize, 2011, for best work of journalism; Golden Quill Prize, 2012, for her general body of work; Amsterdam Art Prize, 2017.
WRITINGS
Anna was adapted for television by Dana Nechushtan; Sonny Boy was adapted for film by Maria Peters, 2011.
SIDELIGHTS
Annejet van der Zijl has made a name for herself predominantly through her work as a writer and biographer. She has written on numerous famous figures throughout her home country, including Queen Juliana and Annie M.G. Schmidt. Her work has also earned her many accolades, including a Golden Quill in the year 2012, an M.J. Brusse Prize, and Libris History Prize, AKO Literary Prize, and Golden Owl Award nominations.
An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew is another of Van der Zijl’s biographies. Van der Zijl’s influence for the biography came while she was in the midst of preparing a biography for a different historical figure, Prince Bernhard. Van der Zijl soon discovered that he happened to be related to Allene Tew, who originally hailed from the United States. After a bit of searching, Van der Zijl learned of Tew’s fate and the status of her estate; this led to her making the trip to speak directly to the daughter of Prince Bernhard, who resided in France, to learn more about Tew and her story.
Tew hailed originally from Wisconsin, having been born there in the late 1800s. After an unhappy marriage during her young adulthood, she became involved with and married to Morton Nichols, who worked in stocks. It was through her relationship with him that Tew began developing a new identity for herself. Over time, she became gracious and appealing socialite. It was her personality and penchant for party throwing that elevated her within the public eye. After losing her third husband, Tew came into contact with Prince Heinrich from Germany, and became his wife. It was through him that she was able to develop further social power within the world of German royalty and touched numerous lives. “The writing may have lost something in the translation–it was written in Dutch and translated into English,” stated a writer on the Hopewell’s Public Library of Life website. “Lots of cliches and a tone not normally used in a biography unless it is of a movie star or other celebrity.” Other reviewers praised the book extensively. “This biography is certainly entertaining, but it is also a fascinating story about a remarkable woman’s indomitable spirit and will to survive,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer on the Katevents blog called An American Princess “well written and an easy, absorbing read.” On the Morrie and Me blog, one writer remarked: “Not only is Allene Tew’s life very intriguing, the way it was written, with all the background information, was as beautifully as the story itself.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2018, review of An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew.
ONLINE
Annejet van der Zijl website, https://www.annejetvanderzijl.com (July 29, 2018), author profile.
Hopewell’s Public Library of Life, https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/ (May 21, 2018), review of The American Princess.
Katevents, https://katevents.wordpress.com/ (March 25, 2017), review of The American Princess.
Morrie and Me, https://morriesblog.wordpress.com/ (July 17, 2016), review of The American Princess.
Nederlands Letterenfonds Dutch Foundation for Literature website, http://www.letterenfonds.nl/ (July 29, 2018), author profile.
Annejet van der Zijl is one of the best-known and most widely read literary nonfiction writers in the Netherlands. She has written biographies of Dutch children’s author Annie M. G. Schmidt; Prince Bernhard, the husband of former Dutch queen Juliana; and Gerard Heineken, founder of the famous beer empire; as well as other works. Her nonfiction has been awarded the M. J. Brusse Prize for the best work of journalism and has been nominated for the Golden Owl and the AKO Literary Prize. An American Princess spent more than fifteen weeks at the top of the national bestseller list in the Netherlands and was short-listed for the Libris History Prize. In 2012, she was awarded the Golden Quill for her entire oeuvre.
Annejet van der Zijl
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Annejet van der Zijl
Annejet van der Zijl
Born
Annajetske van der Zijl
April 6, 1962 (age 56)
Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Occupation
Novelist
Nationality
Dutch
Notable works
Sonny Boy
Website
www.annejetvanderzijl.com
Annejet van der Zijl is a Dutch writer. Born in 1962, she studied mass communication at the UVA in Amsterdam and did a MA International Journalism at City University in London. She worked in magazine journalism until 2000, meanwhile publishing her first book Jagtlust, about a ramshackle villa that in the sixties was a meeting place for many artists and poets. Annejet van der Zijl lives in Amsterdam with her husband, a journalist.
Books[edit]
Jagtlust was followed by Anna (2002), the widely praised biography of the legendary Dutch children’s writer Annie M.G. Schmidt. This book was adapted into a TV mini-series called Annie M.G., directed by Dana Nechushtan.
2004 saw the appearance of Sonny Boy, a reconstruction of the forbidden love between a Surinamese student and a married Dutch woman against the backdrop of the 1930s and the Second World War. Based on a true story, the book became immensely popular, selling over half a million copies in the Netherlands alone. Also, it was published in six other countries. The film version, which was directed by Dutch filmmaker Maria Peters and premiered in January 2011,[1] will be the opening film of the Stony Brook Film Festival in New York in July 2011.[2]
Van der Zijl's fourth book, Bernhard – a hidden history, appeared in March 2010. With this detailed reconstruction of the unknown early life of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, the German-born husband of queen Juliana, she obtained a doctorate in History at the University of Amsterdam. Like its predecessors, this book was nominated for several historical and literary awards. In March 2011, Bernhard was given the M.J. Brusse Award for Best Journalism of 2011. In 2014 Van der Zijl published Gerard Heineken, a biography of Gerard Heineken, the little-known founder of the Heineken brewery and brand.
Her latest book traces the life story of Allene Tew, an American socialite during the Gilded Age who made her way into European aristocracy in the 1930s. De Amerikaanse prinses ('The American Princess') was published in November 2015. The book was highly praised and became a huge bestseller in The Netherlands, topping the Dutch bestseller list for multiple weeks.[3] An English translation, An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew, followed in 2017.
Dutch author Annejet van der Zijl is one of the most acclaimed, popular, and widest read authors of literary nonfiction in The Netherlands.
After studying at Amsterdam and London universities, Annejet was a crime and arts journalist at the outset of her career before turning her attention to a longer form of narrative nonfiction. Her first book, Jagtlust, was published in 1998. It was followed by the widely praised biography of the popular Dutch children's writer Annie M.G. Schmidt, Anna (2002), which sold over 100.000 copies. 2004 saw the publication of the historical love story Sonny Boy, which also became a best-seller and sold over 600.000 copies. Both books were adapted into movies and Sonny Boy the film was Holland’s entry for the 2011 Oscars.
Annejets fourth book, Bernhard – a hidden history, gave a hitherto unknown and detailed portrait of husband of former Dutch queen Juliana. For this work she obtained a doctorate in History at the University of Amsterdam. In 2014 she published Gerard Heineken, a biography of the titular founder of the Heineken beer company. Like its predecessors, this book was nominated for several historical and literary awards. Annejet herself received several prizes for her oeuvre. among which the prestigious Golden Quill and the Amsterdam Art Prize 2017.
In her latest nonfiction book, Annejet traces the life story of Allene (Eileen) Tew, an American woman who made her way into European aristocracy in the 1930s and became the godmother of the former Dutch queen Beatrix. De Amerikaanse prinseswas published in November 2015. The book was highly praised and became a huge, number one bestseller in The Netherlands with over 200,000 copies sold. Also, the international television rights where sold.
The English translation, An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew was published in May of this year and has reached # 5 on the Wall Street Journal Best-selling books for nonfiction, as well as top positions on Amazon best read and best sold Charts.
In March 2018, Annejet van der Zijl published her first fiction-book together with Jo Simons, De val van Annika S. (The Fall of Annika S.). It is based on her experiences as a crime writer and is the first part in a series of five books.
Annejet lives with her husband and her dog and divides her time between an appartment in the centre of Amsterdam and a cottage on the Dutch coast.
Annejet van Zijl (b. 1962) is one of the best known and most read literary non-fiction writers of the Netherlands. She is the author of the widely praised biography of popular Dutch children’s writer Annie M.G. Schmidt Anna (2002) which has sold over 100,000 copies. 2004 saw the publication of Sonny Boy, which also became a bestseller, selling over 500,000 copies. Both novels have been adapted into movies.
van der Zijl, Annejet: AN AMERICAN PRINCESS
Kirkus Reviews. (Mar. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
van der Zijl, Annejet AN AMERICAN PRINCESS AmazonCrossing (Adult Nonfiction) $24.95 5, 1 ISBN: 978-1-5039-5183-9
A distinguished Dutch biographer's account of the life of Allene Tew (1872-1955), who rose from middle-class obscurity to become one of America's first socialites.
Born in Janesville, Wisconsin, but raised in Jamestown, New York, Tew was the only child of a bank clerk with rich relatives. Her free-spirited ways and taste for "pleasure [and] adventure" distinguished Tew from other girls of her time. At 18, she became involved with Tod Hostetter, the son of nouveau riche millionaire parents from Pittsburgh. Tew became pregnant out of wedlock and then married Hostetter, who she later discovered was addicted to gambling. She became a widow for the first time by age 30 and married again two years later, this time to a New York stockbroker named Morton Nichols. During their five-year marriage she earned a reputation as a "fantastic, inexhaustible organizer of...charity benefits." By 1909, Tew was again independent and a major figure in New York society. She remarried in 1912, this time to a wealthy, self-made engineer named Anson Wood Burchard, whom van der Zijl characterizes as the one man out of the five she married who "genuinely loved her for herself." Their marriage represented the happiest and saddest times in her life: During the time they were together, Tew lost both her children and her parents before losing Burchard in 1927. She went to Europe, where she scandalized American high society by marrying a German prince named Henrich Reuss, divorcing him, then marrying a Russian count 12 years her junior named Pavel Kotzbue. Now part of the European aristocracy, she helped broker what at first seemed an unlikely marriage between Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and a man of obscure aristocratic origin. Set against the tumultuous history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this biography is certainly entertaining, but it is also a fascinating story about a remarkable woman's indomitable spirit and will to survive.
A concise, thoughtful, and well-researched biography.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"van der Zijl, Annejet: AN AMERICAN PRINCESS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959688/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4ebd9522. Accessed 28 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959688
Posted on March 25, 2017
While researching a biography, about Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Dutch author Annejet van der Zijl came across one of his aunts. Not a real aunt, but an “adopted” one. The aunt became godmother to his eldest daughter, Beatrix. The aunt was American.
Ms van der Zijl discovered the American woman had spent her last years in a seaside villa near Cap-d’Ail in France. After her death and a very nasty court case over the inheritance, a step-daughter had inherited this villa. So Ms van der Zijl travelled to France, chatted to the step-daughter and filed her American away for the time being.
Yet the American woman remained in her thoughts. So in the end, Ms van der Zijl’s biography on this American princess was published in the Netherlands in 2015. From the first day it appeared, this biography was a run-away success. It was translated in German and an English translation will appear.
But then: Allene Tew‘s life has all the ingredients an author dreams of. It is a rags-to-riches story. It contains love, drama, tragedies – yet the heroine refuses to be daunted. Ms van der Zijl’s sixth biography is well written and an easy, absorbing read.
This does not mean the biography is perfect. In some chapters, it merely skims Allene Tew’s life. Do not expect deep reflections; psychological explanations for choices; citations from private diaries, letters, original documents. The Dutch hard back version tells Allene’s turbulent life in 280 pages. The book contains maps, photos, notes, a family tree. The latter is very handy, for Allene married several times.
Allene was born in Janesville in 1872. The family was affluent but not extremely rich. When she grew up, the area came to life during a short summer season. During one of these summers, Allene fell pregnant. Her lover belonged to one of America’s rich and powerful families. Tod Hostetter married Allene. His family tried to freeze the bride out of their circle – and failed.
Through this first marriage, Allene enjoyed the life of the upper classes during America’s Gilded Age. Her first marriage started happily enough and the couple had three children. But one of their children died and Tod turned out to be a gambler – and worse. After a few years, Allene and Tod were living apart. He died unexpectedly and Allene inherited his debts.
She picked up the pieces and married again. Perhaps too soon, for a year later, she divorced her second husband. By then, she already traveled abroad. In 1912, she married her third husband in London. Anson Burchard was the love of her life, but suddenly died in 1927.
Allene left for Europe to pick up the pieces – yet again. By then, she was known to be rich. She married a fourth time: a German prince. Six years later she divorced her much younger, fascist husband – just before the Second World War. The marriage had not been a happy one, yet Allene kept in touch with her stepson.
She married for a fifth and last time and became a Russian aristocrat. By then, Allene not only was related to important American families but also had a great many friends among European aristocrats. One of her friends’ sons stayed at Allene’s home while working in Paris. He was Bernard von Lippe-Biesterfeld, the future husband of the then princess Juliana.
As for Allene’s own children: her only son died during the First World War. Her second daughter succumbed to the flu epidemic which raged just after it. Yet Allene loved young people. She gave her German stepson a home and after her death, he lived at her seaside villa in Cap-d’Ail.
Allene must have been an exceptionally strong women. She had to rebuild her life so often, the biography is a lesson in resilience and endurance. The manner in which she bested her first family in law and took on US upper-class society – and won them over, shows how clever she was.
She undoubtedly was ambitious, but also very generous and a firm friend and kind step-mother. She witnessed revolutions, a Wall Street crash, two World Wars. She became rich – but happy?
“De Amerikaanse Prinses”, A. van der Zijl, Querido, 280 pp, first published 2015. German translation available; English translation of “The American Princess” expected.
Book review : The American Princess
On 17 juli 2016 door Morrie&MeinBook review, life story, mentor, non fiction, travel
De Amerikaanse Prinses
written by Annejet van der Zijl, published by Querido
genre literary nonfiction, 280 pages
I picked this book up because…
During an interview on the Dutch television last year, Mrs. Van der Zijl – one the most famous authors of literary nonfiction in the Netherlands – mentioned that she just finished writing this book. She told the presenter how she, like most people, always is searching for something. How the writing of her books, the searching for the stories, keeps bringing adventures, new worlds and beauty into her life. This interview made me curious to read her newest work, a book about the amazing life of a beautiful woman.
The story in short
Being the first biography I’ve ever read, ‘De Amerikaanse Prinses’ (the American Princess) totally blew me away. Allene Tew (1872-1955) was a woman who used her limitations as a motivation to give shape to her own life and managed to live the lives of many people in one single lifetime.
Growing up in Jamestown as a descendant of the first settlers in America, Allene was raised in an entrepreneurial environment. This childhood in combination with her good looks and adventurous character, were all that was needed for a life like no other.
Reading her story, we not only get to know a lot about Allene, her family, her friends and the social scenes she was being a part of. The book also tells us a lot about our history and gives an overview of the world as it was during Allenes life; the First and Second World War influencing daily life in both Europe and America, industrial revolutions, technical discoveries and developments and social changes making enormous differences to the lives of the people during the different eras of Allene’s life.
An informative and fascinating biography that tells us the story of a woman that was decades ahead of her time. A woman who despite many disappointments, sadness and difficulties, never let go of her dreams and ambitions. A strong and independent woman who, thanks to her resilience and perseverance, never lost courage and always kept moving on. A woman who can still be an example for women today!
The book was completed with pictures of Allene and her family during different life stages.
Allene Tew Hostetter | 1892
I finished this book because…
Reading this book was an absolute pleasure. Not only is Allene Tew’s life very intriguing, the way it was written, with all the background information, was as beautifully as the story itself. It could easily have been an overkill of information, a complex and exhausting book to read, but it was not like that at all. As soon as you start reading this book, you just want to know what is going to happen, how the life of this woman evolves, how she deals with the difficulties that come her way and how she keeps standing strong, no matter what.
“En misschien was dat wel Allenes grootste prestatie – meer nog dan haar rijkdom, haar titels, haar vele huizen en haar imponerende gastenboek. Dat ze, wat ze allemaal ook had meegemaakt en doorstaan, zich nooit het vermogen had laten afpakken om van het leven te genieten en er dankbaar voor te zijn.” – Annejet van der Zijl
“And maybe that was Allenes biggest achievement – even more than her wealth, her titels, her many houses and her imposing guestbook. That she, despite what she had experienced and endured, had never lost the ability to enjoy her life and be grateful for it.” – Annejet van der Zijl
Review: An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl
On May 21, 2018 By hopewellslibraryoflifeIn Uncategorized
Allene Tew
On Saturday, a second American actress became a Princess. First Grace Kelly back in the 1950s and over the weekend, LA’s own Meghan Markle married Prince Harry, grandson of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. But, back in the day– way, way back in the day of “between the wars,” another American became a very minor German princess. And, later still, she married a Russian Count. But I’m getting ahead of the story.
Women born in the 1870s who wanted the good life had one option: Marry Well. Allene was the child of a less-successful younger son but made up for that flaw by marrying money at a very young age. Divorces followed in 3 of the five marriages. One marriage was for love (the middle one) and one husband survived her. As she put it “The first two married her for her looks, the third for love and the last two for money.” While that’s a high number of marriages (paraphrase, p. 225-226), I believe she got the reasons right.
Allene was amazingly resilient. Her attitude was simple–just get on with it! She didn’t have time to wish for what might have been or to look back at what might have been lost. She just went forward. While one set of in-laws thought her a gold-digger, she had a lot of genuine concern for those she came to love. For example, continued to take care of her stepson until her death, and left him most of her huge estate in a will contested by her own family. Mind you, she made sure to leave his bratty sister out of it completely! A realist. [Note: I loved that she found the Duke of Windsor to be a bore!]
This Book
While Allene’s life WAS interesting, this book was basically a beach or poolside read. I knocked it out in a few hours. The writing may have lost something in the translation–it was written in Dutch and translated into English. Lots of cliches and a tone not normally used in a biography unless it is of a movie star or other celebrity.
Prince Bernhard
Far more interesting to me than Allene herself, was the story of her young, minor-German-princeling-protege, Bernhard von Lippe-Beisterfeld, the one-time Dutch Prince Consort and father of now “retired” Queen Beatrix. Who is again styled as “Princess Beatrix” in her retirement). ([The author has also written a dissertation and a book on him.] I hope IT has been translated–that would be a good read based on what she presented of him in this book.]
The 1930’s the Dutch were having a difficult time marrying off their the heir to the throne. If she failed to marry and produce an heir then the succession would be in jeopardy. (The same thing had happened in a previous generation for the same reason.) Juliana wasn’t really pretty and was certainly not slim. Very much like another stout Princess– Mary Adelaide of Great Britain a.k.a. ‘Fat Mary,” (Queen Victoria’s cousin, Queen Mary’s mother), a suitably impoverished Prince wanting an easy life had to be found. In strolls Allene Tew, now familiar with the German minor-aristocracy from her marriage to Henrich Ruess, to play matchmaker. This is perhaps her “finest hour.”
The similarities between THIS courtship and that of Meghan Markle was astonishing!
See what you think:
“The princess [Juliana of the Netherlands] was now head over heels in love with the charming, worldly young man who had appeared in her life so unexpectedly. [Dutch Queen] Wilhelmina, too, had received a ‘very good impression’ of him…..The fact that neither of them had yet met any of the potential husband’s family member or friends was of little consequence given the relief that there was finally a serious candidate for Juliana’s hand. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers,’ as the Dutch ambassador in Berlin summed up the matter.” (p. 166)
“The engagement of the Dutch princess was made public on September 8, 1936. It was considerably earlier than had been intended, Bernhard and his mother clearly didn’t want to run any risks that the union might be called off, and they’d had the news leaked through a journalist friend….. Juliana and her mother met Armgard, Bernhard’s mother for the first time.” (p. 169)
Allene Tew, Countess Kotzebue as she was then known, as a godparent to Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands.
An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew is on sale for Kindle for $5.99.
Rating
3.5
Post-Script
One silly mistake, possibly due to translation: she mentions meeting someone in an Army Jeep before they were invented.