Partner Johanna Jacoba Schregardus
Queer Places:
Westerkade 8A, 9718 AP Groningen, Netherlands
Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Amsteldijk 273, 1079 LL Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prinsengracht 856, 1017 JN Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rijksstraatweg 244, 3634 AN Loenersloot, Netherlands
Jantina Henderika van Klooster (born Groningen July 6, 1894 - died
Ravensbrück, Germany January 30, 1945), literary writer and publisher.
Starting from 1925, Jantina van Klooster lived together with
Johanna Jacoba (Koos)
Schregardus (1897-1976), publisher.
She was the daughter of Frans S. van Klooster (1857-1910), merchant in margarine and bakery articles, and Hindrikje Timmer (1854-1923). Jantina (Tine) van Klooster grew up at 17 Westerkade in Groningen, as the youngest of eight in a well-to-do family. She attended the girls' school in Groningen and followed the gymnasium in Assen, where she graduated in 1914. That year she enrolled at the University of Groningen. During university, she lived with her mother, who had become a widow in 1910 and had moved to a smaller house on the 8A Westerkade. She graduated on November 17, 1917, and received her doctorate on January 21, 1921. From March 1921 to June 1922, Tine stayed with her brother HS (Hein) van Klooster (1884-1972), professor of physical chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (NY). She attended courses in American literature at Columbia University in New York. In America she also found the subject for her dissertation on Edith Wharton, that earned her the role of professor in Groningen on 22 March 1924. This made Tine van Klooster the first scientist in the Netherlands to write about this successful American writer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Van Klooster was not entirely enthusiastic and even called Wharton a 'mediocre literary figure'.
In November 1924, Van Klooster moved to Amsterdam, where she lived after half a year with Koos Schregardus, who had been Tine's neighbor at the Westerkade in her early childhood. In August 1925, Tine van Klooster and Koos Schregardus founded the Branding, together with the lithographer Arie Rünckel, but this collaboration lasted only half a year. In addition to publisher, in 1926 Van Klooster was part-time teacher of history at the Municipal Lyceum for Girls at the Reinier Vinkeleskade in Amsterdam. On March 1, 1926, Schregardus and Van Klooster started their publishing house, De Spieghel, at 143 Amsteldijk, and in August 1928 this publisher moved with them to their new home address at 856 Prinsengracht. With De Spieghel they built a broad catalogue of novels, essays, poetry collections and art and history books; annually they published an average of fifteen books. Furthermore, eight magazines appeared at De Spieghel, including De Vrije Bladen (1928-1935) and Beeldende Kunst (1932-1942). Van Klooster primarily looked after the substantive aspects of the company and also translated books from the English. From 1929, Van Klooster and Schregardus worked together with the Belgian author K. Goossens from Mechelen as a firm De Spieghel, Goossens & Co. Goossens imported books from the Netherlands and, together with De Spieghel, published books under the name Het Kompas. Together they set up ambitious series, such as Het Zilveren Bronneke and De Feniksreeks, until Goossens was dismissed in 1935 for embezzlement. Het Kompas moved to Antwerp and after the war moved to LJ Veen. Schregardus and Van Klooster did not focus specifically on publishing books by and about women. However, many women were involved in the company. Illustrator Tine Baanders, a good friend of Van Klooster and Schregardus, designed book covers for the publishing house and Nelly Bodenheim, one of the Amsterdam Joffers, produced illustrations. They also regularly employed female translators, and the Leiden girlfriends Jantina L. van Hoorn and Alida M.D. Langezaal became commissioner of NV De Spieghel in 1935. De Spieghel published a number of theses of women in literature and also the monthly magazine Vrouw en Gemeenschap (1932 until the end of 1934), and the newsletter of the Lyceum club (1926-1940).
De Spieghels, as Van Klooster and Schregardus were called, were part of the Amsterdam artists' milieu, where their friends were the literator Kees Kelk and his wife Helena Suzanna (Suzy) van Hall (1907-1978) and the painting couple Else Berg and Mommie Schwarz was part of it.
In 1933 they bought a country house on the Vinkeveense Plassen, which they exchanged in 1942 for a house in Loenersloot (now 244 Rijkstraatweg). Their desire for outdoor life was also evident from their preference to publish books and magazines in the field of nature, games and sports.
In 1942 Van Klooster and Schregardus refused to register at the Kultuurkamer, after which the company went into liquidation. They became involved in the circle of resistance fighters, including Gerrit Jan van der Veen, Frits van Hall and his sister Suzy van Hall. When Van der Veen was barely able to escape from the House of Detention on the Amsterdam Weteringschans in May 1944, he went into hiding in their house on the Prinsengracht. Ten days later the address was betrayed and Tine van Klooster, Suzy van Hall and the nurse Coos Frielink were arrested. Frielink was released after some time, Van Klooster and Van Hall were transported via camp Vught to the women's camp Ravensbrück. There Tine van Klooster died on January 30, 1945 from the consequences of illness and hardships. Suzy van Hall ended up in Dachau and survived the war, as did Koos Schregardus, who had not been home at the time of the invasion and escaped arrest. In memory of his sister Hein van Klooster founded the Jantina Henderika of Kloosterfonds in 1947 with money from the inheritances of a brother and sister. The fund financed two plaques in the Groningen Academy Building, with the names of members of the academic community who were killed by the war. In addition, the fund, which is managed by the Groningen University Fund, awards scholarships to female students.
My published books:
