Holst was the nephew of painter Richard Roland Holst and writer Henriette Roland Holst. His extensive oeuvre is characterized by its own solemn style and rich symbolism.
Family
The artist Richard Roland Holst was a brother of his father and his wife Henriette Roland Holst-van der Schalk, the poet, writer and socialist was his aunt. Adriaan Roland Holst was called 'Jany' by friends and family. Throughout their lives all three kept in close contact.[2]
Biography
Adriaan Roland Holst grew up in the Gooi region. He went to the high school 'Hilversum HBS' (the school is now named after him and called the A. Roland Holst College) and studied Celtic Arts in Oxford from 1908 to 1911. Already at the age of twenty, he managed to publish poems in the literary magazine "De XXste Eeuw". In 1911, his debut appeared in book form, the bundle "Verzen". In his next bundles "The confession of silence" ("De belijdenis van de stilte") and "Beyond the roads" ("Voorbij de wegen") his own voice has already reached maturity. The verses reveal a romantic desire, from mythology and lofty solitude. "Deirdre and the sons of Usnach" ("Deirdre en de zonen van Usnach", 1920), which appeared in the bibliophile series Palladium, is a poetic story in a Celtic world. It is still widely read.
In 1918, Roland Holst went to live in Bergen, where his house is now inhabited by various writers and poets in rotation. He had many literary friends, such as Menno ter Braak, J. C. Bloem, E. du Perron, J. Slauerhoff, M. Vasalis and Victor E. van Vriesland.
Works
War memorialStedemaagd by Jeanne Kouwenaar-Bijlo [nl]. There's a poem of Adriaan Roland Holst on the pedestal.
1911 – Verzen
1913 – De belijdenis van de stilte
1920 – Deirdre en de zonen van Usnach
1920 – Voorbij de wegen
1925 – De afspraak
1925 – De wilde kim
1926 – Ex tenebris mundi: gedichten
1926 – Over den dichter Leopold [nl]
1928 – Het Elysisch verlangen (gevolgd door De zeetocht van Ban)
1928 – Shelley, een afscheid
1932 – Tusschen vuur en maan
1936 – De pooltocht der verbeelding
1936 – Voorteekens
1937 – Een winter aan zee
1938 – Uit zelfbehoud
1940 – In memoriam Charles Edgar du Perron en Menno ter Braak
1940 – Onderweg
1943 – Voor West-Europa
1945 – Een winterdageraad
1945 – Eigen achtergronden
1946 – In memoriam Herman Gorter
1946 – Sirenische kunst
1947 – De twee planeten
1947 – Tegen de wereld
1948 – In ballingschap
1948 – Van erts tot arend
1950 – Swordplay wordplay
1951 – De dood van Cuchulainn van Murhevna
1951 – Woest en moe
1957 – Bezielde dorpen
1958 – In gevaar
1960 – Omtrent de grens
1962 – Onder koude wolken
1966 – Aan prinses Beatrix
1967 – Kort
1967 – Uitersten
1968 – Vuur in sneeuw
1970 – Met losse teugel
1971 – Verzamelde gedichten
1975 – In den verleden tijd
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adriaan Roland Holst.
^"Nomination Database". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
^This is evident from:
A. Roland Holst: Briefwisseling met Richard en Henriette Roland Holst. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1990.
A. Roland Holst: In den verleden tijd, herinneringen aan Lodewijk van Deyssel e.a.. Boelen, Amsterdam 1975. Here e.g. p. 22-24, 37-39 (where he refers to his aunt Henriette Roland Holst as "the poet), 40-44.
H. Roland Holst – van der Schalk : Het vuur brandde voort. Levensherinneringen. Nijgh & Van Ditmar 1949, third and fourth print, improved based on the legacy of the author: De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1979. Hierin p. 77, 115, 208.
E. Etty: Liefde is heel het leven niet, Henriette Roland Holst 1869-1952. Balans, Amsterdam 1996.
A. Roland Holst in the Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland