, after studying Law, worked in publishing (as the General Director of J.M. Meulenhoff, among others) and as a civil servant (as an Arts director at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science). Nowadays, he is the director of bookshop Athenaeum in Amsterdam. He published stories, essays, poems, a novel, and poetry translations of Paul Valéry, Fernando Pessoa, and Thomas Gray. His most recent publications are the collection of columns, Bekentenissen van een nieuwsgierig mens (Confessions of a Curious Person, 2008) and the essay H2Olland. Op zoek naar de bronnen van Nederland (H2Olland. In Search of the Sources of the Netherlands, 2009). [041209]