THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS.- Novelist, poet and sculptor Jan Wolkers, 81, died at his home. He was born in Oegstgeest, W Netherlands. He was one of the most popular Dutch writers of fiction. He began in 1963 with the collected short stories Serpentina's Petticoat. In this work and other early works, including Kort Amerikaans (1961, Crew Cut) and Gesponnen suiker (1963, Candy Floss), a recurring theme is his opposition against his Calvinist upbringing, the repression of sexuality, and the established values of the older generation.
Jan Wolkers studied painting in Leiden. He later studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Art in Amsterdam from 1949 to 1953. He created Amsterdam’s Auschwitz Monument, which is a bed of shattered mirrors covered with glass in a park. Every year a memorial ceremony for victims of the Holocaust is held at this site.
