Henri Frans de Ziel (Trefossa)

Henri Frans de Ziel, who wrote as Trefossa, was born on 15 January 1916 in Paramaribo. A schoolteacher, he published his first poem in 1949, then stayed in the Netherlands from 1953 to 1956 on a scholarship, as a librarian. Back in Suriname, he briefly directed the country's Cultural Centre and sat on the editorial board of two journals. In 1959, the government asked him for a stanza in Sranan for the national anthem; he also coined the word for independence in that language. He went back to the Netherlands to edit the writings of Johannes King and died in Haarlem on 3 February 1975.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryTrotjiHenri Frans de Ziel (Trefossa) · 1957not translated into EnglishLiterature