Hendrik Jan Bulthuis was a Dutchcustoms official, author, and translator of more than thirty works into Esperanto. One of his novels, Idoj de Orfejo is listed in William Auld's :eo:Baza legolisto#Proza fikcio|Basic Esperanto Reading List.
Life and career
Born in the province of Groningen in northeast Netherlands, Bulthuis was a customs officer by profession from 1889 until 1924. In his youth he was a Volapükist. In 1899 he received a diploma in Volapük as a master teacher. His third son, Rico Bulthuis became a respected author who said of his father: "He spoke nine languages, but in none of these languages ever had a conversation with me". .
Esperanto activity
In 1901 D. Uitterdijk sent him a textbook of Esperanto, after which he became an Esperantist. He engaged in much correspondence with Esperantists of other countries, did much Esperanto publicity, especially in The Hague, taught courses, and served as the secretary of the examinations committee from its establishment until the present. From 1910 on L. K. In latter years he worked only for Esperanto; as a novelist, a translator and author of small booklets, Bulthuis has been one of the most enduring workers in Esperanto.
Literary activity
Starting in 1907, when his translation from French of Two Tickets by Florian appeared, he published 35 books and brochures. Never is Better than Late, a comedy translated from English, seemingly his first printed work, appeared in the lit. appendix of L. I. in 1905. He became known mainly for a trio of original works. The Children of Orpheus, 1923, despite some implausibilities, marked its author as a clear stylist and a person of outstanding storytelling talent. It still remains perhaps the most popular of his magnum opi. That was followed by the naively simple Joseph and Potifer's Wife, 1926, and The Fuzzy Hand, 1928, an intimately aware picture of Dutch peasant life, in which Bulthuis's inclination for non-veresimilitude is still evident. Next in importance are his grandiose translations: Hendrik Conscience's classic The Lion of Flanders from the Dutch; the thematically heavy but well translated Emperor and Galilean, 1930, from the Norwegian of Ibsen. Both of these works were crowned by the Academy. Jane Eyre, 1930, from the English of Ch. Bronte survived a careless translation well enough to remain an interesting story, thanks to its essential value. There also appeared in 1926 Little Johannes from the Dutch of van Eeden. As a poet Bulthuis published only The Two Ships, 1909, for which he received a prize from Barcelona. For the Theatre in 1908 he wrote the praised Uncle from America, 1922; a drama Poor in Spirit and, from the German, translated Salome, 1910, a drama by the Englishman, Wilde. Worth mentioning from his other works are: the translations Diary of a Village Clerk, 1921, and Josepha, 1922, both from the Danish by Blicher; and in 1921 Character, from the Dutch by Luiscius His nine school readers, mostly for little Dutch children, and his retelling for youth of Robinson Crusoe, were conscientiously done. Later Bulthuis is translated Don Quixote from Spanish and wrote another youth novel. The most extensive commentary on Bulthuis's works is by Nekrasov, who wrote extensive critiques of both his original novels from a Marxist viewpoint for the ante-schism "La Nova epoko" and for the post-schism "La Nova Etapo" . That was too tendentiously Marxist to encounter general agreement. Bulthuis's language style is simple, classical, without ornamentation. One can hardly find in it attempts at "impressionistic" experiment. He is more correctly called a weaver of stories, than a conscious "evolver" of our language. R. Banham.
