Jef Last

Josephus Carel Franciscus (Jef) Last (The Hague, 2 May 1898 – Laren, 15 February 1972) was a Dutch poet and writer.

Jef Last was a writer and socially compassionate man. He had a Catholic background. However, he was very young member of the SDAP and the "AJC". These principles, he could not practice as an assistant manager of the Enka in Ede, and eventually he resigned.

He left the revisionist social democracy to become a member of Henk Sneevliets (Revolutionair Socialistische Partij). With his revolutionary friend André Gide, he traveled in the summer of 1936 to the Soviet Union. The pair was well received, but saw through the organized tribute and returned to the west disillusioned. Much later Last wrote a book about his friendship with Gide.

He last fought in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades, which was on the side of the Spanish Republic. As a result he lost his Dutch citizenship for military service for a foreign power. Shortly after the Second World War, his citizenship was returned.

From 1950 to 1953, he lived in Indonesia, particularly in Singaraja (Bali), where he worked as a teacher at a secondary school. He was friends with president Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta.

Family
He was married to Ida ter Haar from 1923, whom he divorced and later re-married. They had three daughters. Jef was bisexual. He was co-founder of the homosexual emancipation Shakespeare Club, the forerunner of the COC.

The last years of his life were spent in the Rosa Spier Huis in Laren. After his death, his body was made available to science.

Work

 * 1926 - Bakboordslichten (poetry)
 * 1930 - Branding
 * 1930 - Kameraden! (poetry)
 * 1930 - Marianne
 * 1932 - Liefde in de portieken
 * 1932 - Verleden tijd (poetry)
 * 1933 - Onder de koperen ploert
 * 1933 - Partij remise
 * 1933 - Twee werelden (poetry)
 * 1933 - De vlucht van den opstandeling
 * 1934 - Zuiderzee
 * 1935 - Een huis zonder vensters
 * 1935 - Voor de mast
 * 1936 - Brieven uit Spanje
 * 1936 - De bevrijde Eros. Een ketter in moorenland en andere gedichten (poetry)
 * 1936 - Een flirt met den duivel
 * 1937 - Bloedkoraal (poetry)
 * 1937 - In de loopgraven voor Madrid
 * 1937 - De Spaansche tragedie (The Spanish tragedy/Spanish Front. Writers on the Civil War)
 * 1938 - De laatste waarheid
 * 1939 - Kruisgang der jeugd; with Harry Wilde
 * 1939 - De vliegende Hollander
 * 1940 - Kinderen van de middernachtzon
 * 1940 - Onvoldoende voor de liefde
 * 1941 - Van een jongen die een man werd part I and II (youth work in 1919, at the time not published)
 * 1941 - Elfstedentocht
 * 1942 - Leeghwater maalt de meren leeg
 * 1944 - Tau Kho Tau (poetry)
 * 1945 - Een socialistische renaissance
 * 1945 - Het eerste schip op de Newa (The first ship up the Neva)
 * 1946 - Oog in oog (poetry)
 * 1947 - Vingers van de linkerhand
 * 1949 - In de zevende hemel
 * 1950 - Schuim op de kust
 * 1951 - De rode en de witte lotus
 * 1955 - Bali in de kentering
 * 1956 - Zo zag ik Indonesië
 * 1957 - Een lotje uit de loterij
 * 1958 - I Bontot en I Koese. De avonturen van twee Balische jongens; with Udeyana Pandji Tisna (The John Day Company)
 * 1959 - Lu Hsün. Dichter und Idol
 * 1960 - Japan in kimono en overall
 * 1960 - Tegen de draad (poetry)
 * 1960 - Vloog een bloesem terug naar haar tak
 * 1962 - De Spaanse tragedie
 * 1962 - Golven der Gele Rivier
 * 1962 - De jeugd van Judas (The boyhood of Judas; in: The fifth Acolyte Reader, Meppel 1991)
 * 1965 - China, land van de eeuwige omwenteling
 * 1966 - De tweede dageraad van Japan
 * 1966 - Mijn vriend André Gide
 * 1967 - Rinus van der Lubbe, doodstraf voor een provo (edited reissue of Kruisgang der jeugd)
 * 1968 - Strijd, handel en zeeroverij. De Hollandse tijd op Formosa
 * 1970 - Vuurwerk achter de Chinese muur
 * 1972 - Tjoebek in het tijgerbos (children's book)
 * 1973 - De zeven Caramboles; under pseudonym Co Mantjens, second edition with subtitel: De postume pornoroman van Jef Last