Adriaan Morriën (1912–2002)

Genant is the Dutch word for embarrassing. It is the best word to characterize this collection of letters.

Adriaan Morriën was a long-lived author, but throughout his long career has mainly remained unknown to the reading public. Mostly known for poetry, Morriën wrote very little prose, with exception of two volumes of autobiographical writings. His long career was foremostly spent as an editor for various literary magazines. Through his literary work Morriën made many literary friends among Dutch and German writers.

In the Spring of 1956 Adriaan Morriën, then 43 years old, met the much younger Lotus Schipper, then 22 years old. With her he started a passionate affair which he was able to keep from his wife for about a year. The illicit affair was kept by an intense correspondence and regular meetings in hotels in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

Lotus, who studied French at the time spent some time living in France. Morriën often travelled abroad for his literary work. He would plan or arrange his trips to cities to be with Lotus, and asked her to travel hundreds of miles to meet him in cities in Germany.

The letters are an overflowing wave upon wave of sexual desire. Their meetings are mainly spent in bed. Progressing through the letters, it becomes clear that Lotus is merely a sex object. At the beginning, the reader may be willing to accept the romance as wild passion, but later on it becomes increasingly apparent that Morriën is sex obsessed.

The book only contains the letters written by Morriën. The letters she wrote are not included, however, from some passages it can be gleaned that she had doubts and desired a more balanced, more quiet relationship that would offer her more perspective. She is drawn into Morriën's work, as he gives her commissions to write articles and encourages her development as a writer. However, it seems her emotional needs are ignored. Adriaan Morriën appears as a totally narcissistic sex maniac with a purely selfish lust for the young student, except that, in the end, he endorses and lightly encourages her to start a relationship with a young man who is interested in her.

Lotus-brieven. Het verslag van een betovering was the last book to be appear in his lifetime, the year before his death. It is a commercial publication, not an academic edition, although Morriën's biographer has acted as an editor, adding some notes, a foreword and an afterword. The correspondence was published several decades after the death of Lotus Schipper, who died in 1965.… (more)