Willem Kloos

Born May 6, 1859, in Amsterdam; died Mar. 31, 1938, in The Hague. Dutch poet. Representative of the Tachtigers (an aestheticist literary movement of the 1880’s; from Dutch tachtig, “eighty”) and one of the founders of the journal De Nieuwe Gids (1885–1943).

Kloos graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1884. He first appeared in print in 1879 with articles of literary criticism and current affairs. His early poems were written in 1875–78 (A Book of Youthful Elegies, in German). Kloos advocated the theory of art for art’s sake. He adhered to the principles of the theory in his lyrical and philosophical sonnets (published in 1894, 1902, and 1913 as collections entitled Verses). He also published dramatic fragments on themes of antiquity, such as Rhodope (1878) and Sappho (1882). Kloos was also the author of works of literary scholarship.