Rosey E. Pool

Rosey E. Pool (7 May 1905, Amsterdam – 29 September 1971, London) was a Dutch writer, poet, educator and translator. Rosey Pool was born and raised in a secular Jewish family in Amsterdam. In the 1920s Rosey Pool participated in Dutch socialist youth movements such as the Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale and the Sociaal Democratische Studenten Club (SDSC). In 1927 she was one of the founders of the Socialistische Kunstenaars Kring (SKK, Socialist Artists Group). Shortly after she got engaged to the Berlin jurist and later Hamburg senator Gerhard Kramer (1904–1973) in August 1927, Pool moved to Berlin. There she studied English Literature at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (currently known as the Humboldt University). There she wrote her dissertation on The Poetry of the American Negro, which she was unable to finish because of anti-Jewish measures by the Nazis. In 1935 Kramer and Pool divorced. From Berlin, Pool helped German Jews to flee to the Netherlands, by providing them addresses. In January 1939, shortly after the Kristallnacht, Pool returned to Amsterdam.

During the Second World War she taught at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam (with Anne Frank amongst her pupils). Pool became involved in a German Jewish resistance group named Van Dien, which had formed around the Tehuis Oosteinde.^[2] In September 1943, this resistance group helped her to escape from the Nazi transit camp Westerbork. She hides in the town of Baarn, and writes resistance poetry and compiles a bundle of African American poetry.

After 1945 Pool became involved in the Black Arts Movement, both in Britain and the United States. In the United States she contributed to the emancipation of African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement by comparing anti-Jewish measures of the Nazis with the segregation of the American South. Rosey Pool established correspondence with famous writers and poets, such as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Naomi Madgett, Owen Dodson, Gordon Heath, and Robert Hayden.

In 1966 Pool was a jury member at the World Festival of Black Arts, held in Dakar, Senegal. The jury awards prizes to the poet Robert Hayden and Nelson Mandela.^[3] In April 30, 1965^[1] Pool became a follower of the Bahá'í Faith. She was visible promoting the religion.^[4][5][6]

Bibliography (selection)

Translator

• Emily Dickinson, “Ten poems” (Amsterdam, Vijf Ponden Pers, 1944)
• William Shakespeare, Three sonnets (Utrecht, G.M. van Wees, 1944)
• Joost van den Vondel, "Yon good old times, some topical lines" (Amsterdam, 1944)
• Frans Schubert, Drie Meisjes Huis (Drei Mäderl Haus) [Operette]
• Erich Schönlank, Tekens aan de wand (Amsterdam, Andries Blitz, 1949)
• Catherine Drinker Bowen en Barbara von Meck, Dierbare vriendin. De roman van Peter Tsjaikowsky en Nadesjda von Meck (Amsterdam, N.V. E.M. Querido's Uitgeverij, 1953)
• V.S. Reid, Het Luipaard. Roman (Amsterdam, Wereldbibliotheek, 1959)
• Annie M. G. Schmidt, Love from Mick and Mandy (Londen, Odhams Press, 1961)
• Annie M. G. Schmidt, Good luck Mick and Mandy (Londen, Odhams Press, 1961)
• Annie M. G. Schmidt, Take care, Mick and Mandy (Londen, Odhams Press, 1961)
• Claude Brown, Mijn Harlem (Rotterdam, Lemniscaat, 1966)
• Operatie Mallemolen [The Enemy-Go-Round], hoorspel van Leo Goldman (KRO, 1966)
• Het systeem van pater Jensen, hoorspel van Leszek Kolakowski (KRO, 1970)

Works authored by Pool

• In Memoriam Matris (unpublished, 1944)
• Beperkt zicht (Amsterdam, Querido, 1945)
• Een handvol Poolse aarde. Het leven van Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) (Tilburg, Nederland's Boekhuis, 1950: 1e druk)
• Een nieuw lied voor Amerika. Het leven van George Gershwin (1898–1937) (Tilburg, Nederland's Boekhuis, 1951)
• 'African Renaissance', in: Phylon [1940–1956], vol. 14, no. 1 (1st Qtr., 1953), pp. 5–8
• 'The Negro Actor in Europe', in: Phylon [1940–1956], vol. 14, no. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1953), pp. 258–267
• 'n Engelse sleutel. Een ABC over het "Perfide Albion" (Amsterdam, De Boer, 1957)
• Eric Walrond en Rosey E. Pool (eds.), Black and Unknown Bards: A Collection of Negro Poetry (Aldington, Kent, Hand & Flower Press, 1958)
• Rosey E. Pool en Paul Breman (eds.), Ik zag hoe zwart ik was. Poëzie van Noordamerikaanse negers. Een tweetalige bloemlezing van Rosey E. Pool en Paul Breman (Den Haag, Bert Bakker / Daamen N.V., 1958)
• Menschen in London (Mohn, Gütersloh, 1959)
• Vom Darling zum Plumpudding Ein amüsantes ABC britischen Lebens (Josef Keller, Starnberg, 1960)
• Rosey E. Pool en Paul Breman, Black all day. American negro poetry (Amsterdam, Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs, 1960)
• Beyond the Blues: New Poems by American Negroes (Lympne, Kent, England, Hand and Flower Press, 1962)
• 'The Discovery of American Negro Poetry', in: Freedomways. A quarterly review of the Negro Freedom Movement, Fall 1963, vol. 3, no. 4.
• Ik ben de nieuwe neger (Den Haag, Bert Bakker, 1965)
• 'Fling me your challenge. Commentary On The Literary Scene', in: Negro Digest, December 1965, vol. XV, no.2, p. 54–60
• 'Robert Hayden: Poet Laureate', in: Negro Digest. A Johnson publication, June 1966, vol. XV, no. 8, pp. 39–75.
• Lachen om niet te huilen (Rotterdam, Lemniscaat, 1968)
• 'Anne Frank: The Child and the Legend', in: World Order: Spring 1972, Vol. 6 No. 3
• '"Grand Prix de la Poezie" for Robert Hayden', in: World Order: Summer 1983, Vol. 17 No. 4

Secondary literature

• Anneke Buys, 'Rosey Eva Pool', Iambe. Literair tijdschrift, vol. 4 (1984–1985), no. 16 (1985), p. 9-11
• Anneke Buys, The marvellous gift of friendship (unpublished manuscript, Apeldoorn, 1987)
• Lonneke Geerlings, 'A Visual Analysis of Rosey E. Pool's Correspondence Archives. Biographical Data, Intersectionality, and Social Network Analysis', Proceedings of the First Conference on Biographical Data in a Digital World 2015, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 9 April 2015, pp. 61–67. URL: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1399/paper10.pdf
• Lonneke Geerlings, 'Pool, Rosa Eva (1905–1971)', Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, published 31 January 2016. URL: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Pool

References