Mina Kruseman

Mina Kruseman
Wilhelmina Jacoba Pauline Rudolphine Kruseman
Born	25 September 1839 Velp, Gelderland
Died	1922 Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Writer, singer

Wilhelmina Jacoba Pauline Rudolphine "Mina" Kruseman (25 September 1839 – 1922) was a 19th-century Dutch feminist, actrice and author who used to call herself Oristorio di Frama.

Mina Kruseman, was born in Velp, Gelderland as the oldest of 4 daughters of Hendrik Georg Kruseman (1802-1880) en Jennij Dorotheé Hermine Cornelie Cantzlaar (1810-1859).

H. G. Kruseman, who went on to serve in the Dutch army in the Dutch East Indies, took the family with him. Her growing up with three sisters in Samarang Dutch East Indies had some influence in her later writings. But those years she had a feeling of freedom. In her in 1877 published auto-biography Mijn leven (My life) there are a few citations, where she testifies of her happy life there. In 1854 the family returned to the Netherlands. Mina developed a deep aversion against the cold, small-city narrow-minded homeland and the restrictions that were imposed by decency, convention and religion, and certainly women were thereby the most affected.

Other than her home country, she also spent a considerable part of her life in Belgium, France and United States.

Mina wanted to do something with her life. Did however not know what in the beginning. In Brussels where she lived, she was accepted at the Conservatory for voice and piano. But after one year she did quit. After the death of two of her sisters, and a broken engagement. she decides to be an artist, globe-trotting along stages. She continues her education as a singer in Paris. In Europe she has only little success. In 1871 she decides therefore to go to America. The start was difficult, but in the end she experiences as Stella Oristorio di Frama in the South of the US some success-performances. Karcilla Réna was another pseudonym used by Mina. Because the uncertain prospects she went in the summer of 1872 back to Brussels. In Paris published her first publication: a response to a woman-unfriendly piece by Alexandre Dumas, fils: Lettre a M. Alexandre Dumas fils au sujet de son livre l'Homme-femme (1872). In America she had already writen her first novel. But it would take some time, before this was to be published.

She started her career as a performing-artist in Holland. During her first appearance in the Hague november 1872 she reads them a chapter for from her forthcoming novel. Spring 1873 her fame in the rest of the Netherlands grows during her tour together with Betsy Perk. Other Dutch male authors had made likewise performances, reading from their own writings, into a serious source of income. Mina wanted her own economic independence, no chance of a free performance of Mina Kruseman. The text they used: Zusters. Een schetsje uit onze dagen ("Sisters. A sketch from our days.") was written by Mina especially for this occasion. It tells the story of 5 almost adult sisters, the education of girls and women's lives afterwards: waiting for a spouse, and when a marriage was not provided, a life as a spinster. Mina's tantalizing appearance and her widely acclaimed performance art was quite a happening in the early years of feminist Holland. In addition, Mina expressed severe criticism on the level of art-criticism in The Netherlands: real talents were driven out of the country: with Eduard Douwes Dekker, Multatuli as a prominent example.

Dekker was very pleased with with this praise. He wrote to his publisher and friend G.L.Funke: I would like to thank her and bring her my compliments Another letter of Dekker - very encouraging - reached Mina with the help of Funke. Mina had started reading Multatuli's Max Havelaar, during her stay in America. She found in it "strength, feeling and truth". She was inspired by this when she wrote her first novel. In it, she describes the repressive upbringing of girls, to makes them ready for marriage, and all the duties thereafter. Mina had a lot more in common with Dekker, his thoughts about morals, religion, his humor, and his fight for the weak in society. The criticism made to her, that she was too much under Dekker's influence, she did not mind that at all, just found it a biggest compliment ever. The day, she got Dekker's letter, she immediately replied to him: No letter, from anybody else, could have made me more happy, than yours A few months later, she visited Dekker in Wiesbaden Germany, together with her feminist friend Betsy Perk.

This was the start of a close friendship between Eduard Douwes Dekker and Mina Kruseman. Mina had wishes to be an actrice, so she started a lobby to bring Dekker's play Vorstenschool (School of Princes) into the theatre. This play was published years before in 1870, as the start of IDEEN-IV. Although the play raised much attention, no theatre company in Holland dared to start with it. In 1875 Mina could make a contract with a starting theatre compagny in Rotterdam "De nieuwe Rotterdamsche Schouwburg". Mina played for some time the leading role as queen Louise. The tour was a big success. Multatuli was recognized and celebrated as a big author, he was asked on stage and applauded by the audience. Even raised ticket prices did not keep people away.

It was however also the reason of the hate between Mina and Dekker in their later life.

Published works

• Een huwelijk in Indië (A marriage in the Dutch East Indies) :The Hague, 1873
• De moderne Judith (The modern Judith): Dordrecht, 1873
• Meester Kritiek (Master critical): Middelburg, 1874
• Mijn leven (My life): Dordrecht, 1873
• Willen en handelen (Want and actions): Fellah Damstone, Dordrecht, 1879