Peter de Bruijn and Elli Bleeker Admire the Author Anne Frank
Their research into the literary development of Anne Frank’s writing left no detail unexplored. A long-term collaboration between the Huygens Institute and the Anne Frank House resulted in the online scholarly edition Anne Frank Manuscripts. However, due to copyright restrictions, the site will not be accessible from the Netherlands until 2037. To ensure Dutch readers can still discover the depth of Anne Frank’s literary talent, and the determination with which she honed her craft, Peter de Bruijn and Elli Bleeker of the Huygens Institute wrote the book Anne Frank, schrijfster (Dutch only, Walburg Pers), produced in collaboration with their Huygens colleague Marc van Zoggel.
Is there Still Anything New to Discover about Anne Frank?
That was the question the team first asked themselves. The answer, as it turned out, was yes. Anne Frank is world-famous as a historical figure, but her literary talent is often overlooked. It is precisely that talent, however, that lifts her work far beyond the diary genre. Through her writing, Anne Frank draws readers into the carefully structured literary narrative that unfolds in the secret annex at Prinsengracht.
From Diary Entries to Literary Characters
Anne Frank used her factual diary notes as the foundation for a compelling story, transforming the people living at Prinsengracht into fully fledged characters, each with their own traits and quirks. Peter de Bruijn and Elli Bleeker examined the decisions she made along the way: what she kept or cut, how she shaped narrative structure and plot, and how she experimented with language, setting and dialogue. By studying her revisions, even down to the different types of paper she used, the researchers were able to trace the evolution of Anne Frank’s emerging literary voice.
What they discovered most strikingly was that the version of The Diary of a Young Girl known to the world, compiled by her father Otto Frank, does not reflect the depth of her talent or the brave creative choices she made at such a young age. Anne Frank wanted to be a writer, and that ambition shines through in her tireless reworking and redrafting.
Revealing Anne Frank the Author
Because of copyright restrictions in the Netherlands, the Anne Frank Manuscripts digital edition cannot be accessed there until 2037. The publication of Anne Frank, schrijver therefore ensures that readers in the Netherlands can still engage with parts of the findings of this remarkable research. The book offers a highly readable account of who Anne Frank was as a writer, revealing the literary qualities that make her work so exceptional.
More information about the book (Dutch only) is available on the publisher’s website Walburg Pers.
