Thea Beckman
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Thea Beckman (née Petie) (23 July 1923 – 5 May 2004) was a Dutch author of children's books.
Biography
At a young age, Beckman knew she wanted to be a writer. As a teenager, she would write numerous stories and would listen to various types of music, ranging from classic to exciting film scores, depending on the kind of scene she was writing.
in her twenties, Beckman studied social psychology, attending the University of Utrecht. In wake of the 1929 economic crisis, her father lost his job and Beckman was glad she had managed to finished her studies, especially after World War II occurred.
As a writer, she intended to use her husband's name of Beckmann as her pseudonym. Her publisher urged her to change it to Beckman with only one "n", to avoid her name from appearing "too German", in wake of Germany's negative reputation after World War II.
Beckman is best known for Crusade in Jeans, a 1973 children's time travel novel for which she was awarded the Gouden Griffel. The book describes a children's crusade in 1212 and was adapted into a movie in 2006. She also received notable attention for her trilogy Children of Mother Earth, which depicted a post-apocalyptic earth where soldiers from societies led by men invade and disrupt a newfound Greenlandic society led by women. Though the book contains feminist themes, Beckman did not consider the book's ideology her own, stating: "People are greedy, aggressive and intolerant." She specifically stated that she did not believe a maternal society would function better than a paternal one.
She died in her residence in Bunnik of unknown causes in 2004, aged 80.
