EEDEN, FREDERIK WILLEM VAN 2 ), Dutch poet, novelist and playwright, was born at Haarlem on April 3, 186o, and educated for the medical profession. He was one of the leaders of the literary revival of 188o, and founded in 1885 with D. Kloos and A. Verwey the Nieuwe Gids, the organ of the younger men of letters. In that paper appeared his most famous novel De kleine Johannes (188 7 ; Eng. trans. Little Jo hannes, 1895), to which two later parts were added in 1905 and 1906. It was followed by Ellen (1891) , a cycle of elegies full of the melancholy mysticism which informs van Eeden's verse ; Johannes Viator (1892), a story which was hailed as "a new Bible" when it first appeared; Lioba (1897), a drama; Van de koele Meren des Doods (1900 ; Eng. trans. The Deeps of De liverance, 1902) ; De Nachtbruid (1909) ; Sirius en Siderius (1912, etc.) and other works. In 1898 van Eeden founded at Bussum the agricultural and industrial community known as the Walden Colony from the title of Thoreau's book.
See P. Verschave, "Un converti hollandais—Le poete Frederic van Eeden," Correspondant, Tome 296, pp. 311-338 (Paris, 1924) ; Het roode lamp je, signifische gepeinzen (Amsterdam, 1921) .