Design by Jan van Krimpen of the dust wrapper for the first Dutch edition of Homo ludens (Haarlem, 1938). Leiden, University Library, Huizinga-Archives, nr. 128 3.

Pictures are taken from the newest edition in Dutch: Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens. Proeve ener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur (Amsterdam: Querido Facto, 2024) (forthcoming in November, profusely illustrated and commented). ISBN: 9789021489421

Wanted!

€ 1000 Reward

for the first person to locate Johan Huizinga’s manuscript

of his own English translation of Homo ludens

The cultural historian Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), professor of history at Leiden University in the Netherlands, is famous for Homo ludens: Proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur. First published in Dutch (by Tjeenk Willink in Haarlem) in 1938, this book, which has been translated into many languages, still enjoys world renown.

One year after its appearance in Dutch, Homo ludens was published in German, in an integral translation approved by Huizinga. The publisher, Pantheon Akademische Verlagsanstalt, was located not in Nazi Germany but in Amsterdam; the book, Homo ludens: Versuch einer Bestimmung des Spielelementes der Kultur, did not mention the name of the translator, because he was Jewish.

The German reprint, issued in Amsterdam in 1940 by the same publisher, was – alas – censored in the last chapter, and it was this censored edition that was subsequently published in Switzerland, in Zurich in 1942 and in Basel in 1944.

This last edition, Basel 1944, was used by the British translator Richard F. C. Hull (1913-1974) for his English translation: Homo ludens. A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1949). Hull could not read Dutch, nor was he aware that his translation was based on a censored version.

Attention, please!

In 1942 Huizinga himself translated Homo ludens into English; that same year one of his students made a typed copy of his handwritten manuscript. The typescript was considered an aid in distinguishing between ‘a’ and ‘e’ in Huizinga’s otherwise clear handwriting. Hull made use of this translation, which must have been sent to him. The only details we have are recorded in his Translator’s Note:

This edition is prepared from the German edition published in Switzerland, 1944, and also from the author’s own English translation of the text [my italics, AvdL], which he made shortly before his death. Comparison of the two texts shows a number of discrepancies and a marked difference in style; the translator hopes that the following version has achieved a reasonable synthesis.

The difference in style is no doubt due to the stylistic differences between Huizinga’s English version and the German translator’s rendering of Huizinga’s original Dutch. The numerous passages in the English translation that do not appear in the Dutch and German editions must be based on Huizinga’s additions to his own English translation.

Huizinga’s own manuscript and/or typescript have never been traced. There is no material of this kind in the Huizinga Archives in the Netherlands. Did Hull return Huizinga’s English translation to Huizinga’s widow? Did she perhaps give it to one of his children, or to a friend or colleague? Did Hull’s papers end up in an archive? Does Hull have descendants who could supply us with information? Might it be in the archives of Routledge?

If indeed this manuscript proves traceable, the finder can claim a reward of €1000. The Leiden University Library is willing to pay a fair price for the manuscript and/or typescript.

Dr. Anton van der Lem
Scaliger Fellow, Leiden University Libraries
antonvanderlem54@gmail.com

Dust wrapper of the second English of Homo ludens (New York: Roy Publishers, 1950).
Collection Anton van der Lem.

Huizinga in full ornate in 1938, when Homo ludens was published.
Picture taken in the garden of his house Van Slingelandtlaan 4, Leiden.
Leiden, University Library, Huizinga-Archives, nr. 136 III, 11.2.