HARTOG, JAN DE

born April 22, 1914, Haarlem, Neth. Dutch-American novelist and playwright who wrote adventure stories in both Dutch and English. His first major novel, Hollands glorie: roman van de zeesleepvaart (1947; Captain Jan: A Story of Ocean Tugboats), relates with humour the tale of a young boy's career in the merchant navy. Having fled to England in 1943, de Hartog later settled in the United States, writing, in English, novels of mainly entertainment value. Among these are A Sailor's Life (1956), The Inspector (1960), The Peaceable Kingdom: An American Saga (1972), The Lamb's War (1980), The Trail of the Serpent (1983), and Star of Peace (1984). Of his plays, the most popular is the comedy The Fourposter, first produced in 1951.