Jacoba van Velde, Dutch author (b. 1903)
Jacoba van Velde (10 May 1903, in The Hague – 7 September 1985, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch writer, translator, and dramaturge. Her first novel, "De grote zaal" (The Great Hall), appeared in the literary journal Querido in 1953 and was translated into thirteen languages within ten years. During her life around 75,000 copies of "De grote zaal" were sold. In 2010, the book was chosen for the Nederland Leest (Netherlands Reads) campaign and copies were given away for free to members of all the public libraries in The Netherlands.