Rico Bulthuis

Diagnoses

Vocation

Traits

Dutch writer of fiction and astrology, illustrator, art critic, journalist and puppet player. He was born in a middle class family in Den Haag as the third son in row, when his mother Pieternella Verkaaik expected a girl. He would call her "een feeks van een vrouw" (old shrew) and felt unwanted as a child. His father, Hindrik Jan Bulthuis, was a customs official with a talent for languages, spoke nine of them, translated and or wrote thirty works in Esperanto, but never had time to speak to his son. At least that was the impression Rico had, who withdrew to his room, imagining a missing sister and playing with dolls. Later he would become puppet player and scenario writer by profession. At school he had trouble with reading and writing, so people regarded him stupid. Years later it was discovered that he had dyslexia. His second wife Anneke de Veer, who he met at the Boekenbal for writers, happened to be a dyslexia expert. But before he became a writer, he would have had all kind of trades, becoming master of none (Dutch: Twaalf ambachten en dertien ongelukken). He first went to the crafts school to become a house painter, but when he had to paint street-lights in his first job, he left after a week. He fled to libraries, overcame his reading blindness and discovered literature. When he was eighteen, he was allowed to go to the Royal Academy of Art. In the third year, his class participated in a competition for a film scenario that the new magazine Filmliga had written out. Rico was excluded because he was not good enough. When he said he wanted to write his own scenario, he had to leave school. His script, Illusion (193), won the first prize. But art had little value during crisis years. Rico started a puppet theater, he made the dolls himself, wrote the stories but did not earn a cent. He grabbed every job; he worked for a rogue fortune teller, immersed himself in spiritualism, studied the stars and designed decors for the political cabaret of the Jewish actress Alice Dorell (27 July 1907, Mannheim – killed on or before 30 September 1942, Auschwitz). Often there were only two or three visitors and then they only drank coffee together. Finally, in 1937, Rico got a permanent job with the graphical service of the Postal service PTT. He was bored to death, but to keep his job, he signed the Aryan declaration in the war, which he regretted. He became involved in the resistance, helped Jews to go into hiding, put away weapons and wrote in illegal newspapers under the name Hans Guignoly. In 1942, Rico married gobelin weaver Paula Dietz (12 March 1918, Zoeterwoude - 23 August 2012, Laren), daughter of the neurologist and parapsychologist Paul Anthonie Dietz (1878-1953). They had two children: Paul, who became a museum curator, and Sacha, the actress. In 1963 the movie "De vergeten medeminnaar" (The Lost Lover) based on his book "Het andere verleden" (The other past) was released. In 1975 Rico Bulthuis won the special Vijverberg prize from the Jan Campert Foundation for his autobiographical novel about the crisis years The days after Thursday. In an interesting interview with Rob Nanninga (Een nuchtere romanticus. De occulte avonturen van Rico Bulthuis) published in Skepsis 1994, he would say that his astrology books were more profitable than all of his psychological novels. He first published them under the pen-name Hans De Hoog Castell (Hans the High Castle), that were introduced by a critical comment from writer Rico Bulthuis. Later (3th edition), he published them under his own name as the Dutch writers Simon Vestdijk and Jan-Gerard Toonder had already written about astrology without reputation damage. He cited the eminent writer and Emily Dickinson translator, Simon Vestdijk, that it took him three years to get acquainted with astrology and six years to get rid of it. Bulthuis had the same experience. "Vestdijk zei tegen mij dat hij drie jaar nodig had gehad om goed astrologie te leren, en zes jaar om er weer veilig van af te komen. Met mij ging het net zo. Mijn eigen horoscoop is heel typerend en die van mijn dochter Sacha klopt ook heel goed. Maar als ik hem aan een vreemde geef, dan haalt hij het er niet uit. Ik geloof dat er veel zelfbedrog achter zit. Het is wel fascinerend. Alles heeft een betekenis. Het is een som zonder einde. Astrologen zijn uren bezig met een horoscoop en als die niet klopt begrijpen ze altijd waarom, en vinden ze weer wat uit." He was content in his own mysterious world and was able to talk about it with himself as a centre. He remained an eternal doubter who ultimately did not believe anything. He found no need for searching for the deeper grounds of existence. Because, he said, behind every secret is another secret.: "De diepere gronden van ons bestaan zullen we wel nooit vinden en dat vind ik ook niet zo erg. Misschien leven we na de dood voort, maar ik zou niet weten hoe en ik zie het nut er ook niet van in. Op zulke vragen zoek ik geen antwoord. Ik ben niet iemand die alles wil onderzoeken, want als je het gevonden hebt, dan ben je nog niet verder. Achter elk geheim zit weer een geheim." He died 4 October 2009 in Zutphen as an agnostic. Eleven days later, his daughter Sacha Bulthuis died in Den Haag of lung cancer. She was the mother of the actors Aus Greidanus jr. (9 April 1975), Pauline Greidanus (19 July 1976, Den Haag) and Kay Greidanus, from her marriage with the Dutch actor and director Ausonius (Aus) Greidanus (19 February 1950, Amsterdam). Link to Dutch Wikipedia