Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — Dutch for “World Library”, a Dutch publishing house based in Amsterdam — was the publisher of Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946), the collected volume on the cultural, religious, educational, agricultural, mining and economic history of the Dutch East Indies edited by Dr. Wormser under the auspices of the Indisch Instituut. The title page of the volume records that it was “uitgegeven in 1946 onder de auspiciën van het Indisch Instituut door de Wereldbibliotheek N.V. te Amsterdam” — “published in 1946 under the auspices of the Indies Institute by the Wereldbibliotheek N.V. in Amsterdam.”
Role in the publication of Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
The Wereldbibliotheek N.V. was, in 1946, the publisher through whom the Indisch Instituut’s collected volume reached the Dutch book trade. The choice of a general-interest Amsterdam publisher — rather than a specialist colonial or academic press — reflects the volume’s intended audience: the educated Dutch general reader, for whom the volume was to serve as a synthetic survey of what the Indies had “received and given” to the Netherlands on the threshold of Indonesian independence. The volume appeared with ninety-one illustrations (met 91 afbeeldingen) and a table of contents grouping the fourteen specialist contributions under ten thematic headings.
Significance for Atjeh
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the Wereldbibliotheek’s significance is incidental but real: the choice of this publisher placed the Atjeh material digested in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — drawn chiefly from Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjéhers (1893–1894) and Kreemer’s Atjèh (1922–1923) — within the reach of a general Dutch readership in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese occupation and on the eve of the transfer of sovereignty in 1949. The volume’s circulation through the Wereldbibliotheek’s trade channels thus helped to shape the late-colonial Dutch general reader’s picture of Atjeh at a critical moment.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Indisch Instituut — Indies Institute
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- met 91 afbeeldingen — with 91 illustrations
- onder de auspiciën van het Indisch Instituut — under the auspices of the Indies Institute
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Dr. — Doctor
- De Atjéhers — The Acehnese (Snouck Hurgronje, 1893-94)
- Atjèh — Aceh (Kreemer, 1922-23)
See Also
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., onder de auspiciën van het Indisch Instituut, 1946), title page.