The Literary Museum collects and administers records and collections of Dutch-language writers and publishing houses from 1750 onward. The museum’s collection includes a multitude of letters, manuscripts, typescripts, printer’s proofs, handwritten documents and newspaper cuttings. Paintings, drawings and photographs of writers are also kept at the museum, as well as book illustrations and objects such as Simon Vestdijk's vacuum cleaner and poet Jan Hanlo’s crash helmet.

Thirteen top items from the collection have been selected for The Memory: famous poems, such as Herman Gorter’s epic poem Mei, popular novels like De stille kracht by Louis Couperus and Herman Heijermans’s much talked about Op hoop van zegen.

Go to the selected authors and works