In 1896 Lucy van Renesse-Johnston left her husband behind in Medan to embark on a five-month tourist trip across Java. Her experiences became the basis of her book Mevrouw Klausine Klobben op Java (Mrs Klausine Klobben in Java, 1899). It recounts her own journey, but also contains a fictitious element. While the eponymous Klausine Klobben narrates her adventures using a first-person voice, she also claims in the book’s preface that she did not write the book herself. On her travels Klausine had kept a diary, but once she was home again, she found herself unable to work up her notes into a travelogue. She had therefore sent these to Dé-Lilah, ‘the latest Eurasian writer’, who she had allegedly met in Java. The writer proved happy to work up the diary entries. Klausine ends her preface with a word of thanks to her ghostwriter, ‘who I will have to thank if I become famous and my name is mentioned not only in every corner of the Archipelago, but also in our Motherland.’ Mevrouw Klausine Klobben op Java is a unique book given that Dé-Lilah was Eurasian – and possibly even the very first Eurasian author. Her travelogue reflects this: she moves between two worlds, East and West.
Dé-Lilah, Mevrouw Klausine Klobben op Java. Utrecht: Honing, 1899. [M 2009 A 2138]