Nescio

Nescio (Latin for "I don't know") was a Dutch writer. He is mainly remembered for the three novellas De uitvreter (The Freeloader), Titaantjes (Little Titans), and Dichtertje (Little Poet) His reputation as an important Dutch writer was established only after his death in 1961. His stories bear witness to the conflict between his career and his ideals, as formed by the turn of the century utopian socialism. Nescio was not a prolific writer, and it did not help that none of his stories had any success at publication. He was only after World War II that he became reasonably well known, though his oeuvre is still small, roughly 160 pages. His name lives on in the form of the Nesciobrug which enables cyclists and pedestrians to go from Diemen to IJburg over the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. The central character is Japi, who wants to be the perfect bohemian, but does not want to do anything with his life but just sit and look at the sea. The theme of the story is how ideals with the demands of society, which resolves by quietly committing suicide.