Geertruida Carelsen

Amy Geertruida de Leeuw (10 April 1843 – 4 June 1938), known by the pen name Geertruida Carelsen, was a Dutch author and journalist.

Provenance and early years

Amy Geertruida de Leeuw was born at the family home alongside the Nieuwe Gracht in Haarlem, the oldest of her parents' four children. Her mother was Maria Cornelia Elisabeth Penninck Hoofd (1815/1816–1876), half-niece (following the re-marriage of Geertruida's widowed grandmother) of the landscape architect Louis Paul Zocher, and a professional translator of English provenance. Johan Carel de Leeuw (1816–1880), her father, was a water engineer who was in charge of the draining of the Anna Paulownapolder north of Alkmaar. In 1848 the company that had been set up to drain the Anna Paulownapolder filed for bankruptcy and her father lost a large part of his savings and the handsome salary which he had hitherto earned. The family's circumstances were suddenly much diminished, and a sense of shock formed the background for this part of Geertruida's childhood. In 1855 her father accepted a job as a "Dijkgraaf", becoming a senior administrative official with a water company. This meant relocating to the newly available drained lands of the Anna Paulownapolder. It was no longer possible for Amy Geertruida, by now aged 12, to attend the school in Haarlem where she had received her early education. Instead she and her younger sister Albertina Carolina were educated by her mother in the evenings. Their two brothers were sent away to boarding school for their educations. Thanks to her mother's English background, Amy Geertruida de Leeuw was able to master the English language relatively young.