{{short description|Dutch author}} {{Infobox writer | name = Betsy Perk | embed = | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Betsy Perk.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = Philemon, Liesbeth van Altena, Spirito | birth_name = Christina Elizabeth Perk | birth_date = {{Birth date|1833|3|26}} | birth_place = Delft, Netherlands | death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|3|30|1833|3|26}} | death_place = Nijmegen, Netherlands | resting_place = Rustoord Cemetery, Nijmegen | occupation = author and a pioneer of the Dutch women's movement | language = Dutch | nationality = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | years_active = | module = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} --> | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc; or omit --> }} '''Christina Elizabeth (Betsy) Perk''' (Delft, March 26, 1833 - Nijmegen, March 30, 1906), was a Dutch author of novels and plays, and a pioneer of the Dutch women's movement,<ref name=gelderland/> who wrote under the pen names '''Philemon''', '''Liesbeth van Altena''', and '''Spirito'''. She is known as the founding member of the Algemeene Nederlandsche Vrouwenvereeniging Arbeid Adelt ("General Dutch Women's Association 'Labor Ennobles'") in 1871, the women's magazine ''Onze Roeping'', and the weekly magazine for women ''Ons Streven'' in 1869, the latter publication being the country's first women's periodical. In later years, her influence and activism diminished due to poor health, and she mainly focused on writing historical novels. From 1880 to 1890, she lived in Belgium. She is buried at the cemetery Rustoord in Nijmegen.<ref name="socialhistory.org">{{cite web|title=Perk, Christina Elizabeth - BWSA|url=https://socialhistory.org/bwsa/biografie/perk|website=socialhistory.org|access-date=25 June 2017|language=Dutch}}</ref>

==Early years and education== Perk grew up in a fairly wealthy and large family; her parents were Adrianus Perk and Lessina Elizabeth Visser. Her father, a merchant,<ref name=gelderland>{{cite book|chapter=Betsy Perk (1833-1906), schrijfster, feministe en tante|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNybkGIRVBcC&pg=PA86|pages=86–88|first=Peter|last=Altena|title=Biografisch woordenboek Gelderland: bekende en onbekende mannen en vrouwen uit de Gelderse geschiedenis|volume=2|editor1-first=P. W.|editor1-last=van Wissing|editor2-first=J. A. E.|editor2-last=Kuys|publisher=Verloren|year=1998|isbn=9789065506245}}</ref> married three times and she was the third daughter of the second marriage. As a result, Perk had three brothers, three half-sisters and five half-brothers. She lived with her step-mother Theodora Veeren until 1876. One of her brothers was the father of the poet Jacques Perk.<ref name="isgeschiedenis.nl">{{cite web|title=Betsy Perk en de eerste landelijke vrouwenvereniging - IsGeschiedenis|url=http://www.isgeschiedenis.nl/sterke-vrouwen/betsy-perk-en-de-eerste-landelijke-vrouwenvereniging/|website=www.isgeschiedenis.nl|access-date=25 June 2017|language=Dutch}}</ref>

==Career== From an early age she was interested in writing: she published some stories at age 19, and her first novel, ''Een kruis met rozen'', was published in 1864.<ref name=dieteren/> Her father had been wealthy enough to send his sons for an academic education, but not his daughters, and in the 1860s her life was turned upside down: her fiancée broke off their engagement in 1866, and the next year her father died. Perk began publishing feminist articles, arguing that men and women should be valued equally, even if they had biological differences.<ref name=dieteren>{{cite book|first=Fia|last=Dieteren|title=Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland|chapter=Perk, Christina Elizabeth (1833-1906)|volume=4|location=Den Haag|url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn4/perk|access-date=25 June 2017|language=Dutch|date=12 November 2013}}</ref>

She started ''Ons Streven'' ("Our Striving") in 1870, the country's first women's periodical, but left the magazine after the first edition since the publisher had placed two male editors on equal footing with her, and she feared the magazine would publish anti-emancipatory articles. In response she founded another magazine, ''Onze Roeping'' ("Our Calling"),<ref name=dieteren/> in which she suggested, among other things, that the work of unmarried and married women would promote the country's wellbeing.<ref name="socialhistory.org" /> In 1871, she established ''Arbeid Adelt'', a women's association, for which ''Onze Roeping'' was the official journal, but quickly had a dispute with fellow associates: the organization sold poor women's needlework at bazaars, and unlike her colleagues Perk wished the names of the creators to be known: "her ambition was the recognition of labor as a worthy manner of life". A number of associates split off and founded a competing organization, and within her own organization she was soon pushed aside.<ref name=paletschek>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V-M6xJTquioC&pg=PA56|title=Women's Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: A European Perspective|first=Sylvia|last=Paletschek|publisher=Stanford UP|year=2005|isbn=9780804767071|page=56}}</ref>

Her last attempt to make her ideas known and simultaneously earn a living was in 1873, when she became a lecturer and went on tour with fellow-feminist Mina Kruseman, and while both women also published their ideas in the same magazines, the flamboyancy of Kruseman was compared in the press with Perk's modesty. When the tour ended, so did Perk's public work in feminism.<ref name=dieteren/> These years had asked a lot of her weak physique, and she withdrew to Valkenburg, where she toured the area on a donkey, and wrote an autobiography, ''Mijn ezeltje en ik. Een boek voor vriend en vijand'' ("My donkey and I: A book for friend and enemy", 1874), in which she settled her accounts with the world of literature and feminism. It was clear, though, that she may have been finished with the feminist movement, but she remained a firm proponent of emancipation.<ref name=dieteren/>

<!--In de jaren na 1874 besteedde Betsy Perk haar energie - behalve aan het bevorderen van de opbloei van Valkenburg als toeristenplaats - aan het schrijven. Ondanks het feit dat zij nu weinig andere bezigheden had, publiceerde zij in deze jaren niet veel. Wellicht hielden familieomstandigheden haar van het schrijven af: in 1876 overleed haar stiefmoeder, die tot haar dood bij Betsy woonde.

In 1880 verliet Betsy Perk Nederland om zich samen met een vriendin in België te vestigen: eerst in Brussel, daarna in Spa en vervolgens, tot 1890, in Luik. Sindsdien nam haar literaire produktie weer toe en, naar het schijnt, ook de waardering voor haar werk. Voor haar historische roman De laatste der Bourgondiërs in Gent en Brugge 1477-1481 uit 1885 werd zij in België onderscheiden als 'Femme de lettres'. Uit de inhoud van de werken die Perk in deze periode schreef, blijkt overigens dat zij als 'historie'-schrijfster geen afstand had gedaan van haar feministische denkbeelden. Weliswaar hield zij in haar boeken geen expliciete pleidooien voor vrouwenemancipatie, maar impliciet stelde zij hier dezelfde thema's aan de orde als in haar tijdschriftartikelen. Een verschil was dat in de romans niet zozeer de arbeid(smogelijkheden) van vrouwen uit de burgerij, maar eerder de intellectuele en vooral de politieke capaciteiten van aristocratische dames centraal staan. Voorbeelden daarvan zijn: Mejonkvrouw de Laval onder de keizers Alexander I en Nikolaas van Rusland uit 1883, het tweedelige Yline, prinses Daschkoff-Worenzoff. Uit de geschiedenis van Rusland, in de laatste helft der vorige eeuw uit 1885 en In het paleis der Bourgondiërs te Brussel uit 1889.-->

==Later years== thumb|right|Betsy Perk thumb|left|Perk's headstone Perk had been a proponent of women's right to vote, and in 1894 joined the newly founded Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht. The women's movement seemed to have forgotten her: she was not invited to attend the large National Exhibition of Women's Labor in 1898. By then, she was back in the Netherlands, having moved to Arnhem in 1890 and to Nijmegen in 1903. She devoted her last years to art.<ref name=dieteren/>

<!--Voor de Nederlandse vrouwenbeweging aan het einde van de 19e eeuw is Betsy Perk vooral van belang geweest als oprichtster van verenigingen en tijdschriften. Opvallend is dat zij nooit lang bij haar projecten betrokken bleef; blijkbaar was samenwerking niet haar fort. Zij was meer een wegbereidster die vasthield aan haar ideeën, zelfs als ze zich daardoor isoleerde.-->

==Selected works== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''Een kruis met rozen,'' 1864 *''Wenken voor jonge dames ter bevordering van huiselijk geluk,'' 1868 *''Elisabeth van Frankrijk,'' 1870 *''Mijn ezeltje en ik. Een boek voor vriend en vijand'', 1874 *''De sterren liegen niet!'', 1875 *''Elisabeth de Jonkvrouw van 't kasteel te Valkenburg. Drama in voetmaat en vijf bedrijven uit 1355,'' 1878 *''Valse schaamte'', 1880 *''Mejonkvrouw de Laval onder de keizers Alexander I en Nikolaas van Rusland'', 1883 *''De laatste der Bourgondiërs in Gent en Brugge 1477-1481'', 1885 *''Yline, prinses Daschkoff-Worenzoff. Uit de geschiedenis van Rusland, in de laatste helft der vorige eeuw'', 1885 *''Een recruut op Corsica onder luitenant Napoleon Bonaparte'', 1887 *''De wees van Averilo'', 1888 *''Kijkjes in België'', 1888 *''In het paleis der Bourgondiërs te Brussel'', 1889 *''Kapitein Flahol'', 1890 *''Een moederhart'', 1896 *''Jacques Perk,'' 1902 {{div col end}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

==External links== {{commons category}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perk, Betsy}} Category:1833 births Category:1906 deaths Category:People from Delft Category:19th-century Dutch women writers Category:19th-century Dutch novelists Category:Dutch women novelists Category:19th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights Category:Dutch historical novelists Category:Women historical novelists Category:19th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:Dutch women activists Category:Dutch activists Category:Dutch magazine editors Category:Dutch magazine founders Category:Dutch women magazine editors Category:Dutch women dramatists and playwrights Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers