Upper skin man, the biography of Hans Warren

18 October 2024

‘Mario Molegraaf has completed his long-awaited biography of the man with whom he shared his life. An unusual undertaking: a biography like any other, with all the accompanying research and independence required, but at the same time a work written out of love.

The collected poems of Hans Warren (1921-2001) were dominated by his life motto: ‘As long as it lasts, happy forever.’ But he especially made a name for himself with his unprecedentedly candid Secret Diary, one of the biggest literary sensations of recent decades.

Incredibly, secrets can still be revealed in Upper Skin Man. Hans Warren, raised in a house by the sea, far from the inhabited world, was an outsider par excellence, but he turns out to be a centre point at the same time. No one experienced the occupation years, the 1953 flood, the destruction of Dutch nature like he did. The contradictions in person – housefather and gay, a life between Borssele and Paris – are described by Mario Molegraaf in Upper Skin Man with unprecedented commitment and intensity.’

The book was published in hardcover last September by Prometheus Publishers and can be purchased here (Dutch only).

The Hurgronje Family Fund made a financial contribution to the production of this publication.

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