View source for Jotie T'Hooft

{{Short description|Belgian poet (1956–1977)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Johan Geeraard Adriaan T'Hooft
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1956|5|9}}
| birth_place      = [[Oudenaarde]], [[Belgium]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1977|10|6|1956|5|9}}
| death_place      = [[Bruges]], [[Belgium]]
| occupation       = Poet
| movement         = [[Neo-romanticism]]
| image            = Jotie_T'Hooft.png
}}

[[File:Jotie T'Hooft - De dichter is een gedicht - Rapenburg 91, Leiden.JPG|thumb|right|200px|The poem ''De dichter is een gedicht'' written by T'Hooft on a wall at [[Leiden]]]]
'''Johan Geeraard Adriaan T'Hooft''' (9 May 1956 &ndash; 6 October 1977) was a [[Belgium|Flemish Belgian]] [[neo-romanticism|neo-romantic]] [[poet]]. He is well known for his [[hippie]]/[[Addiction|junkie]] lifestyle, death-related poetry and early death at age 21 from a drug-related suicide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> These elements have made him a legend in his native country. His life and death by overdose were made into a movie, the English title ''Junkie's Sorrow''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=P8JoAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Jotie+T'Hooft%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&dq=%22Jotie+T'Hooft%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&lr=&cd=4 The history of Holland] By Mark T. Hooker p. 58</ref>

==Life==
Jotie T'Hooft was born in [[Oudenaarde]], [[Belgium]]. He was an only child. During his younger years, he was an excellent student, but had difficulties adjusting to life as a secondary school student. He was expelled from several schools by the time he was 14. It is then that he sought safety in literature, especially the works of [[Franz Kafka]] and [[Hermann Hesse]], and in drugs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> He moved out at age 17 to study in [[Ghent]]. However, his drug habit prevented him from ever beginning his studies. In 1973 T'Hooft made his first suicide attempt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> He married in 1974. His father-in-law, Julien Weverbergh,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> was head of publishing company Manteau who agreed to publish his works.

==Death==
Despite his literary notability T'Hooft kept struggling with his drug problems. In 1977 he died from an overdose of [[cocaine]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100921085504/http://www.flanderstoday.eu/content/%E2%80%9Ci%E2%80%99m-world-die%E2%80%9D Flanders Today]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=P8JoAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Jotie+T'Hooft%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&dq=%22Jotie+T'Hooft%22+died+OR+death+OR+dead&lr=&cd=4 The history of Holland] By Mark T. Hooker p. 58</ref> He had written a goodbye message to his wife on the wall and left his pick-up recorder playing ''[[The End (The Doors song)|The End]]'' by [[The Doors]] on repeat. T' Hooft was only 21 at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref>

==Works==
The most recurring theme in his poetry is [[death]], which obsessed him from a young age.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> This is perfectly characterized by a phrase from one of his poems: ''I am the world, in me the death flower has awoken unstoppably''. According to his poetry, he sees himself as a stranger; the world is a foreign place to him.

T'Hooft also wrote various essays about his favorite rock artists, including [[The Doors]], [[Frank Zappa]] and [[The Velvet Underground]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref> In 1974 he and a friend also made an obscure comic strip, satirizing [[God]] and [[Jesus]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/t_hooft_jotie.htm|title=Jotie T'Hooft}}</ref>

==Alter ego==

Jotie used the [[alter ego]] Charles Louis Daenen and performed as this character during his earliest poetry recitals.

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [[Flemish literature]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.schrijversnet.nl/hooft.htm Schrijversnet.nl: Hooft] (at the 'Writersnet', in Dutch)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050223020001/http://www.leestafel.info/dichtersarchief/productssimple5.html leestafel.info]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thooft, Jotie}}
[[Category:Flemish poets]]
[[Category:Belgian essayists]]
[[Category:Belgian comics artists]]
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:1977 suicides]]
[[Category:People from Oudenaarde]]
[[Category:People convicted of drug offenses]]
[[Category:20th-century Belgian poets]]
[[Category:Neo-romanticism]]
[[Category:Hippies]]
[[Category:Heroin]]
[[Category:Psychedelic drug advocates]]
[[Category:Drug-related suicides in Belgium]]
[[Category:20th-century essayists]]
[[Category:Cocaine-related deaths]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]