Rick Honings is Scaliger Professor Special Collections at Leiden University and a specialist in nineteenth-century Dutch and Dutch Indies literature. In 2018 he published Star Authors in the Age of Romanticism: Literary Celebrity in the Netherlands, the international edition of his monograph De dichter als idool: Literaire roem in de negentiende eeuw (2016). In 2021, he co-edited De postkoloniale spiegel: De Nederlands-Indische letteren herlezen. Currently, he works with a research team on the NWO Vidi project Voicing the Colony: Travelers in the Dutch East Indies, 1800-1900. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Indische Letteren.

• Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Calvinist Celebrity: Willem Bilderdijk 2 Poet of the Nation: Hendrik Tollens 3 From Dutch Byron to National Symbol: Nicolaas Beets 4 The Piet Paaltjens Myth: François HaverSchmidt 5 Messiah with Girls: Multatuli 6 The Dutch Dynamic Notes Bibliography Index

Rick Honings is Scaliger Professor Special Collections at Leiden University and a specialist in nineteenth-century Dutch and Dutch Indies literature. In 2018 he published Star Authors in the Age of Romanticism: Literary Celebrity in the Netherlands, the international edition of his monograph De dichter als idool: Literaire roem in de negentiende eeuw (2016). In 2021, he co-edited De postkoloniale spiegel: De Nederlands-Indische letteren herlezen. Currently, he works with a research team on the NWO Vidi project Voicing the Colony: Travelers in the Dutch East Indies, 1800-1900. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Indische Letteren.

• Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Calvinist Celebrity: Willem Bilderdijk 2 Poet of the Nation: Hendrik Tollens 3 From Dutch Byron to National Symbol: Nicolaas Beets 4 The Piet Paaltjens Myth: François HaverSchmidt 5 Messiah with Girls: Multatuli 6 The Dutch Dynamic Notes Bibliography Index

Rick Honings is Scaliger Professor Special Collections at Leiden University and a specialist in nineteenth-century Dutch and Dutch Indies literature. In 2018 he published Star Authors in the Age of Romanticism: Literary Celebrity in the Netherlands, the international edition of his monograph De dichter als idool: Literaire roem in de negentiende eeuw (2016). In 2021, he co-edited De postkoloniale spiegel: De Nederlands-Indische letteren herlezen. Currently, he works with a research team on the NWO Vidi project Voicing the Colony: Travelers in the Dutch East Indies, 1800-1900. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Indische Letteren.

• Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Calvinist Celebrity: Willem Bilderdijk 2 Poet of the Nation: Hendrik Tollens 3 From Dutch Byron to National Symbol: Nicolaas Beets 4 The Piet Paaltjens Myth: François HaverSchmidt 5 Messiah with Girls: Multatuli 6 The Dutch Dynamic Notes Bibliography Index