August Aimé Balkema

[1] After studying French literature, in 1936 he opened a bookstore in the Huis aan de Drie Grachten ('House on Three Canals') in Amsterdam.

[2][3][4] In 1943 Balkema, along with Adriaan Morriën en Fred Batten, started the series Het Zwarte Schaap.

[3] During renovations of the Huis aan de Drie Grachten in 2005, a hidden compartment was uncovered containing an archive of wartime documents, including manuscripts and correspondence.

[3][5] In 1946, after the end of the war, Balkema sold his bookstore in Amsterdam and left for South Africa to pursue a career as a publisher there.

Before long, many South African writers began to approach Balkema of their own accord to request that he publish their work.

These included Jan Rabie whose Ons, die afgod was the first Afrikaans-language anti-apartheid novel, evoking much criticism and controversy when it was published in 1958.

Balkema's status was definitely established when he was asked to handle the official publication of the Daghregisters (journals) of Jan van Riebeeck in 1952.