Dutch member of a noted family and translator of Hans Christiaan Anderson.
She was born in Deventer as the eldest of the “Van Vloten sisters”: Martha (1857-1943), Betsy (1862-1946) en Kitty (1867-1945), who were raised in the Liberal and culturally very active house of her parents Johannes van Vloten (18 January 1818 – 21 September 1883) and Elisabeth van Gennep (7 April 1824, Rotterdam – 17 March 1906, Noordwijk).
As a child she was grew up between the debates of the political and cultural Dutch intelligentsia who met in her parental house in respectively Deventer, Bloemendaal and Haarlem.
She went to school in Deventer and Haarlem (1868), where she and her sisters studied at the first (1867) Dutch High School for girls (Middelbare meisjesschool) in Haarlem. Her father was convinced that higher education was needed by all, thus also for his girls, which was unusual then.
On 15 April 1886 she married the psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden. They got two sons: On 12 May 1887 Hans and in February 1889 Paul, who died 21 February 1889.
They divorced 29 July 1907, when het husband Van Eeden fell in love with Geertruida Woutrina Everts. He married her 21 August 1907.
In a social historical study, we read that the psychiatrist Frederik had problems with Martha’s spontaneity and her violent reactions. He preferred the “harmonious peaceful whole” spouse. Martha’s response was: “Ja, lieveling, maar mijn ongelukkige natuur zal je nog veel verdriet en strijd kosten. Ik zal doen wat ik kan en als ik niet ben zoals ik zou moeten zijn dan kán ik dat niet, zul je dat nooit vergeten?” ( “Yes, darling, my unfortunate nature will give you much grief and struggle. I’ll do what I can do, but if I am not like the one I should be, it is because I cannot do so. Will you never forget that?”)
At that time Van Eeden was a vital, active and bold man, and was not at all a peaceful and harmonious whole. He just strived for his utopian world and tried it in the colony Walden. Martha has to swallow a lot in this marriage, like Van Eedens depressions, his sorrow about the lost son Paul, financially bad situation, his Walden project, his extramarital affairs and his sexual aversion her. When they met, they did not fall in love, but were more like friends.
Martha had few literary aspirations, but she translated the work of Hans Christian Andersen and English fairy tales into Dutch. She published under the name Martha van Eeden-van Vloten: Martha van Eeden-van Vloten · dbnl.
Martha had a good relationship with the poet Albert Verwey, the husband of her sister Kitty. Their letters can be found online.
She died age 86 in Nigtevecht, near Loenen on 4 June 1943.
Link to Wikipedia biography (Dutch)