Dutch feminist, author, opera singer and actor who used to call herself Stella Oristorio di Frama.
She was the oldest of the four daughters of colonel Hendrik Georg Kruseman (1802-1880) en Jennij Dorotheé Hermine Cornelie Cantzlaar (1810–1859), who married 5 January 1839 in Rheden. The colonel retired early on 1 June 1939 because of his double counting “tropenjaren” in the Dutch Indies.
Her father H. G. Kruseman, who served in the Dutch army in the Dutch East Indies, took the family with him. Her growing up with three sisters in Samarang Dutch East Indies had some influence in her later writings. But those years she had a feeling of freedom. In her in 1877 published auto-biography Mijn leven (My life) there are a few citations, where she testifies of her happy life there. In 1854 the family returned to the Netherlands. Mina developed a deep aversion against the cold, small-city narrow-minded homeland and the restrictions that were imposed by decency, convention and religion, and certainly women were thereby the most affected.
Other than her home country, she also spent a considerable part of her life in Belgium, France and United States
Mina wanted to do something with her life, but did not know what to do. In Brussels where she lived, she was accepted at the Conservatory for voice and piano. But after one year she did quit. After the death of two of her sisters, and a broken engagement. she decides to be an artist, globe-trotting along stages. She continues her education as a singer in Paris. In Europe she has only little success. In 1871 she decides therefore to go to America. The start was difficult, but in the end she experiences as Stella Oristorio di Frama in the South of the US some success-performances. Karcilla Réna was another pseudonym used by Mina. Because the uncertain prospects she went in the summer of 1872 back to Brussels. In Paris published her first publication: a response to a woman-unfriendly piece by Alexandre Dumas, fils: Lettre a M. Alexandre Dumas fils au sujet de son livre l’Homme-femme (1872). In America she had already written her first novel. But it would take some time, before this was to be published.
She started her career as a performing-artist in Holland. During her first appearance in the Hague November 1872 she reads them a chapter for from her forthcoming novel. Spring 1873 her fame in the rest of the Netherlands grows during her tour together with Betsy Perk. Other Dutch male authors had made likewise performances, reading from their own writings, into a serious source of income. Mina wanted her own economic independence, no chance of a free performance of Mina Kruseman. The text they used: Zusters. Een schetsje uit onze dagen (“Sisters. A sketch from our days.”) was written by Mina especially for this occasion. It tells the story of 5 almost adult sisters, the education of girls and women’s lives afterwards: waiting for a spouse, and when a marriage was not provided, a life as a spinster. Mina’s tantalizing appearance and her widely acclaimed performance art was quite a happening in the early years of feminist Holland. In addition, Mina expressed severe criticism on the level of art-criticism in The Netherlands: real talents were driven out of the country: with Eduard Douwes Dekker, Multatuli as a prominent example. Dekker was very pleased with this praise.
This was the start of a close friendship between Eduard Douwes Dekker and Mina Kruseman. Mina had wishes to be an actrice, so she started a lobby to bring Dekker’s play Vorstenschool (School of Princes) into the theatre. This play was published years before in 1872, as the start of IDEEN-IV. Although the play raised much attention, no theatre company in Holland dared to start with it. In 1875 Mina could make a contract with a starting theatre compagny in Rotterdam “De nieuwe Rotterdamsche Schouwburg”. Mina played for some time the leading role as queen Louise. The tour was a big success. Multatuli was recognized and celebrated as a big author, he was asked on stage and applauded by the audience. Even raised ticket prices did not keep people away.
In 1881 she decided to life together with the writer, photographer and musician F.J. Hoffman. Because he was in his twenties and Mina Kruseman in her forties this gave a major scandal, therefore they left in 1883 the Dutch East Indies for Rome in Italy. There were two daughters, both of whom died at a young age. The couple then settled in Boulogne-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris which now, after the merger with the city of Billancourt, is called Boulogne-Billancourt. They lived by Hoffmans merits as a photographer and violin teacher and later, after he had lost his work as a photographer, of the music classes and an annuity of Mina Kruseman. Hoffman died in 1918. Her health worsened, she was infirm and after 1920 she almost never left her house anymore. In 1922 she died on the age of 82.
For her role as feminist she was honored by a large number of municipalities in the Netherlands, that have named a street after her including: Arnhem, Coevorden, Delft, Enschede, Hoorn, Leiden, Spijkenisse, Tiel, Venray, Venlo, Tilburg, Waalwijk, Zaanstad, a lane in Deventer, a channel in Veenendaal, a road in Tilburg or a square in Dordrecht.
Link to Wikipedia