- His father Jan Campert (1902 - 1943) was a member of the resistance during WOII. He left his family when Remco was 3 years old, died in 1943 in concentration camp Neuengamme.
- Son of 'Jan Campert' and Joekie Broedelet
- He and his mother returned to Amsterdam after World War II in 1945, after having spent the three preceding years in the town of Epe. In Amsterdam, he started a secondary education at the Amsterdam Lyceum, occasionally writing articles or drawing comics for the school's newspaper.
- As the years went on, he skipped more and more classes and spent increasing amounts of time in cinemas, jazz clubs or pubs. He finally left school without graduating.
- He was the son of writer and poet Jan Campert, author of the poem De achttien dooden.
- He resumed writing in 1979. He wrote Somberman's actie in 1985.
- He has mostly kept quiet about his life in the following years, however, he once explained his situation in 1994, in an interview to Cees van Hoore, journalist of newspaper 'Nieuwsblad van het Noorden'. He was quoted as saying; "I don't choke myself. I'm my own best company. Whenever I lived together with someone, I felt like being underwater for days on end. To be together is to be twice alone and I don't need that. I'm more than happily married to my career.".
- With Rudy Kousbroek, a school friend, he founded the magazine Braak in May 1950. It became a home for the literary movement "De Vijftigers". This was a loosely connected group of Dutch and Flemish poets who wanted to create spontaneous poetry. To avoid overthinking they omittted punctuation, rhyme or any traditional poetic format.
- He divorced his second wife and married Lucia van den Berg in 1961. They moved to Antwerp in 1964, but Campert returned to Amsterdam two years later. There, he met art gallery owner Deborah Wolf, with whom he lived until 1980.
- After dropping out of high school, Campert got a diploma in typing, which helped him earn a living as a translator and writer of advertisements. Some of the books he translated over the years were Loriot's 'Der gute Ton' (as 'Zo hoort het eigenlijk', 1958) and Guy Peellaert's 'Pravda' (1968).
- Between 1949 and 1952 Campert drew cartoons for the Dutch magazine Mandrill and Het Parool and in the 1970s for Haagse Post too.
- In order to finance his living, Campert resorted to writing commercial texts or jingles as well as translating foreign literary works.
- Since 2017 part of his poem 'Betere Tijden' (1970) can be seen on the wall of a building in the Van Miereveldstraat in Amsterdam. The artwork was designed by Lucas de Groot, Erwin Slaats and Serge Verheugen.
- Remco Campert was one of the Netherlands' most famous and popular writers. Many magazines have published his witty, ironic columns. A little known fact is that he also published cartoons and comics.
- By the end of the 1970s, he had written very little. He explained to journalist Jan Brokken of the Dutch newspaper Haagse Post: "I couldn't write for years on end. I didn't feel like it. I felt a physical repulsion towards it. I thought about it, but I was paralyzed by doubts.".
- 1995 was the year he read his bestseller novel 'Het leven is vurrukkulluk' on the radio.
- Throughout his long career, Campert received the Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs (1953), Jan Campertprijs (1956), Anne Frank-prijs (1958), Prijs van de Amsterdamse Kunstraad (1960), P.C.-Hooft-prijs (1976), Cestoda-prijs (1987), Gouden Ganzenveer (2011), Gouden Schrijfmachine (2014) and the most prestigious Dutch literary award: Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (2015).
- Due to his mother's stage career he was mostly raised by his grandmother and an adoption family.
- In 1979 he drew comics for NRC Handelsblad.
- From 1989 until 1995, Campert starred in theatres throughout the nation and beyond in a play he had created together with Jan Mulder (author and ex-football player). Their shows were based on both their literary works.
- He also won both the Poëzieprijs (1955) as well as the Prozaprijs (1959) handed out by the city of Amsterdam.
- In March 2018 Remco Campert announced his retirement from all his writing activities.
- Dutch people of older generations will most likely associate his name with CaMu, the partnership between Remco Campert and Jan Mulder that wrote daily front-page columns for national newspaper 'de Volkskrant' from 1995 until 2006. These columns traditionally have been bundled into books titled CaMu ....: Het jaaroverzicht van Remco Campert en Jan Mulder at the end of each year.
- He did cause controversy with his poem 'Niet te Geloven' (1961), of which the line: "alles zoop en naaide" ("everything boozed and fucked") offended many people. On 27 May 1964 a broadcast of the literary TV show 'Literaire Ontmoetingen' was cancelled because the hosts wanted to read this particular poem without omitting the provocative line. This tripled the poet's fame.
- Campert married Freddie Rutgers in 1949, but they separated five years later. He later married author Fritzi ten Harmsen van der Beek (daughter of comics artist Harmsen van der Beek), with whom he lived in Blaricum until 1957, when he returned to Amsterdam.
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