De Meulder Publishing has been around for over thirty years. For the last few years we have been specialising in publications of Paulus the woodgnome (Paulus de boskabouter), drawn and written (in that order) by Jean Dulieu. At the moment we have a series of over twenty Paulus-books available. In 2009 we started a new series: Golden Classics in which we will publish the best stories by Jean Dulieu.

The character Paulus the woodgnome was born during the Second World War, when the Netherlands were occupied by Germany. In the so called 'Hungerwinter' of 1944/45 violinist Jan van Oort (1921-2006) lost his job in the Concerthall Orchestra in his hometown Amsterdam. At home he started drawing a children's picture-book. Van Oort being a lover of nature, set his stories against a background of woods, moorland and meadows.

Shortly after the war he got the chance to publish his stories of Paulus the woodgnome as a cartoon in the newspaper 'Het Vrije Volk'. He wrote under the pseudonym, Jean Dulieu, in order not to compromise his career as a violinist in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra should his cartoon fail. When the cartoon-strip became successful, he decided to leave the musical world. Together with his wife and child he moved to a small farm on the island of Terschelling, in the north of The Netherlands.

In the 1950s he worked steadily and persistently on his Paulus the woodgnome as a one-man company. Not only did he draw and write his stories but, most amazingly, he performed on radio and later on television. Hard work and strong commitment resulted in Paulus becoming increasingly popular.

Since he began in 1946, Dulieu re-created Paulus in many ways, but eventually returned to the cartoon form in the 1970s. The friendly gnome reappeared in the newspaper and once again the drawings and stories became a success, not just with young but also with older readers this time. Even though the radio stories were great and the puppets on television ingenious, it seems the public were, most of all, fascinated by the drawn and written stories of Paulus the woodgnome, Uhuburu the wise old owl, Salmon the raven, Gregory the always hungry badger and Eucalypta the witch.

Paulus the woodgnome has been with us for more than sixty years now, and it is a great honour for De Meulder Publishing to continue to publish the events of the diminutive hero of the woods and fields.

We now have the twenty-two part series of Paulus the woodgnome in stock. And in 2009 we started a new series of seven illustrated books in black and white and colour. Along with the production of books and picture postcards, the publisher will continue to broaden our knowledge of the work of Jean Dulieu, through the magazine Bouterbode.

You can find all our publications of Paulus the woodgnome in the Product overview (Productoverzicht) and in the webshop (Winkel). Questions about our books and cards, can been mailed to info@demeulder.nl.

For more background information about the life and work of author Jean Dulieu and his Paulus the woodgnome, we would refer you to the website of the Paulus Archive, www.paulusarchief.nl