Het boksen by P.M.C. Toepoel—a boxing manual that influenced Louis Couperus

"Het Boksen" by P.M.C. Toepoel—a boxing manual that influenced Dutch novelist Louis Couperus (1863-1923). This is the third and best edition.

Pieter Marie Christoffel Toepoel (1881-1960) took up boxing as a teenager and became Dutch welterweight champion in 1902 and middleweight champion in 1903. Before travelling to England to further develop his boxing skills, he was briefly a member of Frederik van Eeden's commune Walden. In 1911 he opened his own boxing school, Toepoel's Modelschool, in The Hague. In the same year he was one of the founders of the Nederlandse Boksbond (Dutch Boxing Federation).

His manual, first published in 1912, was extremely influential. In it he covers all aspect of the sport and strongly emphasises the health benefits of boxing, striving, moreover, for athletic beauty as embodied in ancient Greek statues.

Couperus studied the second edition of Toepoel's manual while travelling in Algiers in 1921. The two apparently met on several occasions in The Hague, and Couperus is known to have visited Toepoel's boxing school; Toepoel even features in Couperus's short story "De Standjeszoeker".