Starting out as a poet, Carel Scharten worked as a critic and editor for the literary magazine De Gids. His breakthrough as a novelist followed in 1908 with Een huis vol menschen, written together with his wife, Margo Scharten-Antink. The couple became fairly popular with their novels, which had many religious and Italian influences. This was also true for the work De nar van Maremmen (The fool of Maremma), which they entered in the 1928 Olympic literature competition and which won a bronze medal. The Maremma is a swampy and unhealthy coastal landscape of Italy in southern Tuscany. In their book they describe in three parts (Massano – Florence. De drie blinden - Naar de eeuwige stad_) the story of a painter, inspired by the life and work of Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908) and the socialist movement in Italy until the 1920s. It only deals with sports remotely. Scharten and his wife had settled in Firenze in 1924 and remained there until their death.
Netherlands