What sort of woman could become the most influential "madame" in New York,
such an apparent threat to the establishment that after being persecuted by
the Knapp Commission, set up to investigate malpractice and corruption, she
was "invited" to quit the United States? Ironically, she was born in Surabaja,
Indonesia where her father, a psychiatrist, was head of a hospital.
Three weeks after her birth she was captured with her parents by the Japanese
and imprisoned in concentration camps. The family returned to Holland after the
war and the young Xaviera showed literary acumen, by not only writing but also
editing the school magazine. After taking a secretarial course, she won a contest
organized by Manpower Agency and was hailed as "Miss Tick," Holland's Best
Secretary. After living for four years in South Africa where she worked as secretary
and copy writer for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, a romantic
attachment led her to the United States where she became Secretary to the Dutch
consul and later, the Belgian Ambassador.
When her engagement broke up she got involved in a New York call girl agency to
augment her meager official salary. But living a double life is alien to Xaviera's
character so she went full time. However, exercising her Dutch financial astuteness,
she invested $10,000 in purchasing the list of clients from a retiring New York madam.
The rest, as they say, is history and the subject matter of The Happy Hooker.
In 1972, Xaviera agreed to write a monthly advice column for Penthouse, Call me
Madam, and for a while moved in with Bob Guccione, the founder of the magazine.
In the 20th Anniversary issue, she wasproclaimed their most popular columnist: she
also has contributed special columns for the Dutch, German, Spanish, Australian and
even South African issues.
Xaviera's most recent book, Child No More, breaks entirely new ground, recounting
her life with her parents from the terror of her days as a toddler in a Japanese prison
camp to the anguish of watching over the death throes of her mother.
There are comic episodes and frank accounts of her romantic exploits, but in this
book, the author reveals the hidden depths of her personal life, casting aside the
mask of her public persona.
Xaviera lives in Marbella, Spain but spends much of the year in Amsterdam, Holland
where her house is a centre for artists, writers, musicians and friends from all walks
of life drawn to her by her encouragement and friendliness--and the fun of living.
House concerts alternate with brain-storming sessions, interspersed with dinners
with a few choice friends and full scale parties to which all the world is welcome.
With the establishment of her own theatre, Xaviera Hollander Presents, she has at
last outgrown the Happy Hooker image and fought her way into the world of the arts.