Xaviera Hollander

{{Infobox person

| name = Xaviera Hollander

| image = Portrait_of_Xaviera_Hollander_looking_naughty.jpg

| caption = Hollander in 2008

| birth_name = Xaviera de Vries

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1943|06|15}}

| birth_place = Surabaya, Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies

| citizenship = Netherlands

| known_for = The Happy Hooker: My Own Story

| occupation =

| spouse = Frank Applebaum (m. ?)
{{marriage|Philip de Haan|2007}}

| website = {{URL|www.xavierahollander.com/}}

}}

Xaviera Hollander (born 15 June 1943) is a Dutch former call girl, madam and author. She is best known for her best-selling memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story.

Early life

Hollander was born Xaviera de Vries in Surabaya, Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies, which later became part of present-day Indonesia, to a Dutch Jewish physician father and a mother of French and German descent.{{cite news |last=Ross |first=Deborah |title=Xaviera Hollander: Is the Happy Hooker still happy after all these years? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/xaviera-hollander-is-the-happy-hooker-still-happy-after-all-these-years-8389838.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/xaviera-hollander-is-the-happy-hooker-still-happy-after-all-these-years-8389838.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Independent |date=8 December 2012 |access-date=29 July 2013}}{{cbignore}} She spent the first years of her life in a Japanese-run internment camp.{{Cite journal|last=Che |first=Cathay |title=The Happy Hooker gets the girl |journal=The Advocate |pages=80–3 |date=20 August 2002 }} After the end of Japanese occupation the family returned to the Netherlands.

In her early twenties she left Amsterdam for Johannesburg, where her stepsister lived. There she met and became engaged to American economist John Weber. When the engagement was broken off, she left South Africa for New York City.{{Cite book |title=The Happy Hooker: My Own Story |publisher=Sphere Books |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-06-001416-2 |last=Hollander |first=Xaviera |url=https://archive.org/details/happyhookermyown00holl }}

Career

In 1968, she resigned from her job as a secretary in the Dutch consulate in New York City to become a call girl, making up to {{US$|1,000|link=yes}} a night (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1000|1968|fmt=c|r=-2}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}). A year later, she opened her own brothel, the Vertical Whorehouse, and soon became New York City's leading madam. In 1971, she was arrested for prostitution by New York Police and forced to leave the United States.{{cite news |url=https://nypost.com/dispatch/5-police-corruption-scandals-that-rocked-new-york-city/ |title=5 Police Corruption Scandals that Rocked New York City |date=28 December 2015 |newspaper=New York Post |access-date=11 September 2017}}{{cite web |title=Notorious New York City brothels: 'Manhattan Madam' Kristin Davis supplied hookers for clients including Eliot Spitzer |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/notorious-new-york-city-brothels-manhattan-madam-kristin-davis-supplied-hookers-clients-including-eliot-spitzer-article-1.1033772 |website=New York Daily News |access-date=10 December 2018 |date=6 March 2012}}

=Author=

In 1971, Hollander published a memoir, The Happy Hooker: My Own Story. Robin Moore, who took Hollander's dictation of the book's contents, came up with the title, while Yvonne Dunleavy ghostwrote it.John Cassidy, "The hell-raiser", Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 2000, Good Weekend, p. 80 Hollander later wrote a number of other books and produced plays in Amsterdam. Her second book, Child No More, is the story of losing her mother. For 35 years she wrote an advice column for Penthouse magazine, entitled "Call Me Madam."

=Other ventures=

File:Xaviera Hollander and Malcolm Bennett appearing on "After Dark", 28 October 1989.jpg on TV programme After Dark in 1989]]

In the early 1970s, she recorded a primarily spoken-word album titled Xaviera! for the Canadian GRT Records label (GRT 9230-1033), on which she discussed her philosophy regarding sex and prostitution, sang a cover version of the Beatles' song "Michelle", and recorded several simulated sexual encounters, including an example of phone sex, a threesome, and a celebrity encounter with guest "vocal" by Ronnie Hawkins. Xaviera's Game, an erotic board game, was released in 1974 by Reiss Games, Inc. In 1975, she starred in the semi-autobiographical film My Pleasure Is My Business. Beginning in 2005, she operated Xaviera's Happy House, a bed-and-breakfast, in her Amsterdam home.{{cite web |title=Xaviera Hollander's 'Happy House Bed&Breakfast' |url=https://www.xavierahollander.com/happy-sleeper.html |publisher=xavierahollander.com |access-date=10 December 2018}}

Personal life

For several years in the 1970s, Hollander lived in Toronto, where she married Frank Applebaum, a Canadian antique dealer, and was a regular fixture on the downtown scene. She mentioned a lover named John Drummond, with whom she partnered for many years, co-authoring two books, including Let's Get Moving (1988) about their life together: "I went there with, who for years had been the love of my life, John Drummond, a wild Scottish intellectual who, at times, liked his whisky, beer, and wines too much. We had great sex, often up to three times a day — all that and he was about 17 years older than me."{{cite news|url=http://www.femininecollective.com/interview-xaviera-hollander-happy-hooker/|title=Interview: Xaviera Hollander, the Happy Hooker|last=Woodson|first=Bert|date=April 18, 2014|access-date=December 14, 2020|work=Feminine Collective}} During a 2018 interview, she revealed a darker side of the relationship with the man she called "the love of my life!": "The love of my life, 25 years ago, John Drummond, a brilliant and boisterous Scotsman with a 'Thatcheresque' accent had, especially under the influence of a few scotches, beers, or wine, become quite destructive towards me. He is the only one who managed to deprive me of my self-esteem or identity, temporarily. He used to say that a British man’s way of saying 'I love you' is to put his woman down."{{Cite web|url=https://www.expatica.com/nl/living/|title=Living in the Netherlands Archives|website=Expat Guide to the Netherlands | Expatica}} Drummond is listed as one of her husbands.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/322/000025247/|title=Xaviera Hollander|website=www.nndb.com}} Hollander claimed to have "turned gay" around 1997, establishing a long-term relationship with a Dutch poet called Dia. In January 2007, she married a Dutch man, Philip de Haan, in Amsterdam.{{cite web |last1=Faber |first1=Judy |title=Happy Hooker Gets Hitched |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/happy-hooker-gets-hitched/ |website=www.cbsnews.com |access-date=10 December 2018 |language=en |date=2 January 2007}}

Other works

Hollander has been depicted in film five times:

The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander (1974, rated X) – Samantha McLaren
The Best Part of a Man (1975) – Artistae Stiftung
The Happy Hooker (1975) – Lynn Redgrave
The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) – Joey Heatherton
The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980) – Martine Beswick

She appears in at least two films:

My Pleasure Is My Business (1975, Al Waxman) as Gabrielle
Xaviera Hollander, the Happy Hooker: Portrait of a Sexual Revolutionary, a 2008 documentary directed, jointly produced, photographed and edited by Robert Dunlap. Hollander made additional contributions to the script.{{cite web |title=Documentary, The Happy Hooker: Portrait of a Sexual Revolutionary |url=https://www.xavierahollander.com/shop/product/2-xaviera-s-documentary.html |publisher=www.xavierahollander.com |access-date=10 December 2018}}

In 1989, Hollander made an extended appearance on British discussion programme After Dark, alongside Mary Stott, Malcolm Bennett and Hans Eysenck, among others.

A musical about her life was written and composed by Richard Hansom and Warren Wills.{{cite web |title=Happy Hooker Musical |url=https://www.xavierahollander.com/happy-booker/happy-hooker-musical.html |website=www.xavierahollander.com |access-date=10 December 2018}}

Books

= Non-fiction =

{{Cite book|title=The Happy Hooker: My Own Story |publisher=Sphere Books |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-900735-13-4 |author1=Robin Moore|author2=Yvonne Dunleavy|author3=Xaviera de Vries Hollander |title-link=The Happy Hooker }} Moore took Hollander's dictation, and Dunleavy transcribed the results.
{{Cite book |title=Letters to the Happy Hooker |location=New York |publisher=Warner Paperback Library |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-446-78277-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/letterstohappyho00holl }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera!: Her Continuing Adventures |location=New York |publisher=Warner Paperback Library |year=1973 }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera Goes Wild |location=New York |publisher=Warner Paperback Library |year=1974 }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera on the Best Part of a Man |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |year=1975 }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers |location=New York |publisher=Warner Paperback Library |year=1976 |author=Marilyn Chambers }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera's Supersex: Her Personal Techniques for Total Lovemaking |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |year=1976 }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera's Fantastic Sex |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-451-15104-9 }}
{{Cite book|title=Xaviera's Magic Mushrooms |location=Sevenoaks, Kent |publisher=New English Library |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-450-05064-0 }}
{{Cite book|title=The Inner Circle |location=London |publisher=Granada |year=1983 }}
{{Cite book|title=Fiesta of the Flesh |location=London |publisher=Panther |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-586-06195-4 }}
{{Cite book|title=The Best of Xaviera |location=Sydney |publisher=Horwitz Grahame |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-7255-1841-7 }}
{{Cite book|title=Knights in the Garden of Spain |location=London |publisher=Grafton |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-586-07432-9 }}
{{Cite book |title=Child No More: A Memoir |location=New York |publisher=ReganBooks |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-06-001417-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/childnomorememoi00holl }}
{{Cite book|title=The Happy Hooker's Guide to Mind-Blowing Sex: 69 Orgasmic Ways to Pleasure a Woman |location=New York |publisher=Skyhorse Pub |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60239-240-3 }}
{{Cite book|url=https://xavierahollander.com/shop/books-dvd-s-and-cd-s/product/19-wall-talk-i-the-prudent-bird-of-paradise.html |title= Wall Talk I: Prudent Bird of Paradise |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Amazon |year=2024 }}
{{Cite book|url=https://xavierahollander.com/shop/books-dvd-s-and-cd-s/product/20-wall-talk-ii-xaviera%E2%80%99s-happy-house-signed-dedicated-by-xaviera.html |title= Wall Talk II: Xaviera's Happy House |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Amazon |year=2024 }}
{{Cite book|url=https://xavierahollander.com/shop/books-dvd-s-and-cd-s/product/21-wall-talk-iii-getting-old-is-not-for-sissies-signed-dedicated-by-xaviera.html |title=Wall Talk III: Getting Old is Not for Sissies |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Amazon |year=2024 }}

=Fiction=

{{Cite book |title=Lucinda, My Lovely |location=Henley-on-Thames |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-85628-118-1 |last1=Hollander |first1=Xaviera |url=https://archive.org/details/lucindamylovely00xavi }}
{{Cite book|title=Lucinda: Hot Nights on Xanthos |location=Henley-on-Thames |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-85628-129-7 |quote=(Originally published 1983) |last1=Hollander |first1=Xaviera }}
{{Cite book|title=Erotic Enterprises Inc |location=Henley-on-Thames |publisher=Ellis |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-85628-142-6 }}
Co-written with John Drummond: {{Cite book|title=Happily Hooked |publisher=Panther |year=1985 |isbn=0-586-06399-4 }}
{{Cite book|title=The Erotic Adventures of Sandra |year=1986 }}
The Golden Phallus of Osiris Trilogy:
{{Cite book|title=Yours Fatally! |location=London |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-586-07039-0 |last1=Hollander |first1=Xaviera }}
{{Cite book|title=The Kiss of the Serpent |publisher=Grafton |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-586-07040-6 }}
{{Cite book|title=Prisoner of the Firebird |publisher=Grafton |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-586-07041-3 }}
Co-written with John Drummond: {{Cite book|title=Let's Get Moving |publisher=Grafton |year=1988 |isbn=0-586-07431-7 }}
{{Cite book|title=Lucinda and Other Lovelies |publisher=Ellis |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-85628-198-3 |quote=Collects Lucinda, My Lovely; Lucinda: Hot Nights on Xanthos; and Erotic Enterprises Inc. }}