Ronald Giphart’s story for KLM
Butter Ball Time: From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam is the English-language edition of Ronald Giphart’s De boterballentijd, with translation by Jonathan Reeder. Published for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in May 2016, the book commemorates the seventieth anniversary of KLM’s first scheduled flight from Amsterdam to New York on May 21, 1946.
A young woman’s letter provides the perspective on this historic journey. While the aircraft carries its passengers across the Atlantic, her words reveal the hopes and uncertainties of travelling towards a new life. Giphart turns an aviation milestone into a personal story about departure, expectation and the future.
A fictional story set on a historic flight
The flight is historical; the story told against that background is fiction. This distinction is central to the publication: readers experience the journey through a passenger’s personal account, rather than through a documentary reconstruction.
The following English quotation from Giphart’s story is reproduced unchanged from the original page.
Original excerpt — Ronald Giphart, English translation
“PHOTOGRAPHERS, RADIO JOURNALISTS AND CAMERAMEN POSITION THEMSELVES WITH THEIR TRIPODS ON THE SCHIPHOL RUNWAY TO REPORT ON THE NOW-LEGENDARY FLIGHT OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.”
The KLM flight of May 21, 1946
On May 21, 1946, KLM opened its scheduled service between Amsterdam and New York. It was the first European airline to establish a scheduled connection to the United States after the Second World War.
The inaugural flight departed from Schiphol in the Douglas DC-4 PH-TAR, named Rotterdam. The journey included stops at Prestwick in Scotland and Gander in Canada before reaching New York. Lasting more than twenty-five hours, the crossing was a very different experience from a modern transatlantic flight.
This is the setting for Giphart’s story: a moment when crossing the Atlantic by air still represented an extraordinary journey, both for aviation and for the people on board.
A literary gift for KLM’s seventieth anniversary
KLM commissioned Giphart’s story to mark seventy years of its Amsterdam–New York service. In its announcement of May 21, 2016, the airline stated that passengers travelling on flight KL641 that day would receive Boterballentijd, written especially for the occasion.
The publication connects the anniversary with the experience of travelling. Alongside the history of an airline route, it invites readers to imagine what leaving the Netherlands for America might have meant to an individual passenger in 1946.
The reference to “seventy years” therefore belongs to the book’s publication in 2016.
Butter Ball Time and De boterballentijd
The English title Butter Ball Time connects this edition with De boterballentijd. Jonathan Reeder is credited with the English translation, © 2016.
The Dutch-titled publication has a distinctive feature: its narrative begins in Dutch and gradually moves into English. The change of language accompanies the journey from Amsterdam towards America, making the crossing part of the reading experience itself.
Als je Engels en Nederlands kan lezen ga dan naar De Boterballentijd en lees het hele verhaal zoals het in het boek staat.
Publication details
- Title: Butter Ball Time
- Subtitle: From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam
- Author: Ronald Giphart
- English translation: © Jonathan Reeder 2016
- Commissioned by: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
- Concept: DDB & Tribal Amsterdam
- Cover design: Craig & Karl | Agent Pekka
- Produced by: Bureau Bruinzeel
- Publication date: May 2016
- Edition: First edition
- Format: Hardcover
- Dimensions: 15.6 × 10.5 × 0.5 cm, as recorded for the copy described on this website
- Pages: 67, as recorded on this website; a bookseller’s description of the English edition lists 64 pages
The differing page counts have not been conclusively resolved. Readers identifying a particular copy should check its own pagination and publication details.