Leo Vroman was a Dutch-American author and a hematologist. Born in the Netherlands he went to the United States where he was naturalized and obtained American citizenship in 1951. His main career in the United States was as a hematologist. He worked at various research institutes and published more than 70 articles and books in that field.

In the Netherlands he was one of the most well-known and appreciated poets, publishing more than 40 books. His creative output was mostly written in Dutch, most of it poetry, and less prose.

De adem van Mars is prose and published early in Vroman's literary career. There are 15 prose pieces varying in length from just 3 to more than 20 pages. They read like vignettes or episodes and are fictionalized stages of Vroman's early life from May 1940 to about 1952. This fictionalization is very thin, as Vroman and his wife appear in the stories under their own names, and other characters, such as Jan Greshoff are also described true to life and with their own names. One of the stories is written (and printed) in English.

Leo Vroman's escape from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands is quite spectacular and adventurous. At first glance, the title story "De adem van Mars" seems funny, or perhaps jocular, but apparently biographical details are accurate. From London, Vroman travelled to the Dutch Indies, where, in Batavia, he finished his studies. However, he was locked up in various Japanese concentration camps in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia), before being transported to Japan via Singapore. The stories set in America describe life in the United States in the late 40s and early 50s. ( )