THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Cees Nooteboom, a Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist who was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, died Wednesday, his publisher announced. He was 92. Publisher: Dutch novelist and journalist Cees Nooteboom dies at 92 Publishing house De Bezige Bij said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that Nooteboom “died very peacefully on his beloved island of Menorca.” The publisher said the message was written on behalf of his wife, photographer Simone Sassen. “We will miss the friendship, erudition, passion, and idiosyncrasy of this internationally acclaimed writer,” the publishing house added. It did not give a cause of death. Equally comfortable writing fiction, poetry, songs, news reports or travel stories, Nooteboom’s extensive oeuvre started with “Philip and the Others,” a novel based in part on his experiences hitchhiking through France and Scandinavia in the early 1950s. It became a Dutch literary classic. He went on to write newspaper columns and report on society-shifting …