Herman Teirlinck

Herman Teirlinck
Teirlinck (1905)
Born	24 February 1879 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean / Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
Died	4 February 1967 (aged 87) Beersel
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Herman Louis Cesar Teirlinck (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, 24 February 1879 – Beersel-Lot, 4 February 1967) was a Belgian writer. He was the fifth child and only son of Isidoor Teirlinck and Oda van Nieuwenhove, who were both teachers in Brussels. As a child, he had frail health and spent much of his time at the countryside in Zegelsem (East Flanders), with his paternal grandparents. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.

From 1886 until 1890 he went to the primary school Karel Buls in Brussels. He went to high school at the Koninklijk Athenaeum (E: royal athenaeum) in Brussels, where he studied Greek and Latin. One of his teachers was Hyppoliet Meert, a Flamingant and language purist. In 1879, at the request of his father, he started as a student at the Faculty of Science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), but he himself wanted to become a writer, not a scientist. He succeeded in his first year of medicine, but he then left the ULB and went to the University of Ghent (RUG) to study Germanic philology; he didn’t do well here either and left RUG also without graduating. He wrote his first poems, Metter Sonnewende (1899) and Verzen (1900). In Ghent, he met Karel van de Woestijne, and they would become lifelong friends until the death of Karel van de Woestijne in 1929.

In 1902, he married his first wife Mathilde Lauwers, and together they had two daughters: Stella and Leentje Teirlinck. He became appointed the civil servant responsible for the Fine Arts in Brussels. Also in 1902, he published De wonderbare wereld (E: The Wonderful World), followed by Het stille gesternte (E: The silent stars) in 1903. In 1903, he was also co-founder of the illustrated magazine Vlaanderen (E: Flanders), which succeeded Van nu en straks (E: Of now and soon). In 1906, he became Belgian correspondent for the Amsterdam newspaper Het Handelsblad. He became more and more interested in the city life of Brussels and in 1909, he published the novel Ivoren Aapje (E: Ivory monkey), which was his first novel about Brussels. Also in 1909 he published his essay Het Vlaamsch Tooneel (E: Flemish theatre), which showed his appreciation for Edward Gordon Craig. He went to live in Linkebeek, where he, as a liberal, got involved in local politics.