Valère Depauw

Valère Marcel Depauw (born April 7, 1912 in Ronse , † August 2, 1994 in Brasschaat ) was a Belgian writer and Flemish nationalist .

Life

Depauw was born in 1912 in East Flanders, the son of a textile manufacturer.

At the age of 15 he began an apprenticeship in his father's textile business. During this time he showed solidarity with the Flemish working class and began to get involved in politics. At the age of 16 he joined the Christen Volksbond (Christian Volksbund), a Catholic labor movement under Leo Vindevogel . In his politically motivated novel “Uit alle dalen der herinnering” , published in 1974, he describes this phase of radicalization.

From 1927 to 1938 he was managing director of his father's textile factory "Fabrique de tissus en tous genres". In 1934 he wrote his first play for the financially troubled Theater des Christen Volksbonds. It was here that he first developed the character of Tavi, a popular heroic figure, which he used as a protagonist in his first novel in 1937. The play, of which he soon wrote a sequel, also remained a success for many years. Badly affected by the economic crisis of those years, he broke his career as a manufacturer in 1938 and became a bookseller in Ghent .

When war broke out, Depauw was drafted into military service and took part in the 18-day campaign of 1940. He fell into German captivity, from which he was released at the end of 1941. Depauw processed his experiences as a prisoner of war in Stalag 17 in Gneixendorf , Austria in the novellas “Kerstmis in het Stalag” , “Offergang” and “Een man keert terug” .

Between 1942 and 1944 he worked as a representative at the Brussels publishing house Manteau . In 1945 Depauw was imprisoned for one year on suspicion of collaboration . During his internment he wrote numerous romance novels, mostly under the pseudonym Peter Pann, which were later published by Manteau. After the war he worked as a journalist and also wrote for the satirical weekly newspaper Rommelpot . In 1946 he founded the publishing house “De Belhamel” in Koekelberg . Between 1955 and 1969 he was editor of the Belgian weekly newspaper Panorama , which appears in Dutch and French. In the 1970s he dealt briefly with parapsychology , but earned himself exclusively as a writer.

His Sibylli trilogy ( "Bijwijlen ran, bijwijlen leed" (1981), "Ik ben zo wijd" (1982) and "Bevrijd van alle nood" (1984)), which describes the life of the noble Sybillie van Gaege and Lutgard von Tongeren acts.

Pseudonyms

Depauw also published under the pseudonyms Piet Canneel, Georges Darius, Jan Eyck, Bernhard van Goor, Jerome de Gryse, Claudine Lagarde, Nicole Ménetier, Jean Montreal, Peter Pann and René Solitaire.

Works (selection)

• Tavi. Life story of a Flemish bad guy. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1941, (German translation Erich Stück)
• The cloth weavers of Flanders. Pattloch Verlag, Aschaffenburg 1952. (German translation Georg Hermanowski )
• Fog over the moor. Manz Verlag, Munich 1958. (German translation Georg Hermanowski)
• Every bird has its nest. Pallotti-Verlag, Friedberg 1960. (German translation Georg Hermanowski)
• Order in Guernica. Matari-Verlag, Hamburg 1967. (German translation Georg Hermanowski)
• Election campaign in Bonnrode. Matari-Verlag, Hamburg 1969. (German translation Georg Hermanowski)

Awards

• 1950 Novel Prize of the Province of Antwerp for "De zege van het verzaken"
• 1979 Prize of the Vlaamse Interprovinciale Commissie voor Letterkunde for "Op weg naar Montségur"
• 1984 Scriptores Christiani for "De uiterste hoeksteen"
• 1985 Karel Barbierprijs of the Royal Academy for Dutch Linguistics and Literature Studies (KANTL) for the Sibylle trilogy
• 1989 Prize of the Province of Antwerp for his complete works

literature

• André Demedts: Valère Depauw (1912). De thematiek van Valère Depauw. In: Vlaanderen. Volume 33, 1984. pp. 340-345. on-line

Web links

• Literature by and about Valère Depauw in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Biographical website about Valère Depauw (Dutch)