Gerrit Achterberg
Gerrit Achterberg (born May 20, 1905 in Nederlangbroek , † January 17, 1962 in Leusden ) was a Dutch poet .
His use of surreal language and imagery influenced a generation of post World War II poets known as experimentalists . His verses , traditional in their form, are characterized as romantic and metaphysical . He was a linguist who often coined new words based on the terminology of science and scholarship.
Life
He was born as the third son of the coachman Hendrik Achterberg and his wife Pietje van de Meent in Langbroek in 1905. He and his eight siblings were raised strictly Protestant. From 1924 he worked as a teacher, but was more interested in poetry and poetry. In the same year, his first collection of poems De zangen van twee twintigers was published as a private print , which he later dismissed as “ youthful sin ”. He also met his future wife, Johanna Catharina van Baak, whose father forbade a relationship and so he initially lost sight of her. Due to mental weaknesses, he was released from military service in 1927.
He first published his poems in various magazines until 1931 when his first volume of poetry "Afvaart" (German: Departure ) appeared. A failed relationship brought him into a deep life crisis. He began to have doubts about the quality of his poems - also because of poor sales figures - and ended up in a psychiatric clinic for the first time. After his release he worked as a third-class civil servant in Utrecht . When he gunned down his landlady in 1937, with whom he had a relationship, he was arrested in the "Rijksasyl voor Psychopathen". But there, too, he continued to work as a writer and in 1939 completed the volume of poems “Eiland der Ziel” (Island of the Soul).
He was released in 1943, met his former girlfriend Cathrien van Baak again and finally married her in 1946. After he had found his childhood sweetheart, a time of the highest creative creativity began. In 1946 alone, no fewer than six new volumes of poetry were published. His work has received several awards, which helped his ailing self-confidence. In 1955, however, he was again admitted to a psychiatric facility, this time for good.
In 1959 he received the Constantijn Huygens Prize for his life's work . Most recently he worked on the publication of his collected works, which were to appear on his 60th birthday. But it never came to that: the 56-year-old did not survive a heart attack.
Works (prices)
- 1925 "De zangen van twee twintigers"
- 1931 "Afvaart"
- 1939 "Island the destination"
- 1940 "Dead end"
- 1941 "Osmosis"
- 1941 "Thebe"
- 1944 "Eurydice"
- 1944 "Morendo"
- 1944 "Sintels"
- 1946 "Energy"
- 1946 "Existence"
- 1946 "Limiet"
- 1946 "Radar" (Pinkster Prize)
- 1946 "Sphinx"
- 1946 "Stof"
- 1947 "Doornroosje"
- 1947 "En Jezus schreef in 't zand" ( PC Hooft-prijs )
- 1949 "Hoonte" (Poetry Prize of the City of Amsterdam)
- 1949 "Sneeuwwitje"
- 1950 "Mascotte"
- 1953 "Ballade van de gasfitter" (Poetry Prize of the City of Amsterdam)
- 1953 "Cenotaaph"
- 1953 "Ode aan The Hague"
- 1954 "Autodroom"
- 1957 "Spel van de wilde yacht"
- 1961 "Vergeetboek"
- 1969 "Blauwzuur"
Web links
- Literature by and about Gerrit Achterberg in the catalog of the German National Library
- Biographies and Links (Dutch)
- detailed biography, illustrated bibliography, pictures of him and his wife (Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerrit Achterberg. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved May 9, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Achterberg, Gerrit |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nederlangbroek |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th January 1962 |
| Place of death | Leusden |