Augusta Peaux

In 1864 the family moved to the parish house of nearby Zwartewaal, and in 1868 to Etten and Hoeven in Brabant, where Pieter Peaux took over the position of his dead father.

The children spent much of their time playing outside, in nature, and Augusta had the later poet Jacques Perk, the same age as she, as a playmate.

Since they now lived in a predominantly Catholic area, the Peaux family occupied a special position, and the two girls were taught at home by teachers brought in from Holland.

The whole family moved to Haarlem in 1875 because her father temporarily stepped down from his position (for health reasons, it seems), where Augusta finished her schooling and achieved a certificate in French.

From Gulpen she regularly sent poems to Albert Verwey, who published them in two of his magazines, Tweemaandelijksch Tijdschrift and De XXe eeuw, and praised her "little verses".

[1] Literary critic Mea Verwey later praised her prose stories, saying they evidenced a "great heart" and a love for nature and fairy tale.

By then she was 42 and no longer shared her parents' faith; her poetry had no place for Christ, only for pre-Christian gods and an animated nature.

One of those was Geertruida (Truus) Meuleman, who lived on the same street as Peaux and was the daughter of the rector of the local gymnasium.

He spoke positively of her imagery and the lyrical quality of her poems, which he said come from an electric spark which only momentarily shows itself but is always palpable.

[1] In 1929, on the occasion of her 70th birthday, poet J. C. Bloem wrote an appraisal of her work, the best of which, he said, had a "curious, wild grandiosity" that he appreciated and that, he said, is rarely found among women.

[1][8] But after 1930 life became more difficult for Peaux as her physical and mental health began to suffer, though her friend Truus Meuleman continued to support her.