Gerard Walschap

As a writer he started his literary career with romantic poetry and Catholicism inspired theatre plays.

This adverse reaction, which was not intended by Walschap, hurt him and after a long inner struggle and doubt he abandoned his faith and became a secular humanist.

In part of his work he considered society a burden which is hard to bear, such as in De bejegening van Christus (E: Meeting with Christ) (1940).

In his work he also glorified the extremes of society, such as the primitive life in Volk (E: people) and De dood in het dorp (E: Death in the village) (1930), and the almost aggressive freedom in Het kind (E: The child) (1939) and De consul (1943) and the expression of worriless freedom in probably his most famous work Houtekiet (1939).

He received several literary prizes, among which in 1968 was the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, and in 1975 he was knighted and made a Baron.