Gerrit Achterberg
Gerrit Achterberg (20 May 1905 – 17 January 1962) was a Dutch poet. His early poetry concerned a desire to be united with a beloved in death.
Achterberg was born in
English
: The Songs of Two Twenty-Somethings).
Meanwhile, Achterberg became more withdrawn and introverted. After he was turned down by the military due to "sickness of the soul", he threatened to kill himself.
Achterberg's literary career began to take off when
psychiatric institution
several times. His mental instability caused occasional violent outbursts.
These eruptions of violence escalated in 1937. At that time, Achterberg was living in
Utrecht and was again engaged to be married. On 15 December 1937 he tried to force himself on Bep van Es, the 16-year-old daughter of his landlady. When the latter tried to stop him, he shot and killed her, and wounded her daughter. After the shooting, he turned himself in and was sentenced to involuntary commitment
. He was committed until 1943. During this commitment and the period following (between 1939 and 1953), he published 22 collections of poetry.
In 1946 he married his childhood friend Cathrien van Baak, with whom he lived in heart attack in 1962.[1]
In 1959, Achterberg received the Constantijn Huygens Prize for his entire body of work.
Achterberg's most famous work is the
J.M. Coetzee included this sonnet sequence in an anthology of his English translations of Dutch poetry entitled Landscape with Rowers (2004).[2] Earlier in his career, Coetzee also wrote an essay on this sonnet sequence, titled: 'Achterberg's "Ballade van de gasfitter": The Mystery of I and You' (1977),[3]
See also
- Margriet Ehlen - Dutch composer who has set some of Achterberg's poetry to music
References
- ^ Roy Temple House (1963). Books Abroad. University of Oklahoma. p. 163.
- ISBN 978-0-691-12385-1.
- ^ in which he discusses the shifting point of view in relation the main character of the poem. The essay is included in: J.M. Coetzee, Doubling the Point, Harvard University Press 1992, p.69-90.
External links
Media related to Gerrit Achterberg at Wikimedia Commons
- Dutch Royal Library - Detailed Biography and Bibliography in Dutch
- File Gerrit Achterberg in the Digital Library of Dutch Literature (DBNL) (including bibliography, primary and secondary texts)
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