Clercq, René de

Clercq, René de

 

Born Nov. 14, 1877, in Deerlijk; died June 12, 1932, in Bussum, Holland. Belgian writer. Wrote in Flemish.

Clercq’s popular patriotic songs were close in spirit to 17th-century Hessian songs. Social motifs pervade his poetry collections— Poems (1907), Torches (1909), and The Call of the Bugle (1917)—and his novels, which are filled with humor and love for simple folk— Het Rootland (1913), and Harmen Riels (1913). His lyrical love poems (The Book of Love, 1921) are erotic. Clercq’s autobiographical novella On the Earth (1930) has an antireligious and democratic orientation.

REFERENCES

Wijnstroom, J. J. René de Clercq. Bussum, 1938.
Duinkerken, A. Vlamingen. Hasselt [1959].