Willem Elsschot

Alfons De Ridder (Known as "Willem Elsschot")

Master Flemish Satirical Novelist, Author of Kaas, Lijmen / Het Been, and Tschip

Born May 07, 1882

Antwerp, Belgium

Passed Away May 31, 1960 Antwerp, Belgium

Lifespan 78 years old

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Notice / Correction

"Because between dream and deed stand laws in the way, and practical objections, and also melancholy."

Archival Overview

Master of modern Dutch prose whose razor-sharp, satirical novellas Kaas (Cheese) and Lijmen / Het Been created the unforgettable commercial antihero Frans Laarmans and the cynical swindler Boorman.

Biographical Record

Working by day as a successful advertising agency director in Antwerp under his real name Alfons De Ridder, Elsschot maintained a secret literary life under his pseudonym. He revolutionized Dutch literature by stripping prose of all sentimental ornament, deploying dry, caustic irony and devastating psychological brevity.

His tragicomic masterpiece Kaas (1933) chronicled the absurd downfall of a modest clerk tricked into becoming a wholesale cheese merchant with 10,000 Edams. In 1934, he published the poignant lyric poem 'Het Huwelijk' (The Marriage) and received the State Prize for Literature.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Schoonselhof Cemetery
Hoboken (Antwerp), Belgium

                         GPS: 51.1694, 4.3861                    

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