Gerrit Achterberg
Gerrit Achterberg ( born May 20, 1905 in Nederlangbroek; † January 17, 1962 in Leusden ) was a Dutch poet.
Life
He was born as the third son of the coachman Hendrik Achterberg and his wife Pietje van de Meent 1905 in Langbroek. He and his eight siblings were strictly Protestant upbringing. From 1924 he worked as a teacher, but was more interested in poetry and literature. In the same year his first collection of poems De pliers van twee twin tigers appeared as private pressure, which he later called " youthful indiscretion " rejected. He also met his future wife Johanna Catharina van Baak know, but whose father forbade a relationship and so he lost it at first sight. Due to mental weakness, he was exempted from military service in 1927.
His poems initially published in various journals until 1931 his first volume of poetry " Afvaart " ( German: departure) appeared. A failed relationship brought him into a deep existential crisis. He got - even for bad sales figures - doubts about the quality of his poems and landed for the first time in a psychiatric hospital. After his release, he worked as an official third class in Utrecht. When he shot down his landlady in 1937, with whom he had an affair, he came in, " voor Rijksasyl psychopaths " under arrest. But even there, he was more active as a writer and introduced in 1939 the poetry collection " island of the target " (Island of the soul) ready.
In 1943 he was released, his former girlfriend Cathrien van Baak met again and eventually married her in 1946. Having rediscovered his childhood sweetheart, broke at a time highest creative creativity. Thus appeared alone in 1946 no less than six new books of poetry. His work has been awarded several times what his damaged self-confidence helped. In 1955, he was but again, this time for good, committed to a psychiatric facility.
For his life's work he received the 1959 Constantijn Huygens price. Most recently he worked on the publication of his collected works that should appear on his 60th birthday. There was not realized anymore: a heart attack did not survive the 56- year-old.