Herman Teirlinck

Belgian journalist, professor of Dutch letters, writer, playwright and poet.

He was the fifth and only son of the writer and teacher Isidoor Teirlinck (2 January 1851, Zegelsem – 27 June 1934, Vorst (Brussel) and Oda Josephina van Nieuwenhove, a teacher. As a child, he had frail health and spent much of his time at the countryside in Zegelsem (East Flanders), with his paternal grandparents.

He studied at the universities of Brussels and Ghent, but left them very soon. From 1902 to 1906 he worked for the Brussels city government.

As a journalist, he worked for newspapers and magazines. Teirlinck also wrote for the journal Van Nu en Straks. He was some time teacher in high school. He was also appointed as teacher of Dutch language at the Royal Court of Belgium. Later he became private councillor for several kings of Belgium. In 1946 he founded a national drama school, the Studio of the National Theatre. In 1966 it was renamed the "Hoger Instituut voor Dramatische Kunst" (Higher Institute of Dramatic Art). In 1967 it was renamed again as "The Studio Herman Teirlinck".

He received the Belgian National Award for theatre (1925 and 1928), the Belgian National Award for his entire oeuvre (1950), and he was the first to receive the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Belgium and the Netherlands) in 1956. Four times, he became doctor honoris causa, viz. to the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (1938), University of Amsterdam (1947), University of Liège (1954) and University of Ghent (1959), which is unique in the history of Flemish literature. His house in Beersel became a museum. It closed 2013.

He died 4 February 1967 in Beersel-Lot.