Nicolaas Petrus van Wyk Louw (11 June 1906 in Sutherland,

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

– 18 June 1970 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

), almost universally known as N.P. van Wyk Louw, was an

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-language poet, playwright and scholar. He was the older brother of Afrikaans-language poet W.E.G. Louw. One of the Dertigers, or "Writers of the Thirties," N.P. van Wyk Louw produced among his most famous works his debut 1935 volume of poems, ''Alleenspraak'' ("Monologue"), the 1937 poetry collection ''Die halwe kring'' ("The Semicircle"), the verse epic ''Raka'', and the 1956 tragedy ''Germanicus''.Lindenberg, E., et al. "Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse Letterkunde". Pretoria and Cape Town: Fifth edition, 1980. N.P. van Wyk Louw is quoted on the

Afrikaans Language Monument The Afrikaans Language Monument ( af, Afrikaanse Taalmonument) is located on a hill overlooking Paarl, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the semicentenary of Afrikaans being declared an ...

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

; in his quote, he views Afrikaans as a bridge that connects Europe with Africa. The South African composer

Cromwell Everson Cromwell Everson (28 September 1925 – 11 June 1991) was primarily known as a composer during his lifetime. He was brought up as an Afrikaner by his mother, Maria De Wit and father, Robert Everson. He continued this tradition and all his childr ...

composed a song cycle, "Vier Liefdesliedjies" ("Four little love songs") that used three of Louw's poems: "Nagliedje", "Net altyd jy" and "Dennebosse" (respectively, "Little night song", "Only always you" and "Pine forest"). A collection of the correspondence between N.P. van Wyk and his brother W.E.G. Louw was published by Hemel & See Boeke in 2011 under the title "Briewe van W.E.G. en N.P. van Wyk Louw 1941-1970".

Life

The second of four brothers, N.P. van Wyk Louw moved to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

at the age of 14. He earned a master's degree in German at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, where he later taught. He received an honorary degree from the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1948 and was a professor of Afrikaans at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

from 1949 to 1958. He finished his academic career at the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

as head of the Dutch/Afrikaans department.

Criticism

D.J. Opperman (Senior Verseboek, Nationale Pers 1962), one of the notable Afrikaner poets of the first half of the twentieth century, was in no doubt that van Wyk Louw was the greatest Afrikaner poet of the period.

References

External links

Picture and brief biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Wyk Louw, Nicolaas Petrus 1906 births 1970 deaths People from Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent South African poets Afrikaans-language poets University of Cape Town alumni Hertzog Prize winners for drama Hertzog Prize winners for poetry Hertzog Prize winners for prose 20th-century poets Alumni of South African College Schools