Life 

Willem Elsschot was a Belgian writer and he was born in Antwerp in a baker's family. When he was young he loved literature. He was always restless, having various types of jobs in cities from Antwerp and Brussels to Rotterdam and Paris.  

Willem Elsschot served as the secretary of a national food relief committee in Antwerp during The First World War. When the war ended he started his own advertising agency. 

He died in Antwerp on 31 May 1960, receiving a national literary award posthumously. He is burried in the Antwerpen Schoonselhof. 

 

Literary career 

Willem Elsschot was an writer but he was also a poet. He wrote everything in Dutch.  His writing became very popular.