Leopold Maximiliaan Felix Timmermans was born on July 5, 1886, and died on January 24, 1947. He was a writer from Flanders whose books have been translated into many languages. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.

Life

Timmermans was born in Lier, Belgium, as the thirteenth of fourteen children. He lived in Lier his entire life and died there at the age of 60. He was self-taught and wrote plays, historical novels, religious works, and poems. His most famous book is Pallieter (1916). He also used the pen name Polleke van Mher.

Timmermans was also a painter and drawer, in addition to being an author.

During the early years of World War II, Timmermans was the editor of Volk, a Flemish nationalist newspaper. He also attended meetings of the Europäische Schriftsteller-Vereinigung (European Writers' League), an organization started by Joseph Goebbels. Because of these activities and because he received the Rembrandt Prize in 1942 from the University of Hamburg, many people viewed him as a collaborator. This perception may have contributed to health issues and his early death.