Biography

He became a baron due to the many succesful books he wrote.

He went to highschool at the Klein seminarie in Hoogstraten, and later in Asse. His Flemish awareness was in these days encouraged by the priest and poet Jan Hammenecker. In Leuven, he entered the school for priests of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, but did not finish to be ordained as a priest.

He became widely known with his novel Adelaide, which appeared in 1929, and which was the first of a series of novels. Although initially well-received, the book caused him the rancour of the clergy, and his books were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. This adverse reaction, which was not intended by Walschap, hurt him and after a long inner struggle and doubt he abandoned his faith and became a secular humanist.

In 1925, he married Marie-Antoinette Theunissen (1901-1979) in Maaseik, and a year later their son, Hugo is born. Poet Alice Nahon acts as a nurse and write a poem to the occasion: Aan Hugo's fijne stemmeke (E: To Hugo's fine voice). Hugo Walschap became ambassador of the king of Belgium.

In his book Oproer in Kongo (E: Revolt in Congo) from 1953, he wrote about colonialism, which he conceived after a long journey through Belgian Congo in 1951.