William Ewart Gladstone van Wyk Louw, who published (and is almost universally known) as W.E.G. Louw, (May 31, 1913 in Sutherland, formerly Cape Province, now Northern Cape Province in South Africa – April 24, 1980 in Stellenbosch, Western Cape Province, South Africa) was an Afrikaans-language poet. He is the younger brother of the poet N.P. van Wyk Louw.
His 1934 collection die ryke dwaas ("The rich fool") is perhaps seen as the start of the Dertigers movement within Afrikaans literature.1
The South African composer Cromwell Everson composed a song cycle, "Vier Liefdesliedjies", that used one of Louw's poems: "Nooit Nog".
1Lindenberg, E., et al. "Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse Letterkunde". Pretoria and Cape Town: Fifth edition, 1980.
Picture and brief biography