Born in the Belgian city of Ghent, Maurice Maeterlinck was showered with honours during his lifetime. It was on 9 November 1911 that the Swedish Academy announced it was awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature that year to the Belgian author. And 100 years later, in 2011, he is still the only Belgian writer to have received this much-coveted award.

News of the honour bestowed upon Maeterlinck soon travelled all around the world, thanks to the international reputation he had enjoyed for so long. By then his work had been translated into 10 different languages hence his literary reputation was firmly established. Representing the first steps to a major breakthrough for many authors, the Nobel Prize was more the acknowledgement of an international presence in Maeterlinck's case.

Maeterlinck continues to be a celebrated master of literature not only in the French-speaking world but also in the Anglo-Saxon sphere of influence, Russia, Central Europe and Japan. Two low-key initiatives were taken in Ghent with a view to keeping his memory alive: the "Maurice Maeterlinck Foundation", a private association, was set up in the 1950s, dedicated to ensuring his reputation lives on. At the instigation of the city administration, a project developed in cooperation with the Foundation resulted, in 1976, in the launch of the Maeterlinck Room, in commemoration of the Ghent Nobel prize-winner.

His remarkable friendship with one of the leading Dutch-speaking writers, Cyril Buysse, is another sign of the importance Maeterlinck attached to the language and culture of his country of origin. His work is therefore part and parcel of our literary heritage.

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