Angèle Manteau dies at 97

(The French version of the obituary which was published in the Frenchspeaking Belgian newspaper Le soir. The Dutch obituary was published in De Morgen and De Standaard.)

Last sunday Angèle Manteau (1911-2008) died at Alost (near Brussels) at the age of 97. For more than half a century Manteau was a defining figure amongst Belgian and Dutchspeaking publishers.

Angèle Manteau has been one of the most important literary publishers of the twentieth century in Belgium. During the time she headed the publishing company that she herself established and gave her name to (from 1938 until the end of 1970), Manteau published books of famous Flemish authors such as Herman Teirlinck, Louis Paul Boon and Hugo Claus. In addition to that she released translations of works by Françoise Sagan, Curzio Malaparte, Jean Cocteau and others.