POTTER United Families

As a child, he loved the unspoilt nature of the Leie-Lys river and
villages Sint-Martens-Latem and Deurle, and this was expressed in
his earliest romantic poetry. He was rather introverted, avoided
contacts and had few friends. He was always simple, humble, hostile
to extreme accolades, spontaneous, ... in short he was an "own-kind"
and original personality.
Writing was his goal, already at an early age. He had already made a
first contribution in the "Gazette of Ghent" when only 14, and he
immediately attracted the attention of renowned writers such as Rens,
Snellaert and Prudens van Duyse who have further influenced him.
Their encouragement made him come in the spotlight with the
writing of poems, songs, novels and studies. As a result, he then won
many medals and awards.
When only twenty years old, he wrote a concise history of "Dutch
Literature", a work crowned by the Antwerp "Nederduitsch
Taelverbond". There, he even started dreaming of being able to
acquire a place in this history himself.
His song "The Blue Kiel" from 1853 was widely known and was sung
along. This last song on the melody of "Do You Remember?", Was
about a boy who says goodbye to his youth and proudly learns how
to wear his workers' keel.
It was the time of the countryside competitions, but also the time for
the enthusiasm for a reborn Dutch language. Soon our Frans would
become a literary “young potential” of Flanders.
Following the example of (Louis de Potter’s) publisher Baron Saint-
Genois, Frans came to the actual historiography through historical
novels. He never, however, denied this literary genre, even when
writing novels. In addition to novels such as "Walter de Gek", "The
Last Friend" and "Robert of Valois", he also wrote novels, poems
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