- 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.
- In 1923, he became secretary at the weekly magazine Het Vlaamsche land (E: Flemish country).
- As a writer he started his literary career with romantic poetry and Catholicism inspired theatre plays.
- As a writer he reveals his own inner self in Het gastmaal (1966) en Het avondmaal (E: Dinner) (1968), by using a modernistic writing style.
- Flemish writer Tom Lanoye (1958) had resounding success with Celibaat, a play based on the novel with the same title by Gerard Walschap. Lanoye sees Walschap's book as a metaphor for Flanders, and the Dutch and Flemish response to Theater Teater's production has proved him right in his belief that Walschap's work is still valid and applicable today.
- Walschap became the Godfather of a generation of writers opposing the Catholic Church, such as Louis Paul Boon, Marnix Gijsen and Hugo Claus.
- In 1935, he narrowly escapes death, as he becomes a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning in the bathroom, but he is saved by his wife.
- He received several literary prizes, among which in 1968, the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren,.
- His inner struggle (with faith), would remain of significant importance in his literary work.
- His style is concise and tight and he himself explicitly characterized it as the counterpart to the styles of Timmermans and Streuvels.
- In his work he also glorifies the extremes of society, such as the primitive life in Volk (E: people) and De dood in het dorp (E: Death in the village) (1930), and the almost aggressive freedom in Het kind (E: The child) (1939) and De consul (1943) and the expression of worriless freedom in probably his most famous work Houtekiet (1939).
- His novel Zwart en wit (E: black and white) of 1948, deals with the collaboration (Nazi-Collaborators were called blacks in Belgium, and resistance fighters whites) with Nazism and the repression after World War II.
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