Wisse Alfred Pierre Smit (6 December 1903, in

Heumen Heumen () is a municipality and a village in the eastern Netherlands. Population centres *Heumen * Malden (administrative centre) *Molenhoek (partly) *Nederasselt *Overasselt Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Heumen, J ...

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

– 20 June 1986) was a poet and an influential Dutch literary historian. He was a specialist in

Dutch literature Dutch language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, Be ...

of the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

(17th century). W.A.P. Smit worked as a teacher for 17 years, before he accepted a professorship in Dutch literature at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1945. He published various works of poetry and editions of a number of 16th and 17th century Dutch poets. He gained academic renown with a number of studies on various aspects of 17th century Dutch literature. Through his publications and his guidance to doctoral students, he had a considerable influence on the development of Dutch literary history in the 20th century. In 1958 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Biography W.A.P. Smit
1903 births 1986 deaths People from Heumen Dutch male poets Dutch literary historians Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Academic staff of Utrecht University 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century Dutch historians {{Netherlands-academic-bio-stub