Roger van de Velde was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 writer. He was a son of Jan Frans van de Velde (wine merchant) and Maria Callaer. In 1947, he married with Rosa Verboven.
He worked as a journalist for the Nieuwe Gazet and also published in Arsenaal en Nieuw Gewas.

Writing Life

Van de velde began his career as a journalist and literary writer (initially writing radio plays). In terms of literary prominence it was events outside his writing that ironically lead to some of his best writing.

In his semi-autobiographical books Galgenaas (Gallows Bird) and Recht Op Antwoord (A Right To An Answer) he chronicled his experiences of the justice system, prisons and the psychiatric institutions where he had been placed. These incarcerations were the result of an addiction to the painkilling drug palfium (Dextromoramide

Dextromoramide

Dextromoramide is a powerful opioid analgesic approximately three times more potent than morphine but shorter acting. It is subject to drug prohibition regimes, both internationally through UN treaties, and by the criminal law of individual states...

) prescribed after undergoing several stomach operations. All of his books were written during this decade, up to his death in 1970.

Source

• Roger van de Velde
• G.J. van Bork en P.J. Verkruijsse, De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs (1985)