Jan Nolet de Brauwere van Steeland

Jan Nolet De Brauwere van Steeland was a Belgian-Dutch writer. He did his secondary studies in Doornik and Bruges. Later he studied law at the State University in Ghent. He was a friend of Jan Frans Willems (1832-1838). He prolonged his studies at the Catholic University in Leuven with canon Jan Baptist David. He wrote several epic poems and contributions to various magazines. He also was a member of the Brussels Linguistic and Literary Association, chairman of the Linguistic Union and a member of the Royal Flemish Academy for Linguistics and Literature. He championed the preservation of the Dutch language and never gave up his Dutch nationality. He was a fervent antagonist of linguistic particularism and the frenchification in Flanders. In polemic writings he fulminated against West-Flemish linguistic particularism.