In the spotlight: Virginie Lovelings' war diary

1 December 2023 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Virginie Loveling (1936-1923), one of Flanders' greatest writers, at the age of 87.

In 2023, the manuscript of Loveling's war diary, a masterpiece of the Book Tower's collection, was digitised by meemoo, Flemish Institute for Archives. On the symbolic date of 1 December, the war diary was 'held up to the light'. A historian, a journalist, a former head librarian who published Loveling and about four performing artists gave voice to the writer who died 100 years ago.

Loveling's ties to Ghent University were multiple. Through family relationships and literary contacts, she knew many professors, such as the historian Paul Fredericq, the biologist Julius Mac Leod and the philosopher François Huet. She witnessed at first hand during the war how the university transformed into a bastion of activism and Germanism, and wrote about it in the diary she kept secretly throughout the war. She finally had the university library enshrined in her will as a patron of her literary heritage: letters, manuscripts, diaries, iconographic pieces, it all ended up in the collection.

Klara host Heleen Debruyne steered the memorial evening in the right direction. Loveling herself was present in the voice of Linda Jacobs, who read from her work, in the drawing pen of Emilie Lauwers, who provided live animation, and in the musical duo Jan Debel and Laura Bodyn who performed her poetry. Sylvia Van Peteghem recounted the path Loveling's manuscript had taken, from its donation by Maurits Basse to the publication of In Need of War (1999, 2005 and 2013) and the digitisation of the war diaries in 2023. From the past it then moved to the present, first by Antoon Vrints (UGent) who placed the diaries in the broader social history of World War I and then by Helena Cazaerck, who went to Ukraine as a journalist one hundred years after Loveling to investigate what war does to a person.

Watch a first clip from the evening here:

On this occasion, the war diary was also physically taken out of storage and presented, along with other objects and manuscripts recalling Virginie Loveling.

With a collection presentation and themed evening, Book Tower brought Loveling's work back to memory. Visitors could view Loveling's legacy: with photographic material, family archives, pieces surrounding the 1912 tribute celebration, letters from Cyriel Buysse and others, and documents relating to the war she portrayed in her diary, the First World War as it happened in Ghent. The iconic Lovelings painting by Willem Geets, a loan from the Letterenhuis, greeted each visitor as they entered.