Belgian · 1862–1949
Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 for his dramatic works. The Belgian playwright's "Pelléas et Mélisande" became an opera by Debussy; "The Blue Bird" became a children's classic. Maeterlinck wrote about death, fate, and the mysteries just beyond human perception. His Symbolist plays rejected realism for suggestion and atmosphere. He also wrote about bees and flowers—natural history as philosophy.