Career
Gorter"s first book, a 4,000 verse epic poem called Mei (May), sealed his reputation as a great writer upon its publication in 1889, and is regarded as the pinnacle of Dutch Impressionist literature. Gorter rapidly followed this up with a book of short lyric poetry simply called Verzen (Verses) in 1890, which, after initial bad reviews, was equally hailed as a masterpiece. He joined the Social Democratic Labour Party (Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij or SDAP) in 1897.
In 1909 he participated in a schism from the SDAP to form the Social-Democratic Party (Sociaal-Democratische Partij) of the Netherlands.
In 1917, he hailed the Russian Revolution as the beginning of that global revolution, although he soon afterward came to oppose Vladimir Lenin. In 1918 the Social-Democratic Party changed its name to the Communist Party of Holland (Communistische Partij Holland), and in 1919 Gorter left the party.
Gorter died in Brussels in 1927. Gorter was involved with the Significs group.
