William Ewart Gladstone Louw, the youngest of four brothers, was born on 31 May 1913 at the Karoo village Sutherland, where he spent his childhood. In 1920 the family moved to Oranjezicht in Cape Town, but the Louw children returned for nearly all their school holidays to their grandfather's farm, Gunse fontein, in Sutherland.
W E G Louw's first poems were published in The South African College School Magazine. He matriculated from the South African College School and studied at the University of Cape Town from 1931 -1935. Here he became very active in the Afrikaanse Nasionale Studentebond. He published his first poetry collection, Die rijke dwaas, in1934 (poems he wrote when he was between 16 and 20 years old) and the following year, was awarded South Africa's most prestigious award, the Hertzog Prize (together with Totius and C.L. Leipoldt).
When his seven years older brother Van Wyk disclosed to him, that he, too, had written poetry, but did not want to continue, Gladstone convinced him to persist and he took care of the the publication of Van Wyk Louw's first poetry collection, Alleenspraak. It appeared in 1935. Van Wyk Louw became the most famous poet and literary man of his time. The brothers remained close friends and literary collaborators all their life. They were co-founders of the Vereniging Vir die Vrye Boek which published work of new writers established publishers did not dare to handle.
Gladstone earned his MA with a dissertation on the poetry of the Dutch poet J. H. Leopold in 1935 and continued his studies in Holland at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained a Drs on Dutch Literature. He also read History of Arts as a second subject and visited museums in several European countries, including Alte Pinakothek in München.
He returned to Cape Town in November 1938. Here he obtained a D Litt with a dissertation on the influence of Gorter on Leopold (Die Invloed van Gorter op Leopold).
W E G Louw was married to the composer Rosa Nepgen in 1944. She set many of his poems to music as did other composers.
In 1945 Gladstone founded, together with his brother N. P. van Wyk Louw and H. A. Mulder, the independent magazine Standpunte .
His first academic position was as professor for Afrikaans and Dutch at the Rhodes University in Grahams Town.
In 1957 he accepted the post as Arts Editor at Die Burger, and remained there until the end of 1966.
From 1967 he served as professor of Dutch Literature at the University of Stellenbosch until his retirement in 1978. He was director of Historical Houses Ltd and adviser to the Nuwe Afrikaanse Bybelvertaling (bible translation).
W. E. G. Louw died on 24 April 1980 at his smallholding, Sondraai, near Stellenbosch.

Louw se hele persoonlikheid het hom in die wieg gelê vir die literêr-historiese rol wat hy as digter, as stigterslid en redakteur van Standpunte, as kunsredakteur van Die Burger en as professor in Afrikaans en Nederlands te Grahamstad en Stellenbosch sou speel. Hy was iemand van onbesproke smaak, sensitief en geëmosioneerd in die tradisie van die romantiese digters by wie hy aansluiting gevind het, hoogs gekultiveerd in sy sosiale omgang en driftig toegewyd aan sy verhewe ideale vir Afrikaans.
E.C. Britz

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