1965 J. K.

Rowling, Writer
England/UK Rowling first thought of Harry while riding a train back in
More 1990. "Harry just strolled into my head fully formed." She
worked on the book for several years, finding quiet...

1965 Nikki Schreiber

Dramatists Nikki Schreiber is a full-time writer who has lived and worked
More in a number of different countries. She is based in Edinburgh
where her children go to the Steiner School....

1958 Roddy Doyle, Irish novelist

Dramatists Roddy Doyle, Irish novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.
More Born in Dublin, Ireland. Doyle's work is rooted in his
experience as a schoolteacher in working-class Dublin. I...

1956 Anthony Gottlieb, Writer

England/UK Anthony Gottlieb is Executive Editor of The Economist and a
More former departmental fellow in philosophy at Birkbeck College,
London University. He studied philosophy at Cam...

1952 Orhan Pamuk, Turkish Novelist

Literature Ferit Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist.
More Pamuk is closely associated with post-modern literature. His
long-standing popularity in his home country was...

1952 - 2001 Douglas Adams, Writer

Adams Douglas Adams was the creator of all the various
More manifestations of The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxywhich
started life as a BBC Radio 4 series. Since its first airing...

1948 Alexander McCall Smith

Scientists Over the past twenty years, Smith has written more than fifty
More books, including specialist academic titles, short story
collections, and a number of immensely popular chil...

1947 Stephen King, Writer

Literature Stephen King is a popular American author of horror stories
More and one of the best-selling writers worldwide. His work bears
the mark of the 19th century Gothic tradition, o...

1941 - 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian Author

Activists Ken Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian author, journalist,
More government official and political organizer who was brutally
executed by the Nigerian dictatorship in response to a very...

1932 Umberto Eco

Italy Back in the 1970s, long before the cyberpunk era or the
More Internet boom, an Italian academic was dissecting the
elements of codes, information exchange and mass
communicati...

1931 Toni Morrison

1970s Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), is a Nobel
More Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her
novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, a...

1929 - 1945 Anne Frank

1940s On 12 June, 1942, Anne Frank received a diary from her
More parents as a 13th birthday present. She called it Kitty and as
she started to document her innermost feelings and t...
 1928 Robert Maynard Pirsig, Writer
Literature Robert Maynard Pirsig is the author of the cult classic, Zen
More and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In the early Sixties,
following a slow dance through hell with depres...

1925 Gore Vidal, Writer

Dramatists Gore Vidal is a novelist, essayist, playwright, and
More provocateur whose career has spanned six decades,
beginning in the years immediately following World War II
and contin...

1925 - 1998 Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan Teachings

Brazil Carlos Castaneda was an author of a series of books that
More claimed to describe his training in traditional Native American
shamanism, which he referred to as a form of "sor...
1924 - 1987 James Baldwin, Writer
African American Baldwin was a groundbreaking African-American author
More known for his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain. He dealt with
social taboos such as racism and homosexuality at a tim...

1921 - 1996 George Mackay Brown, Bard of Orkney

Dramatists George Mackay Brown was a Scottish poet, author and
More dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character.
Born in Stromness in the Orkney Islands, Mackay Brown is
co...

1918 - 2008 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Writer

Dramatists Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist,
More dramatist and historian. Through his writings, he made the
world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's labour ca...

1917 - 1993 Anthony Burgess

Dramatists Anthony Burgess was an English novelist and critic. He was
More also active as a composer, librettist, poet, playwright,
screenwriter, journalist, essayist, travel writer, bro...

1916 - 1990 Roald Dahl, Writer

Novelists Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer and
More screenwriter, born in Wales of Norwegian parents, who rose
to prominence in the 1940s with works for both childr...

1915 - 2005 Arthur Miller, Playwright

Dramatists In the period immediately following the end of World War II,
More American theater was transformed by the work of playwright
Arthur Miller. Profoundly influenced by the Depres...

1914 - 1943 Etty Hillesum, the girl that learned to kneel

1940s Like Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew living in
More Amsterdam. She died in Auschwitz in 1943, at the age of 29.
She began a diary nine months after Hitler invaded t...

1912 - 1990 Lawrence Durrell

Who Lawrence Durrell was born in India in 1912. His books include
More The Alexandria Quartet, Bitter Lemons, Reflections on a
Marine Venus and The Dark Labyrinth. He died...

1912 - 1992 John Cage, American Composer

Artists John Milton Cage was an American experimental music
More composer, writer and visual artist. He is most widely known
for his 1952 composition 4'33", whose three movements are...
1909 - 1955 James Agee, Writer
Poets James Agee (1909) Agee was an American novelist,
More screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic who worked for
Fortune, Time, and The Nation. His first major book, Let...

1909 - 1964 Ian Fleming, Creator of James Bond

1950s Fleming is the creator of the fictional superspy James Bond.
More Bond is a suave, lady-killing British agent who travels the
globe, battles super-villains bent on world domin...

1908 - 1986 Simone de Beauvoir

Philosophers Born and educated in Paris, Simone de Beauvoir was among
More the first women permitted to complete a program of study at
the École Normale Supérieure. Through her lifelong fr...

1907 - 1964 Rachel Carson

Biology Author of Silent Spring (1962), Under the Sea-Wind (1941),
More The Sea Around Us (1952), The Edge of the Sea (1955).
Rachel Louise Carson was a writer, scientist, and ecologi...

1906 - 1995 Samuel Beckett Timeline

Beckett In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett's playwriting continued with
More a series of masterpieces, including Endgame, Krapp's Last
Tape, and Happy Days. He involved himself in variou...

1903 - 1950 George Orwell

England/UK English novelist, essayist and critic, famous for his political
More satires ANIMAL FARM (1945), an anti-Soviet tale, and
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1949), which shows that the
des...
1900 - 1944 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Pilots French aviator and writer, real life hero who looked at
More adventure and danger with poet's eyes - sometimes from the
viewpoint of a child. Saint-Exupéry's most famous work...

1900 - 1949 Mitchell, Wrote Gone with the Wind

1900s Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was the American author who
More won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her immensely successful
novel, Gone with the Wind, that was published in 1936....

1899 - 1961 Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway Bigger than life. A complicated icon. He was an American
More voice in America's century: bold, exuberant, blustery. He
honed his craft at The Kansas City Star. Then he went...

1898 - 1936 J. Slauerhoff, Poet

Poets Jan Jacob Slauerhoff was a Dutch poet and novelist. He is
More considered one of the most important Dutch language writers.
Slauerhoff attended HBS(secondary school) in Harlin...

1898 - 1945 Anton de Kom, Surinamese Activist

Activists Cornelis Gerard Anton de Kom was a Surinamese resistance
More fighter and anti-colonialist author. On May 10, De Kom was
sent to The Netherlands without trial and exiled fr...

1898 - 1956 Bertolt Brecht, Poet

Dramatists Bertolt Brecht, German poet, playwright, and theatrical
More reformer, one of the most prominent figures in the 20th-
century theatre. In his works Brecht have been concerned w...
 1898 - 1963 C. S. Lewis, Writer
England/UK Clive Staples "Jack" Lewis, commonly referred to as C. S.
More Lewis, was a British writer and scholar. Lewis's works are
diverse and include medieval literature, Christian ap...

1894 - 1963 Aldous Huxley, Writer

1940s Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer who emigrated
More to the United States, living in Los Angeles until his death in
1963. He was a member of the famous Huxley family...

1892 - 1973 J.R.R. Tolkien, Writer

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd January,
More 1892 at Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State. In 1920
Tolkien was appointed Reader in English Language at the
Univ...

1890 - 1976 Agatha Christie, Mystery Author

1920s From the 1920s until the 1970s Agatha Christie was the
More world's most popular mystery author, reportedly selling more
than one billion books worldwide. While other mystery...

1889 - 1981 Abel Gance, French Film Director

Actors Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer
More and actor. He is best known for three major silent films:
J'accuse, La Roue, and the monumental Napoléon. He...

1888 - 1935 T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia

Soldiers Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO,
More known professionally as T.E. Lawrence and, later, T.E. Shaw,
but most famously as "Lawrence of Arabia," gained interna...

1888 - 1965 T. S. Eliot

Dramatists American-English poet T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot was born
More on September 26, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. A leader of the
modernist movement in poetry, he is most famous...

1883 - 1924 Franz Kafka

Austria Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria),
More has come to be one of the most influential writers of this
century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, th...

1882 - 1941 James Joyce

Computer/ICT James Joyce is at once Dublin's most local and most
More international writer. In his novels the city gains a universal
identity like Homer's Mediterranean or Biblical Jerusal...

1882 - 1941 Virginia Woolf

Activists Virginia Woolf, British novelist, also distinguished feminist
More essayist, critic, and a central figure of the Bloomsbury group.
During the inter-war period Woolf was at...

1882 - 1944 Hendrik Willem van Loon

Literature Hendrik Willem van Loon, a Dutch-American author and
More illustrator, was the first winner of the Newbery Medal for The
Story of Mankind. He was beloved by the public during...

1879 - 1940 Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary

Communists Became a revolutionary in 1896. Later worked with Lenin on
More Iskra in 1902. He broke with Lenin the next year over the
 nature of the revolutionary party and aligned himself...

1878 - 1967 Carl Sandburg

Poets American poet, historian, and novelist Carl Sandburg was
More born in Galesburg, Illinois, the second of seven children.
Before discovering his true calling, Sandburg worked a...

1875 - 1932 Edgar Wallace, Writer

England/UK Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was a prolific British crime
More writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24
plays, and countless articles in newspapers and jou...

1875 - 1940 John Buchan, Writer

Canada John Buchan is most famous for The Thirty-Nine Steps and
More Greenmantle, and his thrillers and short stories are all in print
today. The list of his published books is well...

1875 - 1950 Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan - 1912

1910s Edgar Rice Burroughs is best remembered as the creator of
More the world famous character of Tarzan, one of the
indispensable icons of popular culture. Burroughs also
publishe...

1875 - 1955 Thomas Mann

Germany Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, social critic,
More philanthropist and essayist, lauded principally for a series of
highly symbolic and often ironic epic novels and mi...

1874 - 1925 Amy Lowell, Poet

Poets Although she never attended college because her family did
More not consider it proper for a woman to pursue a higher
education, Amy Lowell would go on to become a critically...

1874 - 1963 Robert Frost

Poets American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) is perhaps best
More known for his poem "The Road Not Taken," published in 1916
in Mountain Interval, a collection of his early poetry....

1871 - 1922 Marcel Proust

1900s Marcel-Valentin-Louis-Eugène-Georges Proust was a French
More intellectual, novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the
author of In Search of Lost Time (in French À la r...

1868 - 1926 Gertrude Bell, Uncrowned Queen of Iraq

Explorers Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was a British writer, traveler,
More political analyst, and administrator in Arabia. She was
 awarded the Order of the British Empire. Bell and...

1868 - 1963 Du Bois, Civil Rights Leader

Poets W.E.B. Du Bois was an early African-American civil rights
More leader and scholar and the first non-white person to receive a
doctorate from Harvard University. He was an outs...

1866 - 1943 Beatrix Potter, Author of Peter Rabbit

Conservation Beatrix Potter was the author and illustrator of a popular
More series of children's books that includes The Tale of Peter
Rabbit (1902), The Tailor of Gloucester (1903) and T...

1866 - 1946 H. G. Wells, Father of Science Fiction

England/UK Herbert George Wells was an English writer best known for
More such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of
the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doc...
1865 - 1936 Rudyard Kipling
Poets Rudyard Kipling, (1865-1936), English short-story writer,
More novelist and poet, remembered for his celebration of British
imperialism and heroism in India and Burma. Kipling...

1865 - 1939 William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet

Dramatists William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and
More civil servant. Yeats was one of the driving forces behind the
Irish Literary Revival and was co-founder of t...

1865 - 1945 Arthur Symons

Poets British poet, critic and magazine editor Arthur Symons was
More born in Wales, but spent much of his adulthood and academic
years in France and Italy. In addition to many coll...

1863 - 1923 Louis Couperus

Poets Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet of
More the late 19th and early 20th Century. He is usually considered
one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature....

1861 - 1925 Rudolf Steiner, Founder Anthroposophy

Dramatists Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar,
More architect, playwright, educator, and social thinker. He is the
founder of anthroposophy, "a movement based o...

1860 - 1904 Anton Chekhov, Russian Playwright

Dramatists Anton Chekhov wrote both plays and short stories. He is
More generally listed in the first rank of Russian playwrights and in
the high second rank (a notch below Pushkin and T...
1860 - 1937 J. M. Barrie, Creator of Peter Pan
Dramatists Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, more commonly
More known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and dramatist.
He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the b...

1859 - 1930 Doyle, Creator of Sherlock Holmes

1900s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British author and creator of Sherlock
More Holmes, born in Edinburgh. Educated at the Royal Infirmary in
Edinburgh, he received a medical degree in 18...

1858 - 1940 Selma Lagerlöf, The Adventures of Nils

Novelists Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and the first woman
More writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Known
internationally for Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom
Sveri...

1857 - 1941 Baden-Powell, Founder Scouting - 1907

Soldiers Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-
More Powell OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, also known as B-P, was a
Lieutenant-General in the British Army, writer, and founder
of...

1856 - 1950 George Bernard Shaw, Irish Playwright

Dramatists George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic. He
More revolutionized the Victorian stage, then dominated by artificial
melodramas, by presenting vigorous dramas of ideas....

1854 - 1900 Oscar Wilde

Dramatists Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and dramatist whose reputation rests
More on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Among Wild...

1853 - 1895 José Martí, Leader Cuban Independence

Poets José Julián Martí Pérez was a leader of the Cuban
More independence movement as well as a renowned poet and
writer. Active in the Cuban independence movement from
boyhood, he...

1850 - 1893 Guy de Maupassant

Dramatists Guy de Maupassant, French novelist and short-story writer, of
More an ancient Norman family. He worked in a government office
at Paris and became known c.1880 as the most bril...

1850 - 1894 Stevenson, Writer of Jekyll and Hyde

1880s Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh’s New Town
More in 1850. He died 44 years later on a small Samoan island in
the Pacific. During his short life he travelled the wo...
 1847 - 1911 Joseph Pulitzer, Publisher
Journalists Joseph Pulitzer was a Hungarian-American publisher best
More known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and
(along with William Randolph Hearst) for originating y...

1847 - 1912 Bram Stoker

1910s Bram (Abraham) Stoker was born November 8, 1847 in
More Dublin, Ireland. His father was a civil servant and his mother
was a charity worker and writer. Stoker was a sick...

1841 - 1904 Stanley, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Explorers Sir Henry Morton Stanley was a journalist and explorer
More famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David
Livingstone. Stanley travelled to Zanzibar and outfit...

1838 - 1913 John Muir

Environment Writer, conservationist. America's most famous and influential
More conservationist, John Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club
and a major influence on conservation policy...

1837 - 1920 Abraham Kuyper, Dutch Theologian

Journalists Abraham Kuijper generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a
More Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian. He
founded the Anti-Revolutionary Party and was prime min...

1835 - 1910 Mark Twain, Writer of Huckleberry Finn

Industrial Age Mark Twain, pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
More American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and
social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American
literature....

1832 - 1898 Lewis Carroll, Author Alice in Wonderland

Mathematicians The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by
More the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author,
mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and
photographer. H...

1830 - 1886 Emily Dickinson

Poets American poet Emily Dickinson was born on December 10,
More 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts where she would remain
for almost her entire life. As a result of her reclusive ten...

1830 - 1907 Hector Malot, Writer of Sans Famille

1870s Hector Malot, writer of children's stories, whose novel Sans
More famille (Nobody's Boy, 1878) is one of the great popular
classics of French culture. The moral and didactic a...

1828 - 1905 Jules Verne, Pioneer of Science Fiction

1900s Jules Verne, French writer and pioneer of science fiction,
More whose best known works today are Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea(1870) and Around the World in
Eighty D...

1828 - 1906 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian Dramatist

Dramatists Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20,
More 1828, in the little village of Skien. After a brief flirtation with
poetic drama, he would go on to become Norway's...

1828 - 1910 Leo Tolstoy, Russian Writer

Anarchists Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist and philosopher,
More considered one of the world's greatest writers. About 1876
the doubts that had beset Tolstoy since youth, fed by h...
1827 - 1879 De Coster, Writer of Thyl Ulenspiegel
Belgium Charles-Theodore-Henri De Coster was a Belgian novelist
More whose efforts laid the basis for a native Belgian literature. His
masterpiece was The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel a...

1821 - 1867 Charles Baudelaire, Poet

Poets Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet,
More translator, and literary and art critic whose reputation rests
primarily on Les Fleurs du mal; (1857;The Flowers of Evi...

1821 - 1880 Gustave Flaubert

France Gustave Flauber, French novelist. Flaubert is regarded as
More one of the supreme masters of the realistic novel. He was a
scrupulous, slow writer, intent on the exact word (l...

1821 - 1881 Dostoevsky, Writer

1880s The Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born
More in the Hospital for the poor in Moscow on October 30, 1821.
He was to be the second of seven children. The last...

1820 - 1887 Multatuli, Eduard Douwes Dekker

1860s Multatuli is the pseudonym of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-
More 1887). After 18 years of civil service in the Dutch East Indies,
he returned to Europe in 1856 a disillusioned m...

1819 - 1891 Herman Melville, Writer of Moby Dick

Sailors American author, best-known for his novels of the sea and his
More masterpiece MOBY-DICK (1851), a whaling adventure
dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I have written a wicked...

1819 - 1892 Walt Whitman

Poets American poet, journalist, and essayist Walt Whitman was
More born in West Hills, Long Island, New York on May 31, 1819.
Although very controversial when first published in 18...

1819 - 1900 John Ruskin

Poets John Ruskin was an English author, poet and artist, although
More more famous for his work as art critic and social critic.
Ruskin's thinking on art and architecture became th...

1816 - 1855 Charlotte Brontë, and Sisters

Poets The Brontë sisters were left much to themselves, and they
More began to write about an imaginary world they had created.
This escapist writing, transcribed in tiny script on s...

1813 - 1855 Søren Kierkegaard, Father of Existentialism

Philosophers Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a profound and prolific writer
More in the Danish "golden age" of intellectual and artistic activity.
His work crosses the boundaries of philosophy...
1812 - 1870 Charles Dickens
Dickens Dickens' ability to capture the imagination of his audience,
More many of them new to fiction due to a rise in literacy during the
industrial revolution, was due largely to hi...

1812 - 1889 Robert Browning

Poets English poet Robert Browning was born in a suburb of
More London on May 7, 1812. He wrote his first book of poetry at
the age of twelve, and was fluent in four languages by th...

1809 - 1849 Edgar Allan Poe

Poets Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe
More deserves more credit than any other writer for the
transformation of the short story from anecdote to art....

1809 - 1892 Alfred Tennyson, Poet

Poets Alfred Tennyson, English poet often regarded as the chief
More representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson
succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. Alfred...

1806 - 1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Poets Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning published her first
More poem in 1820, at the age of fourteen. In 1826, she published
her first collection of poems, entitled "An Ess...

1805 - 1875 Hans Christian Andersen

1830s Andersen's literary fame grew rapidly from the mid-1830's,
More when his novels enjoyed widespread circulation in Germany.
From 1839 onwards it was the fairy-tales that create...

1803 - 1882 Emerson, Founder Transcendentalism

Poets Philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was founder of
More transcendentalism, Emerson believed in the power of intuition
over scientific reason and in the strength of nature...

1802 - 1870 Alexandre Dumas, French Writer

France Alexandre Dumas was one of the most famous French writers
More of the 19th century. Dumas is best known for historical
adventure novels like The Three Musketeers and The
Count...
1802 - 1885 Victor Hugo
Dramatists Victor-Marie Hugo, novelist, poet, and dramatist, is one of the
More most important of French Romantic writers. Among his best-
known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1831...

1799 - 1850 Honore de Balzac

France Honoré de Balzac, prolific French journalist and author wrote
More La Comédie Humaine (“The Human Comedy”). While Balzac
also had ambitions for life in the theatre and politic...
1797 - 1851 Mary Shelley, Writer of Frankenstein
1810s Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English Romantic novelist,
More biographer and editor, best known as the writer of
Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Shelley
was 21...

1795 - 1821 John Keats, Poet

Poets John Keats lived only twenty-five years and four months
More (1795-1821), yet his poetic achievement is extraordinary. His
writing career lasted a little more than five years...

1792 - 1827 Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic poet who rebelled
More against English politics and conservative values. Shelley drew
no essential distinction between poetry and politi...

1788 - 1824 Lord Byron, Poet

Poets George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, was among the
More most famous of the English 'Romantic' poets; his
contemporaries included Percy Shelley and John Keats. He
was al...

1783 - 1859 Irving, Writer of Rip Van Winkle

1820s Washington Irving, American author Washington Irving is best
More known for his short stories which include "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Also a historia...

1780 - 1831 Carl von Clausewitz, Military Historian

Historians Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier,
More military historian and military theorist. He is most famous for
his military treatise Vom Kriege, translated...

1778 - 1830 William Hazlitt

England/UK William Hazlitt was an English writer remembered for his
More humanistic essays and literary criticism, often esteemed the
greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnso...

1776 - 1822 E. T. A. Hoffmann, Composer & Writer

Composers Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, better known by his pen
More name E. T. A. Hoffmann, was a Romantic author of fantasy
and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman a...

1775 - 1817 Jane Austen, English Novelist

England/UK Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works include
More Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and
Emma. Her biting social commentary and masterful use of...

1775 - 1862 Bahadur Shah II, Last Mughal Emperor

Poets Bahadur Shah II, also known as Zafar (his name as an Urdu
More poet), last Mughal emperor of India (1837–57). A political
figurehead, he was completely controlled by the Briti...

1772 - 1834 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet

Poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English lyrical poet, critic, and
More philosopher, whose Lyrical Ballads,(1798) written with William
Wordsworth, started the English Romantic movemen...

1771 - 1832 Sir Walter Scott, Scottish Writer & Poet

Poets Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer and poet and one of the
More greatest historical novelists. Ivanhoe (1819) set in the reign of
Richard I is perhaps the best known of Scott's...
 1770 - 1850 William Wordsworth, Poet
Poets William Wordsworth, British poet, credited with ushering in the
More English Romantic Movement with the publication of Lyrical
Ballads(1798) in collaboration with Samuel Taylo...

1759 - 1796 Robert Burns, Scotland's Greatest Poet

Poets Robert Burns, Scotland's greatest poet, was born on 25th
More January 1759 in a two roomed thatched cottage at Alloway,
near Ayr, where his father, William Burnes, ran a small...

1759 - 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft, Feminist

Activists Wollstonecraft's lasting place in the history of philosophy rests
More upon A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). In this
classical feminist text, she appealed to egali...

1759 - 1805 Friedrich von Schiller, German Writer

Dramatists Johann Christoph Friedrich (later: von) Schiller, was a
More German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During
the last several years of his life (1788–1805), Schille...

1757 - 1827 William Blake, Poet and Painter

Poets William Blake was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic,
More and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books.
Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination ov...

1749 - 1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dramatists German poet, novelist, playwright, courtier, and natural
More philosopher, one of the greatest figures in Western literature.
Throughout his life Goethe was interested in a va...

1740 - 1814 Marquis de Sade

Enlightenment Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was a French aristocrat
More and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography,
as well as some strictly philosophical works; muc...

1737 - 1794 Edward Gibbon

England/UK English historian and scholar, the supreme historian of the
More Enlightenment, who is best-known as the author of the
monumental 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', o...

1737 - 1809 Thomas Paine, Founding Father USA

Revolutionaries Thomas Paine, intellectual, scholar, revolutionary, and
More idealist, is widely recognized as one of the Founding Fathers
of the United States. A radical pamphleteer, Paine a...

1729 - 1781 Gotthold Lessing, German Dramatist

Enlightenment Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, the first of the truly German
More dramatists, was born in a Lutheran clergyman's family. As was
a frequent custom in clergymen's families, his fathe...
1725 - 1785 Casanova, World's Greatest Lover
Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova. The myth of the world's
More greatest lover comes largely from Casanova's own pen - a 12-
volume autobiography documents his seductions in
extensive...

1725 - 1807 John Newton, Author of Amazing Grace

Christians John Newton was an English clergyman and hymn writer.
More Until 1755, his life was spent chiefly at sea, where he
eventually became the captain of a slave ship plying the wat...

1713 - 1784 Denis Diderot, Editor of the Encyclopédie

Historians Diderot is best remembered as the general editor of the
More Encyclopédie (Encyclopedia) and as one of its main
contributors. The project absorbed most of his energies from
17...

1709 - 1784 Samuel Johnson, English author

Poets Samuel Johnson was the leading literary scholar and critic of
More his time, Johnson helped to shape and define the Augustan
Age. He was equally celebrated for his brilliant a...

1694 - 1778 Voltaire, Author and Philosopher

Humanists "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you
More commit atrocities." Francois Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire)
was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris. Voltaire'...

1688 - 1744 Alexander Pope, Poet

Poets Alexander Pope is considered one of the greatest English
More poets of the eighteenth century. Born to a Roman Catholic
family in 1688, Pope was educated mostly at home, in pa...
1667 - 1745 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
England/UK Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer who is famous for
More works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, and A Tale
of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose sat...

1660 - 1731 Daniel Defoe, Author of Robinson Crusoe

England/UK Daniel Defoe, English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, is
More most famous as the author of Robinson Crusoe (1719), a story
of a man shipwrecked alone on an island. Alon...

1639 - 1699 Jean Racine, French Dramatist

Dramatists Jean Racine was a French dramatist, one of the "big three" of
More 17th century France (along with Molière and Corneille), and
one of the most important literary figures in th...

1631 - 1700 John Dryden

Dramatists John Dryden was an English poet, dramatist, and critic. He
More first came to public notice in 1659 with his Heroic Stanzas,
commemorating the death of Oliver Cromwell. The fo...
 1622 - 1673 Molière, Master of Comic Satire
Dramatists Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière, was a
More French theatre writer, director, stage manager, actor, and all-
around man of theatre, one of the masters of comic s...

1613 - 1680 François de La Rochefoucauld, Writer

Enlightenment François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, le Prince de Marcillac,
More was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs, as well
as an example of the accomplished 17th-century nobl...

1608 - 1674 John Milton, Writer of Paradise Lost

Poets Milton, John, one of the greatest poets of the English
More language. While Milton was at Cambridge he wrote poetry in
both Latin and English, including the ode "On the Mornin...

1596 - 1687 Constantijn Huygens, Poet/Composer

Poets Constantijn Huygens was a Dutch poet and composer,
More Secretary to two Princes, and the father of the scientist
Christiaan Huygens. He is often considered a member of what
i...

1587 - 1679 Joost Van Den Vondel

Poets Netherlands poet and convert, born at Cologne, 17 Nov. 1587,
More of parents whose residence was originally at Antwerp. Of his
early youth nothing is known. In his eighth or n...

1585 - 1618 Bredero, Dutch Dramatist & Poet

Dramatists Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero is considered the major Dutch
More poet of his generation, particularly for his spontaneous love
sonnets. The first Dutch master of comedy, Bredero...

1584 - 1648 Tirso de Molina, Creator of Don Juan

Poets Tirso de Molina, pseudonym of Gabriel Téllez, one of the
More outstanding dramatists of the Golden Age of Spanish
literature. The most powerful dramas associated with his n...

1581 - 1647 Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Poet

Poets Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was a Dutch poet, dramawriter and
More historian by profession. He was the son of the famous plural
mayor of Amsterdam, P. C. Hooft. He travelled thr...

1580 - 1645 Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish Writer

Poets Quevedo was a Spanish satirist, novelist and poet and one of
More the great writers of the Spanish Golden Age. His Los sueños
is a brilliant and bitterly satiric account of th...

1577 - 1660 Jacob Cats, Dutch Poet

Poets Cats was contemporary with Hooft and Vondel and other
More distinguished Dutch writers in the golden age of Dutch
literature, but his Orangist and Calvinistic opinions separat...

1564 - 1593 Christopher Marlowe, Dramatist and Poet

Dramatists Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet, b.
More Canterbury. Probably the greatest English dramatist before
Shakespeare, Marlowe was educated at Cambridge and he
went...
1564 - 1623 William Shakespeare
Dramatists All about William Shakespeare, surely the world's most
More performed and admired playwright, was born in April, 1564 in
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, about 100 miles nor...
 1552 - 1599 Edmund Spenser, The Prince of Poets
Poets Spenser was known to his contemporaries as 'the prince of
More poets', as great in English as Virgil in Latin. He left behind him
masterful essays in every genre of poetry, fr...

1552 - 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh, Writer and Explorer

Poets Sir Walter Raleigh is a famed English writer, poet, courtier and
More explorer. He was responsible for establishing the first English
colony in the New World, on June 4, 1584,...

1547 - 1616 Miguel de Cervantes, Creator Don Quixote

Poets Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet, the creator of Don
More Quixote, the most famous figure in Spanish literature. Miguel
de Cervantes, born in Alcalá de Henares in 1...

1542 - 1591 St. John of the Cross

Poets Saint John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) was a major
More figure in the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish mystic and
Carmelite friar born at Fontiveros, a small village nea...

1538 - 1598 Marnix van St. Aldegonde, Wilhelmus

Netherlands Philips van Marnix, lord of St Aldegonde, was a Dutch writer
More and statesman, and the probable author of the text of the
Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus. He was born a...

1524 - 1580 Luís de Camões, Portugese Poet

Poets Luís Vaz de Camões, Portugal's greatest poet. His mastery of
More verse has been compared to that of Homer, Virgil, and Dante.
Poet and great Epic, he wrote a considerable amo...

1503 - 1566 Nostradamus

Astrologer Nostradamus, Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, was
More one of the world's most famous authors of prophecies. He is
best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edi...

1494 - 1553 Rabelais, Writer Gargantua & Pantagruel

Christians François Rabelais, French writer, priest, humanist, doctor. His
More fame rests on the five comic novels (one of doubtful
authenticity) known collectively as Gargantua and Pan...

1478 - 1535 Sir Thomas More

Christians Sir Thomas More (later canonized St. Thomas More) is
More famous for his book Utopia (1515) and for his martyrdom. As
Chancellor to Henry VIII he refused to sanction Henry's d...

1474 - 1566 Bartolomé de Las Casas, Missionary

Christians Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish missionary and historian,
More called the apostle of the Indies. He went to Hispaniola with his
father in 1502, and eight years later he was or...

1469 - 1527 Niccolò Machiavelli

Index Librorum In 1498, Niccolò Machiavelli began his career as an active
More politician in the independent city-state of Florence, engaging in
diplomatic missions through France and German...

1379 - 1471 Thomas a Kempis

Christians Thomas is the great author of the world famous book, "The
More Imitation of Christ." His name will be remembered until the end
of time, because of this famous work. Priests, n...
1343 - 1400 Chaucer, Father of English Poetry
Poets Geoffrey Chaucer, author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat
More (courtier), and diplomat. Chaucer is best known as the author
of The Canterbury Tales. He is sometimes credited wi...

1313 - 1375 Giovanni Boccaccio

Poets Giovanni Boccaccio was a Italian author and poet, the greatest
More of Petrarch's disciples, an important Renaissance humanist in
his own right and author of a number of notab...
1304 - 1374 Petrarch, Poet
Poets Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), Italian scholar, poet, and
More humanist, a major force in the development of the
Renaissance, famous for his poems addressed to Laura, an
idea...

1265 - 1321 Dante, Writer of Divina Commedia

Poets Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy. He was
More exiled from the city for life. For 20 years Dante lived in exile,
wandered Europe, and wrote one of the greate...

1235 - 1291 Jacob van Maerlant, Poet

Poets Jacob van Maerlant (or Merlant) is known as the greatest
More Flemish poet of the Middle Ages. He was born about 1235 and
died sometime after 1291. Of his life little is known...

1221 - 1274 Saint Bonaventure

Christians Saint Bonaventure was the eighth Minister General of the
More Order of Friars Minor, commonly called the Franciscans. He
was a scholastic theologian and medieval philosopher,...

1207 - 1273 Rumi, Sufi Mystic

Poets Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a great Persian poet and
More Sufi mystic. His Masnavi-ye Manavi is a 6-volume poem
regarded by many Sufis as second in importance only to the
Q...

1193 - 1280 St. Albert the Great, Albertus Magnus

Christians Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great and
More Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican friar who achieved fame
for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for t...

773 - 819 Liu Zongyuan, Poet and Writer

Poets Liu Zongyuan was a Chinese writer and poet who lived in
More Chang'an in the Tang dynasty. Along with Han Yu, he was a
founder of the Classical Prose Movement. He was traditio...

772 - 846 Bai Juyi, Chinese Poet

Poets Bai Juyi or Po Chü-i was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty.
More He wrote over 2,800 poems, which he had copied and
distributed to ensure their survival. He is most notable f...

730 - 804 Alcuin, Minister of Charlemagne

Christians Minister of education under Charlemagne in 781. English
More nobility. Spiritual student of Saint Colgan. Deacon. Head of the
York cathedral school c.770. Established schools...

712 - 770 Du Fu, The Poet-Sage

Poets Du Fu or Tu Fu was a prominent Chinese poet during the Tang
More Dynasty. Along with Li Po (Li Bai), he is frequently called the
greatest of the Chinese poets. His own greates...
 701 - 762 Li Bai, The Poet Immortal
Poets Li Bai or Li Po was a Chinese poet who lived during the Tang
More Dynasty. Called the Poet Immortal, Li Bai is often regarded,
along with Du Fu, as one of the two greatest poe...

560 - 636 Isidore of Seville

Christians Saint Isidore of Seville was Archbishop of Seville for more than
More three decades and has the reputation of being one of the great
scholars of the early middle ages. All the...

484 - 585 Cassiodorus, Roman Statesman

Statesmen Cassiodorus was a Roman statesman, great writer and (later)
More monk, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great,
king of the Ostrogoths. He spent his career trying...

55 - 120 Tacitus, Roman Historian

Historians One of the greatest historians of ancient Rome, Cornelius
More Tacitus is a primary source for much of what is known about
life the first and second centuries after the life o...

46 - 120 Plutarch, Writer / Historian

Historians Plutarch is the most famous biographer of the ancient world
More and the author of a famous collection now known as Plutarch's
Lives. Plutarch's original title was Parallel Li...
23 - 79 Pliny the Elder, Writer 1st Encyclopedia
Historians Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder,
More was a Roman scholar, encyclopedist, and nationalist who was
born in Novum Comum in Gallia Cisalpine (today Como...

4 BC - 65 Seneca, Philosopher
Dramatists Seneca, Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman, who
More was one of the most eminent writers of the Silver Age of Latin
literature. He was born Lucius Annaeus Seneca in C...

43 BC - 17 Ovidius, Roman Poet

Poets Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso). Roman poet, noted especially for
More his ARS AMATORIA and METAMORPHOSES. Ovid was the
first major writer to grow up under the empire. He died far...

59 BC - 17 Livius, Roman Historian

Historians Livy or Titus Livius, Roman historian. His lifework was a history
More of the city, written in 142 books; Books 11 – 20 and 46 – 142
have been lost, and those after Book 45 ar...

65 BC - 8 BC Horace, Roman Poet

Poets Horace was a Roman poet who lived from 65 to 8 B.C. We call
More him Horace in English, but to his contemporaries and fellow
countrymen he was Quintus Horatius Flaccus. Among...

70 BC - 1 BC Virgil, Roman Poet

Poets Virgil's most famous and significant contribution to the classical
More canon is undoubtedly his Aeneid. Indeed, this is the work of
Virgil's most influential to the Divine C...

80 BC - 15 BC Vitruvius, Author De Architectura

Architects Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and
More engineer active in the 1st century BC. Vitruvius is the author of
De architectura, known today as The Ten Books...
 106 BC - 43 BC Cicero, Roman Philosopher
Philosophers Cicero was born in 106 BC, six years before the birth of Julius
More Caesar, into a wealthy family, though none of his family served
as senators. He received the Roman equival...

145 BC - 90 BC Sima Qian, Chinese Historian

Historians Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han
More Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese
historiography because of his highly praised work, Shiji, an
over...

427 BC - 355 BC Xenophon, Greek Historian

Historians Xenophon was a soldier, mercenary and Athenian student of
More Socrates and is known for his writings on the history of his own
times, the sayings of Socrates, and the life of...

460 BC - 404 BC Thucydides, Greek Historian

Historians Thucydides was an ancient Greek historian, and the author of
More the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th
century BC war between Sparta and Athens. This w...

480 BC - 406 BC Euripides, Greek Tragedian

Dramatists Born about 480 BC, somewhere in the vicinity of Athens,
More Euripides, the son of Mnesarchides, was destined from the
beginning to be a misunderstood poet. He presented his f...

495 BC - 405 BC Sophocles, Greek Playwright

Dramatists Born in 495 B.C. about a mile northwest of Athens, Sophocles
More was to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age.
The son of a wealthy merchant, he would enjoy a...

500 BC Herodotus, World's First Historian

Historians The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of
More Halicarnassus was the world's first historian. In The Histories,
he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire und...

510 BC Parmenides, Philosopher

Poets Parmenides of Elea was a Greek philosopher and poet, born of
More an illustrious family about BCE. 510, at Elea in Lower Italy, and
is is the chief representative of the Eleat...
525 BC - 456 BC Aeschylus, Father of Tragedy
Dramatists The "Father of Tragedy", Aeschylus was born in the city of
More Eleusis. Immersed early in the mystic rites of the city and in the
worship of the Mother and Earth goddess Deme...

600 BC Epimenides of Knossos

Poets Epimenides of Knossos was a semi-mythical 6th century BC
More Greek seer and philosopher-poet, who is said to have fallen
asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretan cave sacred...

620 BC Aesop, Greek Poet

Poets THE LIFE and History of Aesop is involved, like that of Homer,
More the most famous of Greek poets, in much obscurity. Sardis, the
capital of Lydia; Samos, a Greek island; Me...

800 BC Homer, Greek Poet

Poets No one is exactly sure who Homer was. Theories abound, and
More some even think he never existed. Regardless, he is
traditionally recognized as the original creator of two e...