Authors
Ordered by name. Order by date of birth
Alphabetical list
Abelard, Peter (1079 - 1142) -- famous for his affair with Héloïse, Abelard was one of the leading thinkers of his era.
Achebe, Chinua (1930 - ) -- highly regarded African writer in English.
Adams, Henry (1838 - 1918) -- American historian, famous for his autobiographical critique of Western civilization and culture.
Aeschylus (525 - 456) -- one of the three great ancient Greek dramatists .
Aesop (620 BC - 560) -- Greek author of famous animal fables..
Alcott, Lousia May (1832 - 1888) -- well known American author of children's books.
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey (1836 - 1907) -- American editor, writer.
Alger, Horatio (1832 - 1899) -- American writer, influential in his portrayal of underprivileged youths.
Alighieri, Dante (1265 - 1321) -- Italian poet, philosopher whose epic poem The Divine Comedy is the greatest and most influential of medieval poetry..
Altsheler, Joseph A. (1862 - 1919) -- American writer whose works have been very popular with youth.
Ambrose, Bierce (1842 - 1914) -- prominent American journalist during the time of the Civil War, and writer of short stories strongly influenced by Poe.
Anaxagoras (500 BC - 428) -- influential pre-Socratic philosopher.
Anaximander (610 BC - 550) -- one of the three Milesian pre-Socratic 'natural philosophers'.
Anaximenes (610 BC - 550) -- one of the three Milesian pre-Socratic 'natural philosophers'.
Andersen, Hans Christian (1805 - 1875) -- Danish writer, most famous for his fairy stories.
Anonymous (0 - ) -- [texts whose author is unknown are included under Anonymous].
Anselm (1033 - 1109) -- leading medieval thinker, and Archbishop of Canterbury, who is remembered for his ontological arguments for the existence of God, and his position on theological matters.
Antisthenes (440 BC - 360) -- a student of Socrates, Antisthenes' philosophy of cynicism exerted an important influence on Diogenes.
Apuleius, Lucius (125 - 200) -- 2nd-century Roman writer and philosopher.
Aquinas, Thomas (1224 - 1274) -- medieval philosopher-theologian who attempted to synthesise Aristotle with the doctrines of the Church.
Arcesilaus (315 BC - 240) -- Greek philosopher who championed scepticism, holding that we should suspend our beliefs and judgements.
Aristophanes (385 BC - 450) -- Greek comedian, famous for his savage parodies and chaotic comedies..
Aristotle (384 - 322) -- an Ancient Greek philosopher, and one of the greatest minds in human history.
Arnauld, Antoine (1612 - 1694) -- seventeenth-century philosopher, famous for his critique of Descartes.
Asiomv, Isaac (1920 - 1992) -- Asimov is best know for dealing with the realm of possible Futures characterised by the proliferation of technology..
Auden, Wystan H. (1907 - 1973) -- English-born American poet, whose varied poetic work is some of the most outstanding of the 21st century.
Augustine (354 - 430) -- medieval philosopher, influenced primarily by Platonism, and who in turn profoundly influenced the doctrines of the Church.
Austen, Jane (1775 - 1817) -- early 19th century novelist whose works are remebered for their wit and social satire..
Austin, John (1790 - 1859) -- jurisprude and lawyer who advanced Bentham's model of legal positivism.
Averroes (1126 - 1198) -- Islamic philosopher famous for his Aristotelian commentaries.
Avicenna (980 - 1037) -- greatest Islamic philosopher, whose writings also influenced the fields of science and medicine.
Bacon, Francis (1561 - 1626) -- Bacon, who was also a politician and a lawyer, advocated the founding of human activity on a common methodology of inquiry.
Bakunin, Mikhail Alexandrovich (1814 - 1876) -- a Russian revolutionist, Bakunin was an advocate of anarchism, who was critical of existing mores and who advocated a model of non-governmental collectivism.
Balzac, Honore de (1799 - 1850) -- influential author of an immense series of novels which attempted to give a realistic representation of French society in the 18th century.
Bangs, John Kendrick (1862 - 1922) -- American humourist and poet.
Barrie, James M. (1860 - 1937) -- Scottish dramatist and novelist whose work is characterised by his unique view of life..
Baudelaire, Charles Pierre (1821 - 1867) -- one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century.
Bauer, Bruno (1809 - 1882) -- German writer and historian, whose philosophical position can be described as Left Hegelian.
Baum, L. Frank (1856 - 1919) -- American writer, famous for his The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Bayle, Pierre (1647 - 1706) -- French scholar who systematically criticised an enormous scope of religious and philosophical doctrines.
Beauvoir, Simone de (1908 - 1986) -- best known as Jean-Paul Sartre's lover, de Beauvoir was an accomplished novelist, feminist critic, and existentialist philosopher.
Beccaria, Cesare (1738 - 1794) -- Italian jurist who, preempting Bentham, encouraged the improvement of prison systems in Europe.
Bellamy, Edward (1850 - 1896) -- American political theorist and novelist.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748 - 1832) -- English philosopher who founded utilitarianism and wrote extensively on the philosophy of law, economics, and politics.
Berkeley, George (1685 - 1753) -- English philosopher who argued against Lockean scepticism and posited an alternative based, famously, on common sense.
Blackmore, R.D. (1825 - 1900) -- Nineteenth century English novelist.
Blake, William (1757 - 1827) -- early visionary poet of the Romantic period.
Bodin, Jean (1530 - 1596) -- French political theorist who argued for the absolute soverignty of the state.
Boehme, Jakob (1575 - 1624) -- German mystic.
Boethius, Anucius Manlius Severinus (480 - 526) -- eminent Latin philospoher.
Bolzano, Bernard (1781 - 1848) -- a critic of scepticism and subjectivism, who followed Leibniz's rationalism and was also influential as a mathematician.
Boole, George (1815 - 1864) -- mathematician, whose work allowed for the discovery of propositional calculus and Boolean algebra.
Bosanquet, Bernard (1848 - 1923) -- English philosopher; advocate of Hegelian idealism.
Boyle, Robert (1627 - 1691) -- scientist and philosopher who emphasised the importance of experimentation over theorisation.
Bradley, Francis Herbert (1846 - 1924) -- eminent British philosopher, who straddles the traditions of British empiricism and German idealism.
Brautigan, Richard (1935 - 1984) -- [replace].
Brecht, Bertolt (1898 - 1956) -- German poet and playwright whose theories of a relationship of alienation between audience and theatre had a marked inpact on the development of drama..
Brentano, Franz (1838 - 1917) -- German philosopher who, building on Aristotle and from an empirical standpoint, developed a philosophy which was a forerunner to phenomenology.
Bronte, Charlotte (1818 - 1848) -- oldest of the three famous Brontë sisters, author of one of the most famous novels in the English language..
Bronte, Emily (1818 - 1848) -- introspective member of the famous Brontë family, whose only novel is one of the most significant of its period..
Bronte, Anne (1820 - 1849) -- youngest of the Brontë sisters, the subject matter of her work was influenced by brother Branwell, a drug and alcohol addict..
Brown, Charles Brockden (1771 - 1810) -- pioneering American gothic novelist.
Browning, Elizabeth B. (1806 - 1861) -- a great English poet whose most famous works are love poems.
Bruni, Leonardo (1370 - 1444) -- Italian humanist scholar, and a leading translator.
Bruno, Giordano (1548 - 1600) -- enigmatic Italian philosopher who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition.
Buchan, John (1875 - 1940) -- Scottish politician and writer.
Buck, Pearl (1892 - 1973) -- first American Nobel Prizewinner whose writings reflected the 40 years she spent in China..
Bunyan, John (1628 - 1688) -- English Puritan minister and preacher.
Burgess, Anthony (1917 - 1993) -- novelist and critic, born in Manchester, whose works address social concerns..
Buridan, John (1295 - 1360) -- nominalist philosopher of the Middle Ages who was especially concerned about questions of logic and theology.
Burke, Edmund (1729 - 1797) -- English politician, Irish born, whose writings on politics may have influenced the growth of conservatism.
Burnett, Francis Hodgson (1848 - 1924) -- American novelist, best known for her children's books.
Burroughs, Edgar R. (1875 - 1950) -- science fiction author, remembered best for his Tarzan of the Apes.
Butler, Joseph (1692 - 1752) -- Anglican Bishop whose moral philosophy criticises hedonism and provides an alternative which borrows from a number of other approaches.
Byron, George Gordon Noel (1788 - 1824) -- one of the most important and notorious poets of the Romantic era, English-born..
Caesar, Gaius Julius (102 - 44) -- Roman politician and military genius, whose Commentaries have left us an astonishing account of his military campaigns.
Cajetan, Thomas de Vio (1468 - 1534) -- influential Thomist philosopher, who developed aspects of Aristotle and Aquinas' philosophy.
Calderon de la Barca, Pedro (1600 - 1681) -- poet and dramatist of the golden age of Spanish literature.
Campanella, Tommaso (1568 - 1639) -- Italian philosopher and contemporary of Bruno and Galileo, who, although claiming to refute atheism, was imprisoned for his unconventional beliefs.
Camus, Albert (1913 - 1960) -- French novelist and philosopher, whose exploration of 'the absurd' has become an important part of the existentialist tradition.
Cano, Melchior (1509 - 1560) -- Spanish theologian.
Cantor, Georg (1845 - 1918) -- mathematician who developed set theory and mathematics of the infinite.
Carlyle, Thomas (1795 - 1881) -- Scottish historian and essayist, who famously argued that history is the biography of great men.
Carneades (214 - 129) -- Greek philosopher who, following Arcesilaus, embraced scepticism.
Carroll, Lewis (1832 - 1898) -- British author of unlikely mathematical descent..
Cather, Willa Sibert (1876 - 1947) -- novelist, who memorably portrayed the life of American settlers.
Cervantes, Miguel De (1547 - 1616) -- celebrated Spanish playwright and poet, whose Don Quixote is the most famous work in Spanish literature..
Cesalpino, Andrea (1519 - 1603) -- Italian physician and pioneering botanist.
Chateaubriand, François Auguste René, Vicomte de (1768 - 1848) -- admired French poet , who was actively involved in events of his time and is most famous for his autobiography..
Chaucer, Geoffrey (1342 - 1400) -- English poet, before Shakespeare, whose varied work includes one of the greatest poems, The Cantebury Tales..
Chekhov, Anton (1860 - 1904) -- Russian writer; a great dramatist whose plays and short stories have been immensely influential.
Chesterton, Gilbert K. (1874 - 1936) -- Edwardian era novelist, essayist and poet.
Chopin, Kate (1850 - 1904) -- American writer, whose most famous novel, The Awakening, is remembered for its feminist themes.
Christie, Agatha (1890 - 1976) -- Agatha Christie was a poet and authoress of detective mysteries..
Chrysippus (280 - 207) -- important leader of the Stoic school of thought in Greece.
Cicero, Marcus T. (106 - 143) -- Roman statesman whose literary and philosophical writings have been profoundly influential.
Clarke, Samuel (1675 - 1729) -- rationalist philosopher who claimed that moral decisions can be as certain as mathematical ones, and who promoted the work of Isaac Newton.
Cleanthes (310 BC - 230) -- Greek stoic philosopher, who was a follower of Zeno of Citium.
Coleridge, Samuel T. (1772 - 1834) -- poet and literary philosopher of the Romantic movement..
Collins, Wilkie (1824 - 1889) -- British writer who originated the genre of detective fiction.
Collodi, Carlo (1826 - 1890) -- Italian author and the creator of the character Pinocchio.
Comte, Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier (1798 - 1857) -- the first French positivist, Comte is famous for his doctrine of the progress of society.
Condilac, Étienne Bonnot de (1715 - 1780) -- French philosopher, who made important investigations in the field of language, and who attempted to found an epistemology suitable for the project of the Enlightenment.
Confucius (551 BC - 479) -- founder of Confuciusism and the most influential thinker in Chinese history..
Congreve, William (1670 - 1729) -- English dramatist and writer of poetry in the Restoration period.
Connor, Ralph (1860 - 1937) -- Canadian novelist, whose writing represents the views of middle-class Canadians in the early 20th century.
Conrad, Joseph (1857 - 1924) -- novelist and short story writer, one of the first of the Modernist movement; Polish-born.
Constant de Rebecque, Henri Benjamin (1767 - 1830) -- a leading French liberal who criticised Rousseau and advocated representative democracy.
Cooper, James F. (1789 - 1851) -- influential early American novelist.
Crane, Stephen (1871 - 1900) -- American novelist, famous for his masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage.
Crawford, F. Marion (1854 - 1909) -- American writer, whose novels drew on his experience in Italy.
Cudworth, Ralph (1617 - 1680) -- a representative of the Cambridge Platonists, Cudworth argued extensively against reductivism.
cummings, e.e. (1894 - 1962) -- American poet, who experimented extensively with language and form..
Curwood, James (1878 - 1927) -- American novelist, who most of his life in Owosso, Michigan.
da Vinci, Leonardo (1452 - 1519) -- celebrated Renaissance artist, architect, and scientist.
Darwin, Charles (1809 - 1882) -- by revolutionising the field of biology, Darwin had an immesurable impact on science, philosophy, and literature from the nineteenth century on.
Daudet, Alphonse (1840 - 1897) -- French writer, remebered for his descriptions of Provence.
Davis, Richard Harding (1864 - 1916) -- American writer and journalist.
Dawe, Bruce (1945 - 3000) -- Contemporary Australian poet.
Defoe, Daniel (1660 - 1731) -- prolific English novelist and journalist.
Democritus (460 - 370) -- Greek philosopher, who proposed, with Leucippus, the theory of atomism.
Descartes, Rene (1596 - 1650) -- the founder of modern Western philosophy.
Dickens, Charles (1812 - 1870) -- one of the most popular novelists of all time, whose writings combined a range of extraordinary qualities.
Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth (1830 - 1886) -- American whose poetry deals with universal themes in a profoundly original manner..
Diderot, Denis (1713 - 1784) -- part of the group of French philosophes, Diderot supported a type of materialistic reductionism.
Diderot, Denis (1713 - 1784) -- man of letters, philosopher and art critic, chief editor of the L'Encyclopedie, one of the principal works of the Age of Enlightenment.
Dilthey, Wilhelm (1833 - 1911) -- German philosopher, whose contributions include the development of hermeneutics and broadening the application of Kant's philosophy.
Diogenes Laertius (300 - 300) -- a biographer of ancient philosophers, Diogenes Laertius' works provide us with some important information about leading Greek philosophers.
Diogenes the Cynic (304 BC - 323) -- notorious Greek cynic philosopher.
Donne, John (1572 - 1631) -- author of metaphysical and love poetry that is among the greatest ever written.
Dos Passos, John Roderigo (1896 - 1970) -- American post-War writer.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (1821 - 1881) -- Russian author of great repute whose ability allowed him to portray complex behaviours with insight and sensitivity..
Doyle, Arthur C. (1859 - 1930) -- novelist chiefly remembered for his amateur detective character, Sherlock Holmes.
Dreiser, Theodore (1871 - 1945) -- American novelist, who was a leading figure in the naturalist movement.
Dryden, John (1631 - 1700) -- 17th-century British playwright, poet and translator, whose diverse works were topical and influential..
Dumas, Alexandre (1802 - 1870) -- famous French novelist of the 19th century.
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice (1875 - 1935) -- American writer, most famously of short stories.
Eckhart, Meister Johannes E. (1260 - 1327) -- German Dominican theologian.
Edgeworth, Maria (1767 - 1849) -- English novelist.
Eliot, George (1819 - 1880) -- novelist whose works captured human behaviour and endeavour in the Victorian era..
Eliot, Thomas S. (1888 - 1965) -- American-born poet, playwright and critic whose poems established new techniques and whose unique perspective became a foundation of modern literature..
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803 - 1882) -- American poet and philosopher.
Empedocles (495 BC - 435) -- Greek philosopher who developed the pluralist tradition by arguing that the world is comprised of four elements.
Engels, Friedrich (1820 - 1895) -- a member of the working-class movement, Engels wrote on philosophy, politics, and history, often in collaboration with Karl Marx.
Epictetus (55 - 135) -- Epictetus developed a Stoic ethics and led a life in accordance with them, professing to be indifferent to physical, societal, and psychological pain.
Epicurus (341 BC - 270) -- a prolific writer, he developed a philosophy which integrated physics and ethics, and founded the Epicurean School.
Erasmus, Desiderius (1466 - 1536) -- leading figure in the Renaissance humanism movement.
Eriugena, John Scotus (810 - 877) -- Irish philosopher in the Middle Ages.
Euripides (485 BC - 406) -- Ancient Greek tragedian who concentrated on the exploration of psychological situations of ordinary characters..
Farabi, Abu Nasr al- (872 - 950) -- Islamic Neo-platonist philosopher.
Faulkner, William (1897 - 1962) -- Nobel Laureate and a storyteller of startling originality and power..
Ferber, Edna (1887 - 1968) -- American writer, remembered for her depictions of early 20th century life.
Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas (1804 - 1872) -- a 'Left Hegelian' commentator and critic on Hegel.
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1762 - 1814) -- the first post-Kantian German idealist.
Ficino, Marsilio (1433 - 1499) -- Italian, who produced translations of all Plato's works, and wrote influential commentaries on them.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896 - 1940) -- American novelist who captured the moral decadance of the 1930 post-war Jazz Age..
Flaubert, Gustave (1821 - 1880) -- author of the early 19th century whose perfection of a naturalistic and precisionary style has made him legendary..
Forster, Edward M. (1879 - 1970) -- notable English novelist.
Foucault, Michel (1926 - 1984) -- French poststructuralist philosopher, who sought to reveal power relationships in society by so-called 'archaeologies' of the past.
Fowles, John Robert (1926 - ) -- novelist whose works combine psychological with social and philosophical aspect of human behaviour.
France, Anatole (1844 - 1924) -- pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François Thibault; novelist, Nobel laureate.
Francisco de, Vitoria (1480 - 1546) -- best remembered for his arguments for a system of international law based on natural law.
Freeman, Mary (1852 - 1930) -- American writer.
Frege, Gottlob (1848 - 1925) -- the most important modern logician and philosopher of mathematics.
Frost, Robert (1874 - 1963) -- Controversial American poet famous for poems depicting nature and his use of colloquial American speech..
Galileo, Galilei (1564 - 1642) -- astronomer, physicist, who pioneered the mathematical approach to physics and promoted independent scientific inquiry.
Gaskell, Elizabeth (1810 - 1865) -- skillful English novelist, a contemporary and friend of Dickens and Charlotte Brontë.
Gemmell, David (1948 - ) -- Fantasies Best, A Writer Without Compare.
Ghazali, al- (1058 - 1111) -- Ash'arite philosopher-theologian.
Godwin, William (1756 - 1836) -- English writer and philosopher, who believed that, since people acted according to reason, we could live in a society without laws.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von (1749 - 1832) -- German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist and philosopher.
Gogol, Nikolai (1809 - 1852) -- Russian writer of masterful plays, short stories, and novels.
Golding, William (1911 - 1993) -- British novelist who explored the dark places in human nature, winning the Nobel Prize for literature.
Goldsmith, Oliver (1774 - 1728) -- Anglo-Irish dramatist, poet, and novelist.
Gorky, Maxim (1868 - 1936) -- Russian prose writer and playwright, of the Soviet era.
Grahame, Kenneth (1859 - 1932) -- writer of children's stories, most famous for his The Wind in the Willows.
Gray, Thomas (1716 - 1771) -- eighteenth century English poet.
Grey, Zane (1875 - 1939) -- American novelist, many of whose works are set in the American West.
Haggard, H. Rider (1856 - 1925) -- prolific English novelist and colonial administrator, whose writings are set in exotic regions of the world.
Hamilton, William (1788 - 1856) -- nineteenth century philosopher of logic and metaphysics.
Hardy, Thomas (1840 - 1928) -- author of novels, short stories and poetry, portraying the rural poor as victims of fate..
Harris, Frank (1856 - 1931) -- Irish-born American journalist and writer.
Harte, Bret (1836 - 1902) -- writer, whose most famous novels were set in the American West.
Hartley, David (1705 - 1757) -- using Newton’s theory of vibrations.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804 - 1864) -- American novelist whose works were an exploration of human sin, punishment and guilt..
Heaney, Seamus J. (1939 - ) -- Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770 - 1831) -- great German philosopher who influenced Karl Marx, and who is famous for his impenetrable writing.
Heidegger, Martin (1889 - 1976) -- German philosopher, who was influential in the development of existentialism.
Heine, Heinrich (1797 - 1856) -- German lyric poet.
Hemingway, Ernest (1899 - 1961) -- composer of unique, succinct novels and short stories with an individuality and style that would shape American writing..
Henry, O (1862 - 1910) -- American short story writer, whose ingenious and often humourous stories about everyday life made him enormously popular in the nineteenth century.
Heraclitus (500 BC - 500) -- pre-Socratic philosopher, famous for his obscure writing style.
Herbert, George (1593 - 1633) -- English poet who was born in Wales whose work was largely religion orientated..
Herodotus (484 BC - 420) -- Father of history and Greek prose..
Hesiod (900 - 800) -- early Greek lyric poet.
Holbach, Paul-Henri Thiry (1723 - 1789) -- a determinist and atheistic materialist, Holbach comprehensively argued for his philosophical position in his Système de la nature.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809 - 1894) -- physician, who wrote the "Breakfast-Table" series of essays.
Homer (0 - ) -- unknown author to whom we attribute two influential epic poems that shaped the development of prose and poetry.
Hope, Anthony (1863 - 1933) -- English novelist and playwright.
Horace (65 - 8) -- the finest lyric poet in Latin, Horace's works are masterpieces of the Golden Age of Rome..
Hornung, E.W. (1866 - 1921) -- well-known writer of mystery and detective stories.
Howells, William Dean (1837 - 1920) -- leading nineteenth century American novelist and critic, who promoted realism.
Hughes, Ted (1930 - 1998) -- British author and poet laureate.
Hugo, Victor (1802 - 1885) -- one of the greatest French poet and most important of the French Romantic movement..
Hume, David (1711 - 1776) -- great eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher who sought to reveal the limitations of reason, and in doing so reached famous sceptical conclusions.
Husserl, Edmund (1859 - 1938) -- German philosopher; founder of phenomenology.
Huxley, Aldous (1894 - 1963) -- famous for novels with strong, sociological theories, British-born..
Ibsen, Henrik (1828 - 1906) -- playwright; his works challenged the operation of his contemporary European society and revolutionised drama..
Irving, Washington (1783 - 1859) -- early American man of letters, best known for his short stories.
Ishiguro, Kazuo (1956 - ) -- Booker Prize winner for Remains of the Day 1988 (film, 1993).
Jacobs, W.W. (1863 - 1943) -- British writer of stories set at sea.
James, Henry (1843 - 1916) -- American author of psychological novels.
James, William (1842 - 1910) -- nineteenth century American philosopher and psychologist, the son of Henry James.
Jefferson, Thomas (1743 - 1826) -- third president of the United States, and political philosopher who borrowed much from Locke and who argued that successful representative government was possible.
Jerome, Jerome K. (1859 - 1927) -- English novelist, playwright.
Johnson, Samuel (1709 - 1784) -- writer who is remembered in philosophy for his rejection of sceptical metaphysics.
Johnson, Pauline (1861 - 1913) -- popular turn-of-the-century Canadian novelist and entertainer.
Jonson, Ben (1572 - 1637) -- Jacobean dramatist, poet, and critic, some of whose plays were acted in by Shakespeare.
Joyce, James (1882 - 1941) -- the most influential novelist of the 20th century.
Kafka, Franz (1883 - 1924) -- Kafka's hugely influential novels and short stories prefigured existentialism and set the tone for much 20th century fiction.
Kant, Immanuel (1724 - 1804) -- the most important philosopher of modern times, Kant argued that man is capable of posessing synthetic a priori knowledge, which is independent of experience; in morality, he proposed the famous 'categorical imperative'.
Keats, John (1795 - 1821) -- nineteenth century English poet, a principal figure in the Romantic movement.
Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye (1813 - 1855) -- Danish writer regarded as the first modern existentialist.
Kindi, Yaaqub ibn Ishaq al- (870 - 870) -- one of the first Arab philosophers, who facilitated the exploration of Greek philosophy in the Islamic tradition.
Kingsley, Charles (1819 - 1875) -- English clergyman, novelist.
Kipling, Rudyard (1865 - 1936) -- English writer, noted for his fiction set in India and Burma during British rule.
Knowles, John (1926 - ) -- American novelist and short-story writer.
La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de (1634 - 1693) -- French novelist, remembered for her La princesse de Clèves.
La Fontaine, Jean de (1621 - 1695) -- French writer, famed for his Fables, a collection of poems.
Laclos, Pierre Choderlos de (1741 - 1803) -- French novelist, whose masterpiece is Les liaisons dangereuses.
Lang, Andrew (1844 - 1912) -- Scottish writer of histories, poetry, and, most famously, fairytales.
Lao, Tzu (500 - 500) -- Influential Chinese philosopher who founded Taoism.
Lardner, Ring (1885 - 1933) -- popular American humourist and writer.
Lawrence, David H. (1885 - 1930) -- one of the greatest novelists of the century.
Lawson, Henry (1867 - 1922) -- influential poet who captured the Australian way of life.
Leacock, Stephen (1869 - 1944) -- Canadian writer of non-fiction works in politics and economics, as well as short stories.
Lee, Harper (1926 - ) -- contemporary award-winning American writer.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646 - 1716) -- prominent rationalist philosopher who based his metaphysics on the existence of simple immaterial substances called monads.
Leroux, Gaston (1868 - 1927) -- French mystery novelist and playwright, remembered for his Phantom of the Opera.
Lessing, Gotthold (1729 - 1781) -- German dramatist and critic of the Enlightenment.
Leucippus (400 BC - 400) -- less famous than his successor, Democritus, Leucippus is credited with being the co-founder of atomism.
Lewis, Sinclair (1885 - 1951) -- American novelist and nobel laureate, whose naturalistic style was very influential.
Livy (59 - 17) -- Roman historian, whose History traces the city from its earliest beginnings.
Locke, John (1632 - 1704) -- English philosopher who wrote widely but who is remembered mainly for his theory of political consent, and his development of a rationalist epistemology.
London, Jack (1876 - 1916) -- American author of realistic fiction.
Longfellow, Henry W. (1807 - 1882) -- nineteenth century American poet.
Lowell, Amy (1874 - 1925) -- leading poet of the imagist school and a literary critic.
Lucretius (95 - 52) -- Roman poet who attempted to popularise Epicurean philosophy.
Luther, Martin (1483 - 1546) -- German theologian and leader of the Protestant Reformation.
Luther, Martin (1483 - 1546) -- German theologian and leader of the Protestant Reformation.
Machiavelli, Niccolò (1469 - 1527) -- Italian statesman and political philosopher, famous for his amoral guide to becoming a successful prince.
Maimonides, Moses (1135 - 1204) -- Jewish philosopher and jurist.
Malebranche, Nicolas (1638 - 1715) -- French philosopher who developed the theory of occasionalism in response to the Cartesian mind-body problem.
Mansfield, Katherine (1888 - 1923) -- New Zealand-born British short-story writer.
Mao, Tse-tung (1893 - 1976) -- Founder and first leader of the Chinese Communist Party whose writings have world significance..
Marlowe, Christopher (1564 - 1593) -- English playwright.
Marsilius, Moses (1280 - 1342) -- Italian philosopher who argued for a model of popular government.
Marx, Karl Heinrich (1818 - 1883) -- a philosopher and social theorist, Marx saw the society's future in the realisation of communism.
Masters, Edgar Lee (1868 - 1950) -- Political activist, Lawyer, and Poet..
Maugham, Somerset (1874 - 1965) -- English writer of characteristically stylistic novels and short stories.
Maupassant, Guy de (1850 - 1893) -- French writer, whose naturalistic short-stories have been highly influential.
Maupassant, Guy de (1850 - 1893) -- French writer, whose naturalistic short-stories have been highly influential.
McCullers, Carson (1917 - 1967) -- American novelist whose stories tell of the efforts of sad, often handicapped characters to gain compassion.
Melissus (440 BC - 440) -- philosopher of the Eleatic school.
Melville, Herman (1819 - 1891) -- novelist whose work foreshadowed many aspects of twentieth century American literature.
Mendelssohn, Moses (1729 - 1786) -- Jewish philosopher, who adopted much of Leibniz's metaphysics and who was a leading figure in promoting the project of the Enlightenment.
Meredith, George (1828 - 1909) -- British poet and novelist.
Mill, John Stuart (1806 - 1873) -- great British philosopher, who embraced elements from both the enlightenment and from romanticism, and who wrote an enduring defence of political liberalism.
Millay, Edna St. Vincent (1892 - 1950) -- American poet, promoter of traditional verse.
Miller, Arthur (1915 - ) -- playwright whose works comment on the nature of 20th century American society.
Milton, John (1608 - 1674) -- one of the greatest poets in English.
Moliere, Jean Babtiste Poquelin (1622 - 1673) -- One of the greatest of all writers of French comedy - master of French classic comedy.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 - 1592) -- essayist whose works were influential in the development of rationalism.
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat (1689 - 1755) -- French political philosopher.
Montgomery, Lucy Maud (1874 - 1942) -- Canadian writer, famous for her Anne of Green Gables.
More, Sir Thomas (1477 - 1535) -- English statesman and writer.
Morley, Christopher (1890 - 1957) -- American writer of novels, essays and poems.
Morris, William (1834 - 1896) -- British writer, craftsman, and typographer.
Munro, H.H. (1870 - 1916) -- British writer, pseudonym Saki.
Murray, Les (1938 - ) -- Les Murray - Australia's leading living poet.
Nabokov, Vladimir (1899 - 1977) -- Russian-American author, translator, lepidopterist whose linguistic faculty has been compared to that of James Joyce.
Nesbit, Edith (1858 - 1924) -- British writer, primarily of children's books.
Newton, Isaac (1642 - 1727) -- a brilliant mathematician and physicist, Newton was also interested in theology and alchemy.
Nicholas, of Autrecourt (1300 - 1300) -- a teacher in Paris, Nicholas' lectures anticipate some aspects of Hume's philosophy.
Nicholas, of Cusa (1401 - 1464) -- active in the Church and later a cardinal, Nicholas is remembered in philosophy for his teaching on the unknowability of God.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844 - 1900) -- German philosopher and poet whose wide-ranging theories of morality and human behaviour have been some of the most influential of the past centuries.
Norris, Frank (1870 - 1902) -- American novelist.
Ockham, William (1285 - 1347) -- English Franciscan philosopher who argued in favour of nominalism.
Orczy, Baroness Emmuska (1865 - 1947) -- writer of detective stories and follower of Sherlock Holmes.
Orwell, George (1903 - 1950) -- an advocate of democratic socialism, Orwell's social allegories are some of the most powerful critiques of totalitarian societies.
Ouida (1839 - 1908) -- English author, pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramee.
Ovid (43 BC - 17) -- Roman poet whose often frivolous verse has never ceased to be entertaining and inspiriational..
Owen, Wilfred (1893 - 1918) -- great British anti-war poet of the First World War..
Page, Thomas Nelson (1853 - 1922) -- American author who was also a diplomat.
Paine, Thomas (1737 - 1809) -- a British visitor to America, Paine argued that the state has positive duties to its citizens.
Parker, Dorothy (1893 - 1967) -- Playwright, poetess remembered for her wit..
Parker, Gilbert (1862 - 1932) -- Canadian-born author and politician.
Pascal, Blaise (1623 - 1662) -- prominent as a physicist and mathematician, Pascal is remembered in philosophy for his writings on human nature and theology.
Pater, Walter (1839 - 1894) -- British critic and essayist, who influenced Wilde and the Aesthetic movement generally.
Paterson, Andrew Barton 'Banjo' (1864 - 1941) -- one of the best known figures of Australian literature, Banjo Paterson wrote many well-remembered poems and stories.
Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839 - 1914) -- American philosopher and founder of pragmatism.
Philo (300 - 300) -- Alexandrian philosopher.
Plath, Sylvia (1932 - 1963) -- American poet and novelist.
Plato (429 BC - 347) -- Ancient Greek philosopher; student of Socrates and author of philosophical dialogues that are prominent in the study of Western culture..
Plotinus (204 - 270) -- philosopher whose writings mark the beginning of Neoplatonism.
Plutarch (46 - 120) -- Greek biographer, famous for his telling of the lives of the philosophers.
Poe, Edgar Allen (1809 - 1849) -- great American poet and writer of prose.
Pomponazzi, Pietro (1462 - 1525) -- Italian philosopher who argued, contra the Church, that the immortality of the soul is not rationally demonstrable.
Popper, Karl (1902 - 1994) -- Austrian-born British philosopher, whose main contribution was to the philosophy of science.
Porphyry (232 - 305) -- Greek philosopher, student of Plotinus and Neoplatonism.
Post, Melville Davisson (1869 - 1930) -- writer of detective stories.
Potter, Beatrix (1866 - 1943) -- famous writer and illustrator of children's books.
Pound, Ezra (1885 - 1972) -- influential 20th century American poet and critic.
Proust, Marcel (1871 - 1922) -- French writer of a mammoth multi-volume life's work that explored human sensations and attempted to chart the whole of a life's experience..
Pushkin, Alexander S. (1799 - 1837) -- known as the Shakespeare of Russia, he is also the most beloved of her poets.
Pyle, Howard (1853 - 1911) -- American writer and illustrator, famous for his contributions to Harper's magazine.
Pyrrho (300 BC - 300) -- Greek sceptic philosopher, who argued for the impossibility of knowing things in their own nature.
Pythagoras (550 - 500) -- a reputed mathematician, scientist, and philosopher, about whom very little is really known.
Racine, Jean Babtiste (1639 - 1699) -- Master of French classical tragedy.
Radcliffe, Ann (1764 - 1823) -- popular English Gothic novelist .
Rand, Ayn (1905 - 1982) -- Russian-born American novelist, who developed in her fiction a philosophy based on objectivism, which promoted rational self-interest, unregulated capitalism, and absolute individualism.
Rawls, John (1921 - 2002) -- American political philosopher, whose A Theory of Justice was a profoundly influential restatement of ethics in the social contract tradition.
Reeve, Arthur B. (1880 - 1936) -- American author of mystery fiction.
Reid, Thomas (1710 - 1796) -- aiming to replace the 'ideal system' with a system based on 'common sense', Reid was especially critical of Hume's philosophy.
Rinehart, Mary Roberts (1876 - 1958) -- American writer of mystery stories.
Roscelin (1125 - 1125) -- French scholastic philosopher and one of the earliest proponents of nominalism.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712 - 1778) -- philosopher in the French Revolution who made important contributions to the field of political philosophy.
Russell, Bertrand (1872 - 1970) -- British mathematician and logician, who also won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and was a leading civil-rights activist.
Sade, Marquis de (1740 - 1814) -- notorious 18th century French writer of erotic novels.
Salinger, Jerome D. (1919 - ) -- 20th century American novelist.
Sappho (630 - 612) -- One of the great Greek lyrists and few known female poets of the ancient world..
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905 - 1980) -- also a playwright, novelist, and critic, all of Sartre's work is touched by his existential worldview.
Sassoon, Siegfried L. (1886 - 1967) -- remembered best for his war poems, Sasoon was also a successful novelist.
Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von (1759 - 1805) -- great German dramatist and lyric poet, who was also an accomplished philosopher and historian.
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788 - 1860) -- German philosopher, famous for his pessimism.
Schreiner, Olive (1855 - 1920) -- South African writer and political activist.
Scott, Sir Walter (1771 - 1832) -- storyteller and historical novelist.
Seneca (4 - 65) -- Roman statesman, tragic poet, and Stoic philosopher; one of the leading writers in the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Sextus Empiricus (200 - 200) -- sceptic philosopher, who lived during the third century BC.
Shaftesbury, third Earl of (1671 - 1713) -- originally Anthony Ashley Cooper, Shaftesbury coined the phrase 'moral sense' to describe his philosophy of emphasising the emotional component of morality.
Shakespeare, William (1564 - 1616) -- arguably the most heralded poet and dramatist of all time..
Shaw, George Bernard (1856 - 1950) -- Anglo-Irish playwright and critic.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792 - 1822) -- major figure in the English Romantic movement.
Shelley, Mary (1797 - 1851) -- novelist of the Romantic period, best remembered for her novel Frankenstein.
Sidney, Philip (1554 - 1586) -- English Renaissance writer and gentleman, whose commitment to poetry has been an inspiration to poets.
Sinclair, Upton (1878 - 1968) -- American novelist, journalist, remembered for his contribution to economic reform.
Smith, Adam (1723 - 1790) -- a renowned economist, Smith was originally a professor of logic and then of moral philosophy.
Socrates (470 - 399) -- Athenian philosopher who had an incalculable influence on Plato and subsequent philosophy.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander I. (1918 - ) -- a courageous Russian political commentator during the second world war..
Sophocles (496 BC - 406) -- most successful Greek tragedian, producing what were considered perfect tragedies as well as reforming the performance of Greek tragedy..
Spencer, Herbert (1820 - 1903) -- evolutionist, an advocater of Social Darwinism, and originator of sociology.
Spenser, Edmund (1552 - 1599) -- English poet of the sixteenth century.
Spinoza, Baruch (1632 - 1677) -- [replace].
Spyri, Johanna (1827 - 1901) -- Swiss author of children's stories.
Steinbeck, John (1902 - 1968) -- American Nobel laureate, Steinbeck's works encompassed his personal knowledge about his native state of California..
Stevenson, Robert L. (1850 - 1894) -- author of fiction works that have become legendary in children's literature..
Stoker, Bram (1847 - 1912) -- Irish author of well-known gothic horror fantasy novels.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811 - 1896) -- American writer, who wrote an unmatched powerful indictment of slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Stratton-Porter, Gene (1863 - 1924) -- American feminist and writer.
Suarez, Francisco (1548 - 1617) -- metaphysician whose original theories challenged dominant traditional scholastic doctrine.
Sun Tzu (500 - 320) -- Sun Tzu is the name given to the authors of the famous treatise The Art of War.
Swift, Jonathan (1667 - 1745) -- satirist and champion of the Irish people.
Synge, J.M. (1871 - 1909) -- Irish poet and dramatist, who wrote about the bleak lives of many of the Irish people.
Taylor, Bayard (1828 - 1898) -- U.S. statesman and writer.
Teasdale, Sara (1884 - 1933) -- American poet of personal lyrics.
Tennyson, Alfred (1809 - 1892) -- Victorian poet.
Thackeray, William Makepiece (1811 - 1863) -- nineteenth century British novelist.
Thales (500 - 500) -- reputedly living in the sixth century BC, Thales is traditionally regarded as the first ever philosopher.
Theophrastus (371 BC - 287) -- successor of Aristotle, who developed the latter's philosophy in important respects.
Thomas, Dylan M. (1914 - 1953) -- controversial Welsh poet, playwright and short-story writer whose work elicited strong emotional responses..
Thoreau, Henry D. (1817 - 1862) -- American writer and philosopher, remembered for his autobiographic Walden, and his naturalist style.
Tolkien, John R. R. (1892 - 1973) -- the acclaimed master of classic fantasy.
Tolstoy, Leo (1828 - 1910) -- one of the greatest of all novelists; Russian author of realistic fiction..
Trollope, Anthony (1815 - 1882) -- nineteenth century British novelist.
Turgenev, Ivan (1818 - 1883) -- Russian novelist and playwright; leading stylist in the genre.
Twain, Mark (1835 - 1910) -- American writer and humourist, whose adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer won him worldwide acclaim.
Valla, Lorenzo (1407 - 1457) -- Italian humanist who was critical of medieval scholasticism.
Van Dyke, Henry (1852 - 1933) -- American clergyman and writer.
Verne, Jules (1828 - 1905) -- influential French author whose novels laid the foundation for science fiction..
Vico, Giambattista (1668 - 1744) -- influential Italian philosopher, who argued that we can have certain knowledge only about things which we have created.
Virgil (70 - 19) -- Roman poet that sang of the founding of Rome and who would go on to exert an incalculable influence on subsequent literature..
Voltaire (1694 - 1778) -- the greatest 18th century French author and thinker, noted for his wit, satire and critical capacity.
Wallace, Edgar (1875 - 1932) -- English writer of mystery stories.
Walpole, Horace (1717 - 1797) -- English author, famous for his letters and Gothic romance.
Washington, Booker T. (1856 - 1915) -- American educator and writer, who urged for African American economic independence.
Webster, John (1578 - 1626) -- leading 17th century English tragedian.
Wells, Herbert G. (1866 - 1946) -- widely considered the father of science fiction, H.G. Wells' works are important political and social commentary of the 20th century..
Wharton, Edith (1862 - 1937) -- writer who portrayed late nineteenth and early twentieth century American society.
Wharton, Edith (1862 - 1937) -- writer who portrayed late nineteenth and early twentieth century American society.
Whewell, William (1794 - 1866) -- Cambridge philosopher of science.
White, Patrick (1912 - 1990) -- Australia's only Nobel Prize winner for Literature.
White, Terence H. (1906 - 1964) -- an inspirational author who breathes life into a classic legend..
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947) -- British mathematician and philosopher, who collaborated on his master work, Principia Mathematica, with his former student Bertrand Russell.
Whitman, Walt (1819 - 1892) -- American poet and journalist, most famous for his controversial but technically brilliant early poetry.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas (1856 - 1923) -- American educator and writer, famous for her children's works.
Wilde, Oscar (1854 - 1900) -- playwright, poet, novelist and critic born in Ireland, famous for his wit..
Williams, Tennessee (1911 - 1983) -- contemporary American dramatist.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889 - 1951) -- influential twentieth century analytical philosopher.
Wodehouse, P.G. (1881 - 1975) -- Anglo-American author, remembered best for his humourous fictional characters such as Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves.
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759 - 1797) -- influential early feminist, who argued for educational and social equality.
Woolf, Virginia (1882 - 1941) -- notable novelist and feminist critic.
Wordsworth, William (1770 - 1850) -- English poet of the Romantic movement.
Wyclif, John (1330 - 1380) -- .
Xenocrates (396 BC - 314) -- Greek philosopher who systematised Platonism and defended it against Aristotle.
Xenophanes (560 BC - 470) -- Pre-Socratic philosopher who was critical of traditional theology and epistemology.
Xenophon (430 - 355) -- Greek historian, a disciple of Socrates and later a warrior.
Yeats, William B. (1865 - 1939) -- Irish poet, who wrote pieces of simple style related to pagan mythology. Chief proponent of the Irish Renaissance movement..
Yonge, Charlotte Mary (1823 - 1901) -- English novelist.
Zeno of Citium (334 BC - 262) -- founder of the Hellenistic school of Stoic philosophy.
Zeno of Elea (470 BC - 470) -- by advancing arguments to defend Parmenides, Zeno developed philosophical dialectic.
Zola, Émile (1840 - 1902) -- leading figure in the French school of naturalism.
