Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

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Duncan Campbell Scott

Duncan Campbell Scott

Canada

1862 – 1947 (85 years old)

Major Confederation poet and short story writer whose poetry captured the northern Ontario wilderness, while serving as a senior civil servant in the Department of Indian Affairs.

Ottawa, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

6

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B. W. Vilakazi

Benedict Wallet Bambatha Vilakazi

South Africa

1906-01-06 – 1947-10-26 (41 years old)

Linguistic genius and poet who became the first Black South African to earn a doctorate in literature, co-authored the standard Zulu-English Dictionary, and modernized Zulu lyrical poetry.

Groutville, South Africa

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Literature & Poetry

8

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Felix Timmermans

Felix Leopold August Timmermans

Belgium

1886 – 1947 (60 years old)

Beloved Flemish novelist and illustrator whose jubilant 1916 novel Pallieter celebrated the epicurean joy of living and whose Boerenpsalm (1935) immortalized the peasant faith of the Kempen region.

Lier (Antwerp Province), Belgium

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Literature & Poetry

7

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Shakib Arslan

شكيب أرسلان

Lebanon

25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946 (76 years old)

Influential Lebanese Druze prince and diplomat titled the 'Prince of Eloquence', author of 'Why Did Muslims Decline While Others Advanced?'.

Choueifat, Lebanon

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Literature & Poetry

31

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H.G. Wells

Herbert George Wells

Great Britain

1866 – 1946 (79 years old)

Visionary English author and social prophet revered as the 'Father of Science Fiction' for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man.

English Channel, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

3

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Alcides Arguedas

Alcides Arguedas Díaz

Bolivia

1879-07-15 – 1946-05-06 (66 years old)

Influential Bolivian novelist and sociological historian whose seminal 1919 novel 'Raza de bronce' pioneered indigenist literature in Latin America.

La Paz, Bolivia

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Nasib Arida

نسيب عريضة

Syria

1 August 1887 – 25 March 1946 (58 years old)

Pioneering Syrian-Lebanese Mahjar poet who founded the legendary literary magazine 'Al-Funoon' in New York in 1913.

Brooklyn, New York, United States

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Literature & Poetry

3

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Henry Handel Richardson

Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson

Australia

1870-01-03 – 1946-03-20 (76 years old)

Pen name of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, one of Australia's greatest novelists, whose epic trilogy 'The Fortunes of Richard Mahony' is a monumental psychological study of colonial life.

East Sussex, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

5

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S. E. K. Mqhayi

Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi

South Africa

1875-12-01 – 1945-07-29 (69 years old)

Venerated as 'Imbongi yeSizwe' (The Poet of the Nation), who standardized written Xhosa, authored seven extra stanzas of 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika', and wrote the classic novel 'Ityala lamawele'.

Berlin, South Africa

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Paul Valéry

Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry

France

1871 – 1945 (73 years old)

Towering French poet, essayist, and philosopher of consciousness whose monumental poem Le Cimetière marin contains the immortal line: 'Le vent se lève!... Il faut tenter de vivre!', honored with a national funeral by Charles de Gaulle.

Sète (Hérault), France

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Ma'ruf al-Rusafi

معروف الرصافي

Iraq

1875 – 16 April 1945 (70 years old)

Pioneering neoclassical Iraqi poet and social critic who championed women's emancipation, free public education, and political independence.

Baghdad, Iraq

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Literature & Poetry

14

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Mebarek El Mili

مبارك الميلي

Algeria

1898 – 1945 (46 years old)

Pioneering Algerian historian who authored the first comprehensive modern history of Algeria written in Arabic, reclaiming indigenous North African history from colonial narratives.

Mila, Algeria

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Literature & Poetry

6

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August Vermeylen

August Vermeylen

Belgium

1872 – 1945 (72 years old)

Visionary Flemish author, art historian, and senator who co-founded the avant-garde journal Van Nu en Straks and became the first rector of the newly Dutchified Ghent University in 1930.

Uccle (Brussels), Belgium

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Literature & Poetry

8

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Stephen Leacock

Stephen Butler Leacock

Great Britain

1869 – 1944 (74 years old)

Canada's most celebrated literary humorist and political economist at McGill University, whose 1912 masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town lovingly immortalized small-town Canadian life.

Sutton (Georgina, Ontario), Canada

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Literature & Poetry

7

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Charles G. D. Roberts

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

Canada

1860 – 1943 (83 years old)

Regarded as the 'Father of Canadian Poetry', who led the Confederation Poets with Orion (1880) and invented the modern realistic animal story in works like Red Fox and Earth's Enigmas.

Fredericton (New Brunswick), Canada

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Literature & Poetry

7

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Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

Saint-Denys Garneau

Canada

13 June 1912 – 24 October 1943 (31 years old)

Visionary Quebec poet and painter whose 1937 collection Regards et jeux dans l'espace broke classical molds to establish modern French-Canadian poetry.

Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

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Saint-Denys Garneau

Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

Canada

1912 – 1943 (31 years old)

Pioneering Quebec modernist poet whose 1937 collection Regards et jeux dans l'espace introduced free verse, existential interiority, and ascetic beauty to French-Canadian poetry.

Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

31

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Shimazaki Toson

島崎藤村 (Shimazaki Haruki)

Japan

1872 – 1943 (71 years old)

Foremost figure of Japanese literary naturalism (1872–1943), author of 'The Broken Commandment' (Hakai) and the historical epic 'Before the Dawn' (Yoakemae), who chronicled Japan's transition from feudalism to modernity.

Oiso (Kanagawa), Japan

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