Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

6

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Iwan Gilkin

Iwan Gilkin

Belgium

1858 – 1924 (66 years old)

Belgian Symbolist and Parnassian poet who directed La Jeune Belgique following Max Waller's death, famed for his Baudelairean verse collection La Damnation de l'artiste and philosophical verse dramas.

Schaerbeek (Brussels), Belgium

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Literature & Poetry

13

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Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti

مصطفى لطفي المنفلوطي

Egypt

1876 – 1924 (47 years old)

Paramount master of modern Arabic lyrical prose and essayist whose emotional masterpieces Al-Nazarat and Al-Ibarat captivated millions across the Arab world with their moral beauty and empathy for the suffering.

Asyut, Egypt

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Literature & Poetry

44

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Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Czech Republic

3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924 (40 years old)

Visionary Prague writer whose uncanny parables of nightmare bureaucracy, guilt, and existential dread—The Metamorphosis (Gregor Samsa), The Trial (Josef K.), and The Castle—gave human language the word 'Kafkaesque'.

Kierling (near Klosterneuburg), Austria

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Literature & Poetry

4

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Aleksa Šantić

Алекса Шантић

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1868-05-27 – 1924-02-02 (55 years old)

Beloved lyric poet of Mostar whose romantic sevdalinka 'Emina' and impassioned patriotic hymn 'Ostajte ovdje' ('Stay Here') championed brotherhood and unity across all Bosnian faiths.

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Baldomero Lillo

Baldomero Lillo Figueroa

Chile

1867-01-06 – 1923-09-10 (56 years old)

Pioneering master of Chilean social realism whose devastating 1904 short story collection 'Sub terra' exposed the brutal, underground exploitation of coal miners in the submarine tunnels of Lota.

Santiago, Chile

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Edith Södergran

Edith Irene Södergran

Russia

1892-04-04 – 1923-06-24 (31 years old)

Towering pioneer of Nordic modernist poetry whose free-verse expressionist collections, including Dikter and Landet som icke är, transformed Scandinavian poetic tradition.

Raivola (Roshchino), Russia

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Literature & Poetry

4

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Hovhannes Tumanyan

Հովհաննես Թումանյան

Armenia

1869-02-19 – 1923-03-23 (54 years old)

Revered as the 'All-Armenian Poet', whose ballads, folk adaptations (such as 'Anoush'), and children's tales shaped modern Armenian national identity and ethical humanitarianism.

Tbilisi, Georgia

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Jaroslav Hašek

Jaroslav Hašek

Kingdom of Bohemia

1883-04-30 – 1923-01-03 (39 years old)

World-famous satirical genius whose immortal anti-militarist novel 'The Good Soldier Švejk' exposed the absurdity of war and Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy through the brilliant buffoonery of Josef Švejk.

Lipnice nad Sázavou, Czech Republic

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Literature & Poetry

47

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Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust

France

10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922 (51 years old)

Titan of 20th-century literature who worked from his cork-lined Paris bedroom to compose the monumental seven-volume epic À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time)—immortalizing involuntary memory through the madeleine dipped in tea.

Paris, France

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Literature & Poetry

34

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Mori Ogai

森鴎外 (Mori Rintaro)

Japan

1862 – 1922 (60 years old)

Surgeon General of the Imperial Japanese Army and towering literary master (1862–1922) who introduced modern German literature to Japan, authored psychological classics like 'The Dancing Girl' and 'The Wild Geese', and shaped Meiji modernization.

Mitaka (Tokyo), Japan

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Ivan Vazov

Иван Вазов

Bulgaria

1850-07-09 – 1921-09-22 (71 years old)

Universally crowned as the 'Patriarch of Bulgarian Literature', whose monumental 1888 novel 'Under the Yoke' (Pod Igoto) and poetic epics defined modern Bulgarian national consciousness and language.

Sofia, Bulgaria

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Literature & Poetry

7

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Mohamed Ben Cherif

محمد بن الشريف

Algeria

1879 – 1921 (42 years old)

Pioneering early 20th-century Algerian writer and intellectual whose 1920 work 'Ahmed ben Mostapha, goumier' is one of the earliest French-language novels by an Algerian.

Djelfa, Algeria

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Dan Andersson

Daniel Andersson

Sweden

1888-04-06 – 1920-09-16 (32 years old)

Beloved poet of the Bergslagen wilderness whose haunting charcoal burner ballads and collections 'Kolvaktarens visor' and 'Svarta ballader' form an eternal part of Swedish folk culture.

Ludvika, Sweden

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Literature & Poetry

4

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Vahan Terian

Վահան Տերյան

Georgia

1885-01-28 – 1920-01-07 (34 years old)

Renowned symbolist poet whose 1908 collection 'Twilight Dreams' introduced refined musicality, autumn sadness, and linguistic elegance into modern Eastern Armenian poetry.

Yerevan, Armenia

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Literature & Poetry

5

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Karl Adolph Gjellerup

Karl Adolph Gjellerup

Denmark

1857-06-02 – 1919-10-11 (62 years old)

Danish poet and novelist awarded the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature for his varied and rich poetry inspired by lofty ideals, author of The Pilgrim Kamanita.

Dresden, Germany

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Medardo Ángel Silva

Medardo Ángel Silva Rodas

Ecuador

1898-06-08 – 1919-06-10 (21 years old)

Tragic teenage poetic prodigy and leader of the 'Generación Decapitada' whose heartbreaking modern poem 'El alma en los labios' was set to music as Ecuador's most iconic and haunting pasillo.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Maryana Marrash

مريانا مراش

Syria

1848 – 1919 (71 years old)

Pioneering Syrian woman of letters from Aleppo who established the first modern Arab literary salon in her home in the 1880s.

Aleppo, Syria

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Literature & Poetry

15

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Malak Hifni Nasif

ملك حفني ناصف

Egypt

1886 – 1918 (31 years old)

Pioneering feminist writer and poet who wrote under the pen name 'Bahithat al-Badiya', delivering the first public lectures for women in modern Egypt and presenting the 10-point feminist manifesto in 1911.

Cairo, Egypt

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