Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

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Pencho Slaveykov

Пенчо Петков Славейков

Bulgaria

1866-04-27 – 1912-05-28 (46 years old)

Pioneering intellectual and modernist poet of the 'Misal' circle whose philosophical epic 'A Song of Blood' (Kurvava Pesen) brought Bulgarian literature onto the European stage, nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1912.

Sofia, Bulgaria

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August Strindberg

Johan August Strindberg

Sweden

1849 – 1912 (63 years old)

Visionary Swedish playwright, novelist, and painter whose naturalistic and expressionist masterpieces Miss Julie and A Dream Play pioneered modern European drama.

Stockholm, Sweden

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Rafael Pombo

José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo

Colombia

1833-11-07 – 1912-05-05 (78 years old)

Beloved poet crowned 'National Poet of Colombia' in 1905, whose immortal children's fables in verse ('Rinrín Renacuajo', 'La Pobre Viejecita', 'Simón el Bobito') have been memorized by generations.

Bogotá, Colombia

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Bram Stoker

Abraham Stoker

Ireland

1847 – 1912 (64 years old)

Irish author and longtime business manager of London's Lyceum Theatre who created the seminal gothic vampire masterpiece Dracula.

London, United Kingdom

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Herman Bang

Herman Joachim Bang

Denmark

1857-04-20 – 1912-01-29 (54 years old)

Master Danish impressionist author and journalist acclaimed for his cinematic scenic prose and poignant depictions of lonely, overlooked lives in Ved Vejen and Tine.

Copenhagen, Denmark

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Petro Nino Luarasi

Albania

1859-04-22 – 1911-08-17 (52 years old)

Heroic educator, publisher, and martyr of the Albanian National Awakening who founded secret Albanian schools in Kolonjë and directed the Mësonjëtorja school in Korçë despite excommunication.

Ersekë, Albania

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Mirza Alakbar Sabir

Mirzə Ələkbər Sabir

Azerbaijan

1862-05-30 – 1911-07-25 (49 years old)

Renowned satirical poet whose biting poetic verses published in 'Molla Nasreddin' and collected in 'Hophopname' awakened social consciousness and defended the rights of the common people.

Shamakhi, Azerbaijan

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Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Лев Николаевич Толстой

Russia

9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910 (82 years old)

Colossus of world literature whose epic panoramic masterworks War and Peace and Anna Karenina captured the entire canvas of human life, and whose later Christian anarchist pacifism (The Kingdom of God Is Within You) inspired Mahatma Gandhi.

Astapovo (Lipetsk Oblast), Russia

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Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson

Norway

1832-12-08 – 1910-04-26 (77 years old)

Giant of Norwegian letters and civic life who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903, wrote the national anthem 'Ja, vi elsker dette landet', and championed democratic freedom across Europe.

Oslo, Norway

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)

United States

30 November 1835 – 21 April 1910 (74 years old)

America's greatest humorist and storyteller dubbed by Ernest Hemingway the source of 'all modern American literature', whose Adventures of Huckleberry Finn used vernacular dialect and moral irony to deliver a devastating critique of racism.

Redding (Connecticut), United States

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Catherine Helen Spence

United Kingdom

1825-10-31 – 1910-04-03 (84 years old)

Revered as the 'Grand Old Woman of Australasia', pioneering novelist, social crusader, and electoral reformer who stood in 1897 as Australia's first female political candidate.

Brighton, Adelaide, Australia

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John Millington Synge

Edmund John Millington Synge

Ireland

1871 – 1909 (37 years old)

Visionary Irish dramatist and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre whose The Playboy of the Western World ignited riots and captured rural Hiberno-English lyricism.

Dublin, Ireland

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Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Brazil

1839 – 1908 (69 years old)

Patriarch of Brazilian literature and founding President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, famed for The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Jonas Lie

Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie

Norway

1833-11-06 – 1908-07-05 (74 years old)

Eminent Norwegian novelist known as 'the novelist of the home' and one of 'The Four Greats', celebrated for works like The Visionary and The Family at Gilje.

Stavern, Norway

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Joris-Karl Huysmans

Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans

France

1848 – 1907 (59 years old)

French novelist of Dutch heritage who broke with Émile Zola's naturalism to publish À rebours (Against Nature, 1884), hailed as 'the breviary of the Decadence', before undergoing a famous conversion to Catholic mysticism in En route and La Cathédrale.

Paris, France

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Ibrahim al-Yaziji

إبراهيم اليازجي

Lebanon

2 March 1847 – 28 December 1906 (59 years old)

Brilliant Nahda philologist who refined modern literary Arabic, simplified Arabic printing typography, and founded the influential journal Al-Diya.

Cairo, Egypt

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