Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

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Étienne Stéphane Mallarmé

Stéphane Mallarmé

France

18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898 (56 years old)

Intellectual leader of French Symbolism whose weekly Tuesday gatherings (Les Mardis) mentored Gide, Valéry, and Proust, and whose hermetic masterpieces—L'Après-midi d'un faune and Un Coup de dés—pioneered modern abstract poetry.

Valvins (Avon, Seine-et-Marne), France

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Zachris Topelius

Zacharias Topelius

Finland

1818-01-14 – 1898-03-12 (80 years old)

Distinguished Finnish author, historian, and poet celebrated as 'the fairy-tale uncle' who wrote Fältskärns berättelser (The Surgeon's Stories) and the foundational school reader Boken om vårt land.

Helsinki, Finland

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Alphonse Daudet

Alphonse Daudet

France

1840 – 1897 (57 years old)

Beloved French novelist and storyteller whose sun-drenched Provençal tales Lettres de mon moulin and comic masterpiece Tartarin de Tarascon brought the humour, pathos, and warmth of southern France into world literature.

Paris, France

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Literature & Poetry

14

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Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri

أحمد بن خالد الناصري

Morocco

1835 – 1897 (62 years old)

Foremost Moroccan historian of the 19th century who served in high administrative posts under Sultan Moulay Hassan I and authored the monumental 9-volume national history Kitab al-Istiqsa.

Salé, Morocco

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Literature & Poetry

4

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Khurshidbanu Natavan

Xurşidbanu Natəvan

Azerbaijan

1832-08-15 – 1897-10-08 (65 years old)

Renowned nineteenth-century princess of the Karabakh Khanate, lyrical poet, and philanthropist who founded the Majlisi-Uns literary salon and funded the first aqueduct in Shusha.

Aghdam, Azerbaijan

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Aleko Konstantinov

Алеко Константинов

Bulgaria

1863-01-01 – 1897-05-23 (34 years old)

Beloved satirical genius and pioneer of organized mountaineering whose immortal 1895 satirical feuilletons 'Bay Ganyo' created the most famous archetype in modern Bulgarian literature.

Sofia, Bulgaria

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Literature & Poetry

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Minna Canth

Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnsson Canth

Finland

1844-03-19 – 1897-05-12 (53 years old)

Pioneering Finnish realist playwright and early feminist champion who exposed poverty, clerical hypocrisy, and the oppression of women in Työmiehen vaimo (The Worker's Wife).

Kuopio, Finland

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Salomé Ureña

Salomé Ureña de Henríquez

Dominican Republic

1850-10-21 – 1897-03-06 (46 years old)

Revered national romantic poet and pedagogical pioneer who founded the Instituto de Señoritas in 1881, the very first institution of higher academic education for women in the Dominican Republic.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Ivar Aasen

Ivar Andreas Aasen

Norway

1813-08-05 – 1896-09-23 (83 years old)

Self-taught philologist and linguist who traveled thousands of kilometers across rural Norway to reconstruct the Norwegian written language, creating Nynorsk (Landsmål).

Oslo, Norway

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Literature & Poetry

0

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José Asunción Silva

José Asunción Silva Gómez

Colombia

1865-11-27 – 1896-05-24 (30 years old)

Pioneering master of Spanish-American Modernismo whose haunting, rhythmic masterpiece 'Nocturno' ('Una noche toda llena de murmullos...') and tragic suicide made him an immortal figure, featured on the 5,000-peso note.

Bogotá, Colombia

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Literature & Poetry

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Paul-Marie Verlaine

Paul Verlaine

France

30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896 (51 years old)

Supreme lyric poet of French Symbolism whose dictum 'De la musique avant toute chose' (Music before everything) and melancholic verses in Poèmes saturniens and Romances sans paroles inspired Claude Debussy and provided the BBC coded signal for D-Day.

Paris, France

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Jorge Isaacs

Jorge Isaacs Ferrer

Colombia

1837-04-01 – 1895-04-17 (58 years old)

Master romantic novelist whose 1867 masterpiece 'María', set amidst the sugar haciendas of the Cauca Valley, became the undisputed first international literary bestseller of Latin America.

Medellín, Colombia

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Literature & Poetry

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Camilla Collett

Jacobine Camilla Wergeland Collett

Norway

1813-01-23 – 1895-03-06 (82 years old)

Norway's first major feminist writer and novelist whose 1854 masterpiece Amtmannens Døttre pioneered Norwegian realism and launched the women's emancipation movement.

Oslo, Norway

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Literature & Poetry

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Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Great Britain

1830 – 1894 (64 years old)

Supreme Victorian devotional and lyric poet closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, famed for Goblin Market, 'Remember', and the Christmas carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter'.

London, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

32

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Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

Scotland

1850 – 1894 (44 years old)

Beloved Scottish novelist, poet, and travel essayist who created Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and the psychological allegory of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Apia, Samoa

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Cirilo Villaverde

Cirilo Villaverde de la Paz

Cuba

1812-10-28 – 1894-10-24 (81 years old)

Author of the foundational Cuban realist novel 'Cecilia Valdés' (1882), a panoramic indictment of 19th-century colonial society, racial slavery, and the tragic fate of mulatto women in Havana.

Maspeth, Queens, New York, USA

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Literature & Poetry

6

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Leconte de Lisle

Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle

France

1818 – 1894 (75 years old)

French poet from Réunion Island who spearheaded the Parnassian school of poetry, championing impassioned classical objectivity, sculptural beauty, and Vedic myth in Poèmes antiques and Poèmes barbares.

Saint-Paul (Réunion), France

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Literature & Poetry

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Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়

India

1838 – 1894 (55 years old)

Bengali novelist and intellectual hailed as the father of the modern Indian novel, who composed Vande Mataram, the national song of India, within his 1882 patriotic novel Anandamath.

Kolkata, India

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