Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Jorge Barbosa

Jorge Pedro Mauricio dos Reis Barbosa

Cape Verde

1902-05-22 – 1969-01-06 (66 years old)

Foundational Cape Verdean poet whose landmark 1935 book 'Arquipelago' initiated modern Cape Verdean literature and co-founded the 'Claridade' cultural movement.

Praia, Cape Verde

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John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr.

United States

1902 – 1968 (66 years old)

1962 Nobel laureate whose gritty American social realism in The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden gave voice to the working poor and Dust Bowl migrants.

Salinas, California, United States

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27

Manuel Bandeira

Manuel Carneiro de Souza Bandeira Filho

Brazil

1886 – 1968 (82 years old)

Pioneering Brazilian poet of the Modernist Movement whose 1922 poem Os Sapos served as the manifesto anthem of the historic Modern Art Week in Sao Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Bechara El Khoury

بشارة الخوري / الأخطل الصغير

Lebanon

1885 – 31 July 1968 (83 years old)

Celebrated Lebanese lyric poet crowned 'Prince of Poets' in 1961, whose sublime romantic ghazals were immortalized by Fairuz and Abdel Wahab.

Beirut, Lebanon

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Felix Couchoro

Benin

1900-01-30 – 1968-04-05 (68 years old)

Pioneering West African novelist whose 1929 novel 'L'Esclave' was the second published novel in French by a Black African, celebrated for chronicling popular social realities.

Lome, Togo

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Arnulf Øverland

Ole Peter Arnulf Øverland

Norway

1889-04-27 – 1968-03-25 (78 years old)

Prominent Norwegian poet and moral conscience who penned the anti-fascist warning 'Du må ikke sove' in 1937, survived Grini and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, and lived in Grotten.

Oslo, Norway

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39

Guimaraes Rosa

João Guimarães Rosa

Brazil

1908 – 1967 (59 years old)

Brazilian novelist and diplomat whose epic The Devil to Pay in the Backlands is hailed as the Brazilian Ulysses, revolutionizing Portuguese prose with daring neologisms and metaphysical depth.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Mustapha Khraïef

مصطفى خريف

Tunisia

October 10, 1910 – October 21, 1967 (57 years old)

Prolific Tunisian poet, essayist, and dramatist of the famed bohemian Taht al-Sur literary circle whose lyrical poetry blended classical Arabic elegance with vivid vernacular rhythms and social consciousness.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Fadhma Aït Mansour Amrouche

فاطمة آيت منصور عمروش

Algeria

1882 – 1967 (85 years old)

Pioneering Berber autobiographer and oral folklorist whose posthumous memoir 'Histoire de ma vie' (1968) is a foundational masterpiece of modern North African literature.

Saint-Maurice (honored in Tizi Ouzou), France

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Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes

United States

1901 – 1967 (66 years old)

Poet Laureate of Harlem and leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance who invented jazz poetry in 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers', The Weary Blues, and 'Harlem'.

Harlem (New York City), United States

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Johan Falkberget

Johan Petter Falkberget

Norway

1879-09-30 – 1967-04-05 (87 years old)

Beloved Norwegian author who worked in the Røros copper mines from age eight and chronicled the toil, folklore, and resilience of miners in epics like Christianus Sextus.

Røros, Norway

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26

Forough Farrokhzad

فروغ فرخزاد

Iran

1935 – 1967 (32 years old)

Iconic Iranian modernist poet and filmmaker whose candid, passionate feminist poetry shattered centuries of Persian patriarchal silence, and whose documentary The House Is Black is a cinematic masterpiece.

Tajrish (Tehran), Iran

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34

Lao She

老舍

China

1899 – 1966 (67 years old)

Manchu-Chinese novelist and playwright celebrated for Rickshaw Boy and Teahouse, master of Beijing dialect humor and empathetic chronicler of urban working-class life.

Beijing, China

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25

Anna Akhmatova

Анна Андреевна Ахматова

Russia

1889 – 1966 (76 years old)

Supreme Russian modernist poet of the Silver Age and leader of Acmeism whose poem Requiem bore witness to the terror of Stalin's Great Purge.

Komarovo (Saint Petersburg), Russia

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12

Anna Gréki

آنا غريكي (كوليت دوراند)

Algeria

1931 – 1966 (34 years old)

Passionate Algerian poet and revolutionary militant born in the Aurès who was imprisoned by French paratroopers and authored the immortal collection 'Algérie, Capitale Alger'.

Algiers, Algeria

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Junichiro Tanizaki

谷崎潤一郎

Japan

1886 – 1965 (79 years old)

Japanese novelist celebrated for The Makioka Sisters, Some Prefer Nettles, and In Praise of Shadows, master of traditional Japanese aesthetics and subtle erotic obsessions.

Kyoto, Japan

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