Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

26

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Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

بدر شاكر السياب

Iraq

1926 – 1964 (37 years old)

Iraqi poet celebrated as the father of modern Arabic free verse (shi'r hurr), whose revolutionary 1960 collection Rain Song transformed twentieth-century Arabic poetic meter and mythology.

Al-Zubayr (Basra), Iraq

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Literature & Poetry

32

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Sean O'Casey

John Casey / Seán Ó Cathasaigh

Ireland

1880 – 1964 (84 years old)

Irish dramatist and socialist who immortalized the Dublin working-class tenements in his tragicomic Dublin Trilogy: The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars.

London, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Frans Eemil Sillanpää

Frans Eemil Sillanpää

Finland

1888-09-16 – 1964-06-03 (75 years old)

First Finnish author awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1939) for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he portrayed their life and nature.

Hämeenkyrö, Finland

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Literature & Poetry

0

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E. J. Pratt

Ned Pratt

Canada

4 February 1882 – 26 April 1964 (82 years old)

Towering Newfoundland-born poet whose heroic epics The Titanic, Brébeuf and his Brethren, and Towards the Last Spike defined the Canadian mythos.

Toronto, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

36

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Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad

عباس محمود العقاد

Egypt

1889 – 1964 (74 years old)

Monumental self-taught Egyptian writer, critic, philosopher, and parliamentarian who authored over one hundred books, famously celebrated for his psychological biographical series 'Al-Abqariyyat' (The Geniuses).

Aswan, Egypt

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Literature & Poetry

1

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Cheikh Abdelkader El Khaldi

عبد القادر الخالدي

Algeria

1896 – 1964 (68 years old)

Master poet of Bedouin Melhoun and author of the immortal love masterpiece 'Bakhta', whose lyrics form the poetic bedrock of modern Raï and Bedouin song.

Oran, Algeria

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Literature & Poetry

7

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Mohammed Mokhtar Soussi

محمد المختار السوسي

Morocco

1900 – 1963 (63 years old)

Prolific Moroccan historian, jurist, and anti-colonial intellectual whose monumental 20-volume encyclopedia al-Ma'sul rescued the Amazigh scholarly, poetic, and Sufi heritage of the Anti-Atlas mountains.

Rabat, Morocco

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Literature & Poetry

5

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Mohamed Mokhtar Soussi

محمد المختار السوسي

Morocco

1900 – 1963 (63 years old)

Encyclopedic Moroccan historian, poet, and nationalist leader who authored the monumental 20-volume regional encyclopedia Al-Ma'sul while exiled by French authorities in the Anti-Atlas.

Rabat, Morocco

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Literature & Poetry

9

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Mohammed al-Mukhtar Soussi

محمد المختار السوسي

Morocco

c. 1900 – 1963 (63 years old)

Monuments Moroccan historian, encyclopedist, and Minister of Islamic Affairs who authored the monumental twenty-volume encyclopedia 'Al-Ma'sul' documenting the history, culture, and scholars of southern Morocco.

Rabat, Morocco

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Karen Blixen

Karen Christence Dinesen Blixen

Denmark

1885-04-17 – 1962-09-07 (77 years old)

World-renowned Danish author writing under the pen name Isak Dinesen, acclaimed for her lyrical memoir Out of Africa and masterly Gothic tales including Babette's Feast.

Rungsted, Denmark

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Literature & Poetry

29

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Hermann Hesse

Hermann Karl Hesse

Germany

1877 – 1962 (85 years old)

German-Swiss 1946 Nobel laureate whose spiritual and philosophical novels Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and The Glass Bead Game explored Eastern mysticism and personal authenticity.

Collina d'Oro (Montagnola), Switzerland

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Literature & Poetry

30

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William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner

United States

1897 – 1962 (64 years old)

1949 Nobel laureate in Literature who created Yoknapatawpha County, pioneering stream-of-consciousness modernism in The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!.

Oxford, Mississippi, United States

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Shaaban bin Robert

Shaaban bin Robert

Tanzania

1909-01-01 – 1962-06-22 (53 years old)

Revered poet, essayist, and philosopher acclaimed as the father of modern Swahili literature, who codified modern Swahili grammar and authored 'Kusadikika' and 'Kufikirika'.

Tanga, Tanzania

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Literature & Poetry

0

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Marun Abboud

مارون عبود

Lebanon

9 February 1886 – 3 June 1962 (76 years old)

Foremost Lebanese literary critic and essayist who championed social realism, vernacular language authenticity, and religious tolerance.

Ain Kfaa, Lebanon

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Literature & Poetry

27

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Jean Amrouche

جان عمروش

Algeria

1906 – 1962 (56 years old)

Kabyle Algerian poet, essayist, and pioneer of literary broadcasting on French radio who championed Maghrebi cultural identity and served as secret diplomatic mediator between Charles de Gaulle and the GPRA.

Loir-et-Cher, France

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Literature & Poetry

28

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Mouloud Feraoun

مولود فرعون

Algeria

1913 – 1962 (49 years old)

Beloved Kabyle Algerian novelist and educator who captured the dignity, poverty, and soul of Berber mountain life in 'The Poor Man's Son' (Le Fils du pauvre), murdered alongside five educator colleagues by the fascist OAS.

Tizi Hibel (Tizi Ouzou), Algeria

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Literature & Poetry

25

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Ahmed Rafiq al-Mahdawi

أحمد رفيق المهدوي

Italy

c. 1898 – 1961 (63 years old)

Venerated national poet of Libya who wielded his verse as a weapon against Italian fascist colonialism, endured decades of exile, and championed national unity in the independent United Kingdom of Libya.

Benghazi, Libya

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Literature & Poetry

36

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Ernest Miller Hemingway (Papa)

Ernest Hemingway

United States

21 July 1899 – 2 July 1961 (61 years old)

Titan of 20th-century American fiction and 1954 Nobel laureate whose spare, declarative 'iceberg theory' prose style and adventurous life in Paris, Spain, and Cuba produced The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea.

Ketchum (Idaho), United States

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