Historical Archives & Public Figures

George Bernard Shaw

Ireland

1856 – 1950 (94 years old)

Irish playwright, critic, socialist, and 1925 Nobel laureate who transformed English theater with biting satirical wit in Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and Man and Superman.

Ayot St Lawrence, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

32

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Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell)

India

25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 (46 years old)

Supreme political satirist and essayist of the 20th century whose devastating warnings against totalitarianism—Animal Farm ('All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others') and Nineteen Eighty-Four (Big Brother, Newspeak, Thoughtcrime)—permanently armed the free world.

London, Great Britain

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Literature & Poetry

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Sigrid Undset

Denmark

1882-05-20 – 1949-06-10 (67 years old)

Master Norwegian novelist awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928 for her luminous, psychologically profound depictions of Nordic life during the Middle Ages in Kristin Lavransdatter.

Ringsaker, Norway

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Literature & Poetry

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Khalil Mutran

خليل مطران

Lebanon

1 July 1872 – 1 June 1949 (76 years old)

Celebrated Lebanese-Egyptian poet titled 'Poet of the Two Countries' who introduced modern romantic sensibility into Arabic verse.

Cairo, Egypt

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Literature & Poetry

28

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Ali Douagi

علي الدوعاجي

Tunisia

1909 – 1949 (40 years old)

Brilliant Tunisian bohemian writer, playwright, caricaturist, and songwriter who founded the modern Tunisian short story and animated the celebrated 'Taht Es-Sour' literary circle in the Bab Souika quarter.

Tunis, Tunisia

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Literature & Poetry

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Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal

مصطفى وهبي التل / عرار

Jordan

25 May 1899 – 24 May 1949 (49 years old)

National poet of Jordan known as 'Arar' whose rebellious, empathetic verse championed the Roma (Gypsies), peasants, and oppressed.

Irbid, Jordan

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Literature & Poetry

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Maurice Maeterlinck

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck

Belgium

1862 – 1949 (86 years old)

Belgian Symbolist master who won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature, world-renowned for his fairy tale drama The Blue Bird (L'Oiseau bleu) and Pelléas et Mélisande (set to music by Claude Debussy).

Nice, France

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Literature & Poetry

27

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Chairil Anwar

Indonesia

1922 – 1949 (26 years old)

Indonesian poet who spearheaded the 'Generation of 45' (Angkatan 45), liberating Indonesian poetry from archaic Malay poetic forms with intense, raw existential free verse.

Jakarta, Indonesia

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Literature & Poetry

26

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Sarojini Naidu

सरोजिनी नायडू

India

1879 – 1949 (70 years old)

Indian poet and political leader celebrated as the 'Nightingale of India' (Bharat Kokila), who blended lyrical English romanticism with Indian folk motifs and served as the first woman governor of an Indian state.

Lucknow, India

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Literature & Poetry

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Thomas Mofolo

Thomas Mokopu Mofolo

Lesotho

1876-12-22 – 1948-09-08 (71 years old)

Pioneering Mosotho author who wrote 'Chaka' (1925), the first major literary tragedy in an African language, translated into a dozen languages and celebrated worldwide.

Morija, Lesotho

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Literature & Poetry

29

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Osamu Dazai

太宰治

Japan

1909 – 1948 (38 years old)

Major 20th-century Japanese novelist and master of the 'I-novel' (watakushi shōsetsu) whose No Longer Human and The Setting Sun captured post-war existential anguish.

Mitaka (Tokyo), Japan

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Literature & Poetry

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Duncan Campbell Scott

Canada

1862 – 1947 (85 years old)

Major Confederation poet and short story writer whose poetry captured the northern Ontario wilderness, while serving as a senior civil servant in the Department of Indian Affairs.

Ottawa, Canada

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Literature & Poetry

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B. W. Vilakazi

Benedict Wallet Bambatha Vilakazi

South Africa

1906-01-06 – 1947-10-26 (41 years old)

Linguistic genius and poet who became the first Black South African to earn a doctorate in literature, co-authored the standard Zulu-English Dictionary, and modernized Zulu lyrical poetry.

Groutville, South Africa

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Literature & Poetry

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Felix Timmermans

Felix Leopold August Timmermans

Belgium

1886 – 1947 (60 years old)

Beloved Flemish novelist and illustrator whose jubilant 1916 novel Pallieter celebrated the epicurean joy of living and whose Boerenpsalm (1935) immortalized the peasant faith of the Kempen region.

Lier (Antwerp Province), Belgium

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Literature & Poetry

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Shakib Arslan

شكيب أرسلان

Lebanon

25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946 (76 years old)

Influential Lebanese Druze prince and diplomat titled the 'Prince of Eloquence', author of 'Why Did Muslims Decline While Others Advanced?'.

Choueifat, Lebanon

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Literature & Poetry

26

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H.G. Wells

Herbert George Wells

Great Britain

1866 – 1946 (79 years old)

Visionary English author and social prophet revered as the 'Father of Science Fiction' for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man.

English Channel, United Kingdom

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Literature & Poetry

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Nasib Arida

نسيب عريضة

Syria

1 August 1887 – 25 March 1946 (58 years old)

Pioneering Syrian-Lebanese Mahjar poet who founded the legendary literary magazine 'Al-Funoon' in New York in 1913.

Brooklyn, New York, United States

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Literature & Poetry

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S. E. K. Mqhayi

Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi

South Africa

1875-12-01 – 1945-07-29 (69 years old)

Venerated as 'Imbongi yeSizwe' (The Poet of the Nation), who standardized written Xhosa, authored seven extra stanzas of 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika', and wrote the classic novel 'Ityala lamawele'.

Berlin, South Africa

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Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries