Find out more about the greatest 20th Century Poets, including Roald Dahl, Jim Morrison, Sylvia Plath, Leonard Cohen and Maya Angelou.
J. R. R. Tolkien03 January 1892, British, South African
Writer
Jim Morrison08 December 1943, American
Singer-songwriter
Roald Dahl13 September 1916, British
Novelist
Rabindranath Tagore07 May 1861, Indian
Poet
Maya Angelou04 April 1928, American
Poet
Leonard Cohen21 September 1934, Canadian
Singer-songwriter
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar28 May 1883, Indian
Independence Activist, Reformer
Sylvia Plath27 October 1932, American
Poet, Novelist, and Writer
Margaret Atwood18 November 1939, Canadian
Writer, Environmental Activist
Charles Bukowski16 August 1920, German, American
Poet
Robert Frost26 March 1874, American
Poet
Langston Hughes01 February 1902, American
Poet, Novelist, Playwright, & Columnist
Allen Ginsberg03 June 1926, American
Poet
Jack Kerouac12 March 1922, American
Novelist, Poet
W. H. Auden21 February 1907, British
Poet
Yukio Mishima14 January 1925, Japanese
Playwright
Shel Silverstein25 September 1930, American
Poet
Samuel Beckett13 April 1906, Irish
Novelist, Playwright, Theater Director
Chirlane McCray29 November 1954, American
Writer, Social Activist
Dorothy Parker22 August 1893, American
Poet
Pablo Neruda12 July 1904, Chilean
Chilean poet
Dylan Thomas27 October 1914, Welsh
Poet & Writer
Audre Lorde18 February 1934, American
Writer
Ted Hughes17 August 1930, British
Poet and Children's Writer
Chinua Achebe16 November 1930, Nigerian
Nigerian novelist
Joyce Carol Oates16 June 1938, American
Writer
Julius Evola19 May 1898, Italian
Philosopher
George Santayana16 December 1863, Spanish, Italian
Philosopher, Essayist, Poet, & Novelist
Harold Pinter10 October 1930, British
Nobel Prize Winner in Literature
Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi14 June 1856, Indian
Islamic Scholar, Reformer
Philip Larkin09 August 1922, British
Poet
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John Updike18 March 1932, American
Seamus Heaney13 April 1939, Irish
Poet
Neal Cassady08 February 1926, American
Kamal Amrohi17 January 1918, Indian
Director
Ron Cephas Jones08 January 1957, American
Actor
Wendell Berry05 August 1934, American
Dorothy L. Sayers13 June 1893, British
Writer
Amrita Pritam31 August 1919, Indian
Writer
Amiri Baraka07 October 1934, American
Writer
Betty Aberlin30 December 1942, American
Actress
Carol Ann Duffy23 December 1955, British
Jean Genet19 December 1910, French
Novelist
Anne Sexton09 November 1928, American
Poet
Joseph Brodsky24 May 1940, Russian
Essayist & Poet
Marjane Satrapi22 November 1969, French, Iranian
Graphic Novelist
Carson McCullers19 February 1917, American
American novelist
Sherman Alexie07 October 1966, American
Novelist
Vikram Seth20 June 1952, Indian
Writer
James Weldon Johnson17 June 1871, American
Author
Adrienne Rich16 May 1929, American
American poet
Saul Williams29 February 1972, American
Singer, Musician, Poet
Michael Ondaatje12 September 1943, Canadian
Canadian poet
Edward Gorey22 February 1925, American
Robert LaSardo20 September 1963, American
Actor
Kingsley Amis16 April 1922, British
Poet, novelist and lecturer
Gwendolyn Brooks07 June 1917, American
Poet
Derek Walcott23 January 1930, Saint Lucian
Poet
Barbara Kingsolver08 April 1955, American
Novelist, Poet, Essayist
Octavio Paz31 March 1914, Mexican
Writer, Poet, Diplomat and Noble Prize Laureate
John Berger05 November 1926, British
Novelist
Elizabeth Bishop08 February 1911, American
Poet
Ogden Nash19 August 1902, American
Poet
Paul Laurence Dunbar27 June 1872, American
Poet
Gary Snyder08 May 1930, American
American man of letters
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar23 September 1908, Indian
Poet
Alan Jay Lerner31 August 1918, American
American lyricist
Kusumagraj27 February 1912, Indian
Poet
Kuvempu29 December 1904, Indian
Novelist
Czesław Miłosz30 June 1911, Polish
Poet
Robert Lowell01 March 1917, American
Poet
Mahmoud Darwish13 March 1941, Palestinian
Poet
Paul Bowles30 December 1910, American
Writer, Music Composer
Wisława Szymborska02 July 1923, Polish
Nobel Laureate in Literature
Hélène Cixous05 June 1937, Algerian
Professor
Cesare Pavese09 September 1908, Italian
Italian poet
Mahadevi Varma26 March 1907, Indian
Poet
Henry Lawson17 June 1867, Australian
Writer
Nizar Qabbani21 March 1923, Syrian
Diplomat
Herta Müller17 August 1953, German
Writer
Reinaldo Arenas16 July 1943, Cuban
Cuban poet
Theodore Roethke25 May 1908, American
Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet
Lucille Clifton27 June 1936, American
American poet
Chairil Anwar26 July 1922, Indonesian
Poet
Abdolkarim Soroush16 December 1945, Iranian
Thinker and Reformer
Ernesto Cardenal20 January 1925, Nicaraguan
Poet, Revolutionary, Politician, Priest
Robert Hayden04 August 1913, American
Poet, Essayist, Educator
Judith Wright31 May 1915, Australian
Poet, Environmentalist, Campaigner for Aboriginal
Assi Rahbani04 May 1923, Lebanese
Composer
Girolamo Fracastoro1478 AD, Italian
Physician, scholar, poet
Roque Dalton14 May 1935, Salvadoran
Poet
Salvatore Quasimodo20 August 1901, Italian
Author & Poet
Tomas Tranströmer15 April 1931, Swedish
Poet
Karel Appel25 April 1921, Dutch
Painter, Sculptor, Poet