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
Sylvia Plath27 October 1932, American
Poet, Novelist, and Writer
Jim Morrison08 December 1943, American
Singer, Lyricist, Poet, Musician, Filmmaker
Margaret Atwood18 November 1939, Canadian
Writer, Environmental Activist
Leonard Cohen21 September 1934, Canadian
Singer-songwriter
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar28 May 1883, Indian
Independence Activist, Reformer
Roald Dahl13 September 1916, British, Welsh
Novelist, Short Story Writer
Amrita Pritam31 August 1919, Indian
Writer
Maya Angelou04 April 1928, American
Author
Charles Bukowski16 August 1920, German, American
Poet
Robert Frost26 March 1874, American
Poet
Jack Kerouac12 March 1922, American
Novelist, Poet
Allen Ginsberg03 June 1926, American
Poet
Shel Silverstein25 September 1930, American
Poet
Ted Hughes17 August 1930, British
Poet and Children's Writer
Langston Hughes01 February 1902, American
Poet, Novelist, Playwright, & Columnist
Samuel Beckett13 April 1906, Irish
Novelist, Playwright, Theater Director
Pablo Neruda12 July 1904, Chilean
Chilean poet
Yukio Mishima14 January 1925, Japanese
Playwright
Dylan Thomas27 October 1914, Welsh
Poet & Writer
Chinua Achebe16 November 1930, Nigerian
Nigerian novelist
W. H. Auden21 February 1907, British
Poet
Dorothy Parker22 August 1893, American
Poet
Joyce Carol Oates16 June 1938, American
Writer
Harold Pinter10 October 1930, British
Nobel Prize Winner in Literature
Seamus Heaney13 April 1939, Irish
Poet
John Updike18 March 1932, American
Neal Cassady08 February 1926, American
Philip Larkin09 August 1922, British
Poet
Audre Lorde18 February 1934, American
Writer
Sherman Alexie07 October 1966, American
Novelist
George Santayana16 December 1863, Spanish, Italian
Philosopher, Essayist, Poet, & Novelist
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Wendell Berry05 August 1934, American
Ron Cephas Jones08 January 1957, American
Actor
Vikram Seth20 June 1952, Indian
Writer
Carol Ann Duffy23 December 1955, British
Saul Williams29 February 1972, American
Singer, Musician, Poet
Anne Sexton09 November 1928, American
Poet
Marjane Satrapi22 November 1969, French, Iranian
Graphic Novelist
Derek Walcott23 January 1930, Saint Lucian
Poet
Michael Ondaatje12 September 1943, Canadian
Canadian poet
Edward Gorey22 February 1925, American
Adrienne Rich16 May 1929, American
American poet
Octavio Paz31 March 1914, Mexican
Writer, Poet, Diplomat and Noble Prize Laureate
Carson McCullers19 February 1917, American
American novelist
Betty Aberlin30 December 1942, American
Actress
Barbara Kingsolver08 April 1955, American
Novelist, Poet, Essayist
Kingsley Amis16 April 1922, British
Poet, novelist and lecturer
Amiri Baraka07 October 1934, American
Writer
Elizabeth Bishop08 February 1911, American
Poet
Robert LaSardo20 September 1963, American
Actor
Ogden Nash19 August 1902, American
Poet
John Berger05 November 1926, British
Novelist
Mahmoud Darwish13 March 1941, Palestinian
Poet
Joseph Brodsky24 May 1940, Russian
Essayist & Poet
Gary Snyder08 May 1930, American
American man of letters
Gwendolyn Brooks07 June 1917, American
Poet
Paul Bowles30 December 1910, American
Writer, Music Composer
Czesław Miłosz30 June 1911, Polish
Poet
James Weldon Johnson17 June 1871, American
Author
Wisława Szymborska02 July 1923, Polish
Nobel Laureate in Literature
Alan Jay Lerner31 August 1918, American
American lyricist
Henry Lawson17 June 1867, Australian
Writer
Hélène Cixous05 June 1937, Algerian
Professor
Theodore Roethke25 May 1908, American
Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet
Herta Müller17 August 1953, German
Writer
Nizar Qabbani21 March 1923, Syrian
Diplomat
Judith Wright31 May 1915, Australian
Poet, Environmentalist, Campaigner for Aboriginal
Cesare Pavese09 September 1908, Italian
Italian poet
Lucille Clifton27 June 1936, American
American poet
Reinaldo Arenas16 July 1943, Cuban
Cuban poet
Tomas Tranströmer15 April 1931, Swedish
Poet
Ahlam Mosteghanemi13 April 1953, Algerian
Writer
Robert Hayden04 August 1913, American
Poet, Essayist, Educator
Ernesto Cardenal20 January 1925, Nicaraguan
Poet, Revolutionary, Politician, Priest
Salvatore Quasimodo20 August 1901, Italian
Author & Poet
Girolamo Fracastoro1478 AD, Italian
Physician, scholar, poet
Abdolkarim Soroush16 December 1945, Iranian
Thinker and Reformer
Henry Van Dyke10 November 1852, American
Writer
Karel Appel25 April 1921, Dutch
Painter, Sculptor, Poet
Charles Simic09 May 1938, American
Poet
Assi Rahbani04 May 1923, Lebanese
Composer
Rafael Alberti16 December 1902, Spanish
Poet
Roque Dalton14 May 1935, Salvadoran
Poet
Chairil Anwar26 July 1922, Indonesian
Poet
A. R. Ammons18 February 1926, American
Poet
Adrian Mitchell24 October 1932, British
Poet
Augusto Roa Bastos13 June 1917, Paraguayan
Novelist
Aharon Appelfeld16 February 1932, Israeli
Writer
Fleur Adcock10 February 1934, New Zealander
Poet
John M. Ford10 April 1957, American
Novelist, Writer, Game Designer
James Wright13 December 1927, American
Poet
Blaže Koneski19 December 1921, Macedonian
Poet
Uuno Kailas29 March 1901, Finnish
Poet
David Wagoner05 June 1926, American
Poet, Novelist, Professor
C. Day Lewis27 April 1904, Irish, British
Poet