Isabel

Allende
Chilean-American author Isabel Allende wrote her debut novel, "House of
Spirits," to great acclaim in 1982. The novel began as a letter to her dying
grandfather and is a work of magical realism charting the history of Chile.
Allende began writing "House of Spirits" on Jan. 8, and subsequently has
begun writing all of her books on that day. Most of her works usually
contain elements of magical realism and vivid female characters. "City of
Beasts" (2002) has been another large commercial success.

Margaret Atwood
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has numerous critically acclaimed novels
to her credit. Some of her best-selling titles are "Oryx and Crake" (2003),
"The Handmaid's Tale" (1986), and "The Blind Assassin" (2000). She is best
known for her feminist and dystopian political themes, and her prolific
output of work spans multiple genres, including poetry, short stories, and
essays. She distinguishes her "speculative fiction" from science fiction
because "science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative
fiction could really happen."

Jonathan Franzen
Winner of the National Book Award for his 2001 novel, "The Corrections,"
and a frequent contributor of essays to The New Yorker, Jonathan
Franzen's works include a 2002 book of essays titled "How to Be Alone," a
2006 memoir, "The Discomfort Zone," and the acclaimed "Freedom"
(2010). His work often touches on social criticism and family troubles.

Ian McEwan
British writer Ian McEwan started winning literary awards with his first book, a
collection of short stories, "First Love, Last Rites" (1976) and never stopped.
"Atonement" (2001), a family drama focused on repentance, won several
awards and was made into a movie directed by Joe Wright (2007). "Saturday"
(2005) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His work often focuses on
closely observed personal lives in a politically fraught world. He wields a
paintbrush.

David Mitchell
English novelist David Mitchell is known for his frequent use of intricate and
complex experimental structure in his work. In his first novel, "Ghostwritten"
(1999), he uses nine narrators to tell the story, and 2004's "Cloud Atlas" is a
novel comprising six interconnected stories. Mitchell won the John Llewellyn
Rhys Prize for "Ghostwritten," was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for
"number9dream" (2001), and was on the Booker longlist for "The Bone Clocks"
(2014).
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (1987) was named best novel of the past 25
years in a 2006 New York Times Book Review survey. The searingly
painful novel offers a very personal window into the horrors of slavery
and its aftermath. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and Toni
Morrison, a luminary of African-American literature, won the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1993.

Haruki Murakami
Son of a Buddhist priest, Japanese author Haruki Murakami first struck a
chord with "A Wild Sheep Chase" in 1982, a novel steeped in the genre of
magical realism, which he would make his own over the coming decades.
Murakami's works are melancholic, sometimes fantastic, and often in the
first person. He has said that "his early books...originated in an individual
darkness, while his later works tap into the darkness found in society and
history." His most popular book among Westerners is "The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle," and 2005's English translation of "Kafka on the Shore" has also
met with great success in the West. The English version of Murakami's
well-received novel, "1Q84," was released in 2011.  

Philip Roth
Philip Roth (1933–2018) seems to have won more book awards than any
other late-20th-century American writer. He won the Sidewise Award for
Alternate History for The Plot Against America (2005) and a PEN/Nabokov
Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006. His mostly Jewish-themed work
usually explores a fraught and conflicted relationship with Jewish tradition.
In Everyman (2006), Roth's 27th novel, he stuck to one of his familiar later
themes: what it's like growing old Jewish in America.

Zadie Smith
Literary critic James Wood coined the term "hysterical realism" in 2000 to
describe Zadie Smith's hugely successful debut novel, "White Teeth," which
Smith agreed was a "painfully accurate term for the sort of overblown,
manic prose to be found in novels like my own 'White Teeth.'" The British
novelist and essayist's third novel, "On Beauty," was shortlisted for
the Booker Prize and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her 2012 novel
"NW" was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and the Women's Prize for
Fiction. Her works often deal with race and the immigrant's postcolonial experience.

John Updike
During his long career that spanned decades and reached into the 21st century,
John Updike (1932–2009) was one of only three writers to win the Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction more than once. Some of Updike's most renowned novels
included his Rabbit Angstrom novels, "Of the Farm" (1965), and "Olinger
Stories: A Selection" (1964). His four Rabbit Angstrom novels were named in
2006 among the best novels of the past 25 years in a New York Times Book
Review survey. He famously described his subject as "the American small town,
Protestant middle class."

Homer
ca. 8th century BC

Homer is best known for the two epic poems the Iliad and the
Odyssey. The Iliad is generally considered the oldest work of
Western literature. Even the Greeks themselves recognized Homer
for his influence and did not consider themselves educated unless
they had read his works. It’s disputed whether Homer actually is a
historic person. Absolutely nothing is known about him or his life
and some scholars believe that the Iliad and the Odyssey are the
works of multiple authors rather than just one. No matter who
wrote them, both the Iliad and the Odyssey have had a huge
influence on literature. In fact, even Shakespeare based one of his
plays on the Iliad.

Sophocles
ca. 496 – 406 BC

Sophocles was a tragedian who wrote 123 plays during his life. Only
seven have survived in entity, but they include classics such as
Antigone, Oedipus the King and Electra. He developed theater by
adding a third actor, reducing the importance of the chorus, and
introducing scenography. Sophocles also abolished the traditional
trilogic form of tragedies and made each play complete in itself – this
added dramatic value to the plays.

Herodotus
ca. 484 – 425 BC

Herodotus is considered the father of history in Western culture. He

approached history as a science by collecting his material
systematically and testing its accuracy. Herodotus was also a gifted
narrator. The word history itself comes from Herodotus’ book The
Histories, which means “inquiries” in Greek. This book is also
considered the first work of history in Western literature.
Euripides
ca. 480 – 406 BC

Euripides was another Greek tragedian. He wrote about 95 plays, 18 of

which have survived completely and many more as fragments. His most
known works are Alcestis, Medea and The Bacchus. His plays were very
modern for his time in that they portrayed the characters very realistically
and included strong women and wise slaves – which was very
unconventional at the time. Euripides is the Greek tragedian who has had
the biggest influence on European tragedy.

Hippocrates
ca. 460 – 370 BC

Hippocrates was a physician and is the father of medicine. The

Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of 70 works on different medical topics.
A large portion of it is made up of case studies. The most famous work is
the Hippocratic Oath which is about doctoral ethics. Derivatives of this
oath are still taken by doctors today. Hippocrates has also made a direct
contribution to medicine as he was the first to describe a number of
illnesses. Whether Hippocrates was actually the author of the Hippocratic
Corpus is disputed, and most seem to agree that at least parts of it were
rather written by his students and followers.

Aristophanes
ca. 446 – ca. 386 BC

Aristophanes was a playwright who wrote comedies. He wrote 40 plays, 11

of which have survived as complete manuscripts and some of the others
have survived as fragments. Aristophanes’ pen was feared as he ridiculed
famous Athenians. Plato pointed out his play The Clouds as a contributing
factor to the trial and execution of Socrates. Whether that was really the
case is disputable. Other notable plays from his hand are The Wasps and
Lysistrata. His works have not only had artistic influence on later theater
but have also served as historical documents about life in Athens.
Plato
ca. 424 – 348 BC

Plato was the student of Socrates. While Socrates never wrote anything of his
own, his philosophy is known through the works of Plato. Plato was very
influenced by Socrates’ thinking and not least by his execution, which Plato
witnessed when he was 29 years old. 35 dialogues and 13 letters have been
attributed to Plato, the most famous being The Republic and Symposium. Plato is
regarded as one the fathers of Western philosophy, and his Theory of Forms and
idea of the ideal state, both put forward in The Republic are still discussed today.

Aristotle
384 – 322 BC

Aristotle was the student of Plato and the first to criticize him. 47 of his works
have survived, most of which are actually lecture aids. Aristotle is the last of
the great Greek philosophers (the two others are Socrates and Plato) and is
considered the first biologist as well. He founded logic as a science, lay the
grounds of scientific method and wrote about several other subjects as well.
Aristotle was also the tutor of Alexander the Great for some time. Aristotle
was a large influence on St Thomas of Aquinas and consequently remains a
major influence in Catholic education and theology.

Euclid
fl. 300 BC

Euclid was a mathematician and the father of geometry. Very little is

known of his life, but he was active at the Library of Alexandria. His main
work is The Elements which is still used as a textbook in mathematics and
may only be exceeded by the Bible in terms of copies sold. The book
includes a system of mathematical proofs that remains the basis of
mathematics today.

Archimedes
ca. 287 – 212 BC

Archimedes was a mathematician, engineer, inventor, physicist and

astronomer. He is known for the invention of The Archimedes’ Screw, a
mechanism for moving water that is still in use today. He also calculated
the value of pi very precisely. Archimedes discovered how to define the
volume of irregular objects by submerging them in water. According to legend, this
discovery made him run out on the street naked (he was so excited that he forgot to get
dressed) and cry “Eureka!” – I have found it.