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Genre

Nonfiction Prose

Also Known As Literary Nonfiction
Nonfiction and Documentary Prose

Prose written to describe, argue, reflect on or report the actual world rather than to narrate invented events, spanning forms from the personal essay and memoir to travel writing, criticism, oratory and correspondence collected and read as literature. The genre's boundary with fiction is a matter of the writer's claim about the world rather than of style: nonfiction prose can be as formally inventive, as digressive or as image driven as any novel, and the epistolary form crosses the boundary in both directions, since a real letter collection and a novel written as invented letters share a form while making opposite claims about what actually happened.

Facts
Partially Attested
Place of Origin
No single point of origin across the many forms this genre gathers (essay, oratory, memoir, criticism and more); its most influential form, the essay, is credited to the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne, the first author to describe his own work as essays. 1
Nonfiction Prose gathers many distinct forms (essay, oratory, memoir, history, criticism) with no single shared point of origin; this fact names the origin of the essay, its most influential constituent form, rather than the genre as a whole.
Notable Example
Michel de Montaigne, Essais (1580), the first work to describe itself as essays 1
Defining Trait
Writing that attempts, in good faith, to convey information about the real world rather than being grounded in imagination. 2
Nonfiction Prose
Filter Results5 entries
Connections

Encompasses Form

Biography, Genres
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Haibun, Forms
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
New Journalism, Genres
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Essay, Forms
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Parable, Forms
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Features Author

A Confession, Works
Source Wikipedia: A Confession (Tolstoy)
Source Wikipedia: A Room of One's Own
Source Adam Mickiewicz (Wikipedia)
Source Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Wikipedia
Albert Camus, Authors
Source Albert Camus (Britannica)
Aldous Huxley, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Aldous Huxley
Source Alejo Carpentier (Wikipedia)
Andre Breton, Authors
Source Andre Breton (Wikipedia)
Antje Ascheid, Authors
Source Antje Ascheid (University of Georgia directory)
Source Wikidata: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Arthur Miller, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Arthur Miller
Arundhati Roy, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Arundhati Roy
Source Ayi Kwei Armah, Wikipedia
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Carlos Fuentes (Wikipedia)
Cesare Pavese, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Cesare Pavese
Source Wikipedia: Charles Baudelaire
Source Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (Wikipedia)
Essais, Works
Source Wikipedia: Essais
Source Wikipedia: Tsurezuregusa
Source Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Wikipedia)
George Orwell, Authors
Source Wikipedia: George Orwell
Source Wikipedia: Halldór Laxness
Source Wikipedia: Haruki Murakami
Source Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau
Source I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: In Praise of Shadows
J. M. Coetzee, Authors
Source Wikipedia: J. M. Coetzee
James Baldwin, Authors
Source Wikipedia: James Baldwin
Source Jean-Paul Sartre (Britannica)
Source Wikipedia: Jorge Luis Borges
Source Wikipedia: Leonardo Sciascia
Lu Xun, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Lu Xun
Marcel Proust, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Marcel Proust
Source Wikipedia: Margaret Fuller
Source Wikipedia: Marguerite Duras
Source Wikipedia: Marguerite Yourcenar
Source Mario Vargas Llosa (Wikipedia)
Mark Twain, Authors
Source Wikipedia: Mark Twain
Source Wikipedia: Mary Gaitskill
Source Wikipedia: Michel de Montaigne
Source Wikipedia: Michel Houellebecq
Nature, Works
Source Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836)
Source Wikipedia: Niccolo Machiavelli

Showing 1 to 50 of 82 in Features Author, page 1 of 2.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Essay
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays
  • Definitions section
    The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing.
  • In Group: Creative and Narrative Nonfiction, Lead
    a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument
View the Source
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • s.v. Nonfiction
    Any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination.
  • Encompasses Form: The Essay, s.v. Essay
  • Encompasses Form: The Epistolary Form, s.v. Epistolary Novel
  • Features Author: Biographia Literaria
  • Features Author: Thomas Carlyle
  • Encompasses Form: Fu (Chinese Rhapsody)
  • Encompasses Form: The Parable
View the Source
The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & CompanyNonfiction Prose entry
Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History (1837)
Thomas Carlyle, 1837Features Author: The French Revolution: A History
Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841)
Thomas Carlyle, 1841Features Author: On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
Simone de Beauvoir (Britannica)
Features Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words (1963)
Features Author: The Words
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Features Author: The Myth of Sisyphus
Jean-Paul Sartre (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Albert Camus (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Albert Camus
Andre Breton (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Andre Breton, Opening paragraph, Surrealist Manifesto
Quote, Features Author: Andre Breton, Opening paragraph, Surrealist Manifesto
His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surrealisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".
View the Source
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurism section, Futurist Manifesto
Quote, Features Author: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurism section, Futurist Manifesto
Marinetti is known best as the author of the Futurist Manifesto, which he wrote in 1909.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Opening section, major prose work
Quote, Features Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Opening section, major prose work
Coleridge wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria.
View the Source
Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Lead section, essay origin
Quote, Features Author: Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Lead section, essay origin
first published as an essay titled The Great Lawsuit in the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial in July 1843, then substantially expanded and republished in book form under its current title in 1845
View the Source
The Prince (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Prince, Lead section, genre
Quote, Features Author: The Prince, Lead section, genre
is a 16th-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli
View the Source
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Lead section, genre
Quote, Features Author: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Lead section, genre
is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou
View the Source
Out of Africa (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Out of Africa, Infobox, Genre field
Quote, Features Author: Out of Africa, Infobox, Genre field
Memoir
View the Source
The Fire Next Time (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Fire Next Time, Infobox, Genre field
Quote, Features Author: The Fire Next Time, Infobox, Genre field
Essays
View the Source
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836)
Features Author: Nature, Lead section, genre
Quote, Features Author: Nature, Lead section, genre
Nature is a book-length essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published by James Munroe and Company in 1836.
Wikipedia: Oku no Hosomichi
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Oku no Hosomichi, Lead section, form
Quote, Features Author: Oku no Hosomichi, Lead section, form
a prose and verse travel diary
View the Source
Bronson Alcott (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Orphic Sayings, Transcendentalist section, genre
Quote, Features Author: Orphic Sayings, Transcendentalist section, genre
Alcott also wrote a series patterned after the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which was published in the Transcendentalists' journal, The Dial.
View the Source
Walden (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Walden, Infobox, Genre field
Quote, Features Author: Walden, Infobox, Genre field
Memoir
View the Source
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University PressEncompasses Form: Haibun
Wikipedia: The Pillow Book
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Pillow Book, Lead
Quote, Features Author: The Pillow Book, Lead
is a book of observations and musings
View the Source
Wikipedia: Tsurezuregusa
Features Author: Essays in Idleness, Lead
Quote, Features Author: Essays in Idleness, Lead
a collection of essays written by the Japanese monk
View the Source
Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, Lead
Quote, Features Author: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, Lead
is a nonfiction book by David Pringle
View the Source
Wikipedia: Margaret Fuller
WikipediaFeatures Author: Margaret Fuller, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Margaret Fuller, Lead paragraph
was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate
View the Source
Wikipedia: Niccolo Machiavelli
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Niccolò Machiavelli, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Niccolò Machiavelli, Lead paragraph
He is best known for his political treatise The Prince
View the Source
Adam Mickiewicz (Wikipedia)
WikipediaFeatures Author: Adam Mickiewicz, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Adam Mickiewicz, Lead paragraph
was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist
View the Source
Alejo Carpentier (Wikipedia)
WikipediaFeatures Author: Alejo Carpentier, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Alejo Carpentier, Lead paragraph
was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist
View the Source
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Wikipedia
Features Author: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Lead paragraph
was a Turkish poet, novelist, literary scholar and essayist
View the Source
Ayi Kwei Armah, Wikipedia
Features Author: Ayi Kwei Armah, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Ayi Kwei Armah, Lead paragraph
He is also an essayist, as well as having written poetry, short stories, and books for children.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Marguerite Duras
Features Author: Marguerite Duras, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Marguerite Duras, Lead paragraph
was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker
View the Source
Wikipedia: Halldór Laxness
WikipediaFeatures Author: Halldór Laxness, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: Halldór Laxness, Lead paragraph
He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Essais
Features Author: Essais, Infobox: genre
Quote, Features Author: Essais, Infobox: genre
Essay
View the Source
Wikipedia: A Confession (Tolstoy)
Features Author: A Confession, Lead paragraph
Quote, Features Author: A Confession, Lead paragraph
is a short work on the subject of melancholia, philosophy and religion
View the Source
Wikidata: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Features Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Infobox, genre field
Quote, Features Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Autobiography, belles-lettres, essays, children's literature
View the Source
Wikipedia: Arundhati Roy
Features Author: Arundhati Roy, Infobox, genre field
Quote, Features Author: Arundhati Roy, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Fiction, non-fiction
View the Source
Wikipedia: Mary Gaitskill
Features Author: Mary Gaitskill, Infobox, genre field
Quote, Features Author: Mary Gaitskill, Infobox, genre field
Genre: literary short story, novel, essay, Transgressive Fiction
View the Source
Wikipedia: Tayeb Salih
Features Author: Tayeb Salih, Infobox, genre field
Quote, Features Author: Tayeb Salih, Infobox, genre field
Genre: Novel, short story, essay
View the Source
Wikipedia: Ursula K. Le Guin
Features Author: Ursula K. Le Guin, Infobox, genre field
Quote, Features Author: Ursula K. Le Guin, Infobox, genre field
Genre:
View the Source
Antje Ascheid (University of Georgia directory)
Features Author: Antje Ascheid, Faculty profile
Quote, Features Author: Antje Ascheid, Faculty profile
Her first book, Hitler's Heroines: Stardom, Womanhood and the Popular in Nazi Cinema, was published with Temple University Press in 2003.
View the Source
Mario Vargas Llosa (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Mario Vargas Llosa, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Mario Vargas Llosa, Lead section
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (28 March 1936-13 April 2025) was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist, and politician.
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Carlos Fuentes (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Carlos Fuentes, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Carlos Fuentes, Lead section
Carlos Fuentes Macías (; Spanish: [ˈkaɾlos ˈfwentes] ; November 11, 1928, May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist, essayist and ambassador to France.
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Wikipedia: Haruki Murakami
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Haruki Murakami, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Haruki Murakami, Lead section
His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan.
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Wikipedia: Lu Xun
Features Author: Lu Xun, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Lu Xun, Lead section
A leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in both vernacular and literary Chinese as a novelist, literary critic, essayist, poet, translator and political commentator, known for his sharp, satirical style and critical reflections on Chinese history and culture.
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Wikipedia: A Room of One's Own
WikipediaFeatures Author: A Room of One's Own, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: A Room of One's Own, Lead section
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929.
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Wikipedia: In Praise of Shadows
WikipediaFeatures Author: In Praise of Shadows, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: In Praise of Shadows, Lead section
In Praise of Shadows (陰翳礼讃, In'ei Raisan) is an essay by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki about Japanese aesthetics.
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Wikipedia: The Book of Tea
WikipediaFeatures Author: The Book of Tea, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: The Book of Tea, Lead section
The Book of Tea (茶の本, Cha no Hon) by Okakura Kakuzō is a long 1906 essay linking the role of chadō (teaism) to the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life and protesting Western caricatures of "the East".
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Ninety-nine Novels (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Ninety-nine Novels, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Ninety-nine Novels, Lead section
Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939, A Personal Choice is an essay by British writer Anthony Burgess, published by Allison & Busby in 1984.
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Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (Wikipedia)
Features Author: Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva, Lead section
Jensens "Gradiva") is an essay written in 1907 by Sigmund Freud that subjects the novel Gradiva: A Pompeiian Fancy by Wilhelm Jensen, and especially its protagonist, to psychoanalysis.
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Wikipedia: Aldous Huxley
Features Author: Aldous Huxley, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Aldous Huxley, Lead section
His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives and poems.
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Wikipedia: Arthur Miller
Features Author: Arthur Miller, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Arthur Miller, Lead section
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915, February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist in 20th-century American theater.
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Wikipedia: J. M. Coetzee
Features Author: J. M. Coetzee, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: J. M. Coetzee, Lead section
John Maxwell Coetzee (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, and translator.
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Wikipedia: Marguerite Yourcenar
Features Author: Marguerite Yourcenar, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Marguerite Yourcenar, Lead section
Marguerite Yourcenar (UK: , US: ; French: [maʁɡ(ə)ʁit juʁsənaʁ] ; born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; 8 June 1903-17 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist who became a US citizen in 1947.
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Wikipedia: Michel Houellebecq
Features Author: Michel Houellebecq, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Michel Houellebecq, Lead section
Michel Houellebecq (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl wɛlbɛk]; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems, and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker, and singer.
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Wikipedia: Susan Sontag
Features Author: Susan Sontag, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Susan Sontag, Lead section
She primarily wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964.
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Wikipedia: T. S. Eliot
Features Author: T. S. Eliot, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: T. S. Eliot, Lead section
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888-4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.
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Wikipedia: Leonardo Sciascia
Features Author: Leonardo Sciascia, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Leonardo Sciascia, Lead section
Leonardo Sciascia (Italian: [leoˈnardo ʃˈʃaʃʃa] ; 8 January 1921-20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician.
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Wikipedia: Michel de Montaigne
Features Author: Michel de Montaigne, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Michel de Montaigne, Lead section
Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous writers of Western literature; his Essais contain some of the most influential essays ever written.
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Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau
WikipediaFeatures Author: Henry David Thoreau, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Henry David Thoreau, Lead section
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817, May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher.
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Wikipedia: Walt Whitman
WikipediaFeatures Author: Walt Whitman, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Walt Whitman, Lead section
Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819, March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels.
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Wikipedia: Charles Baudelaire
WikipediaFeatures Author: Charles Baudelaire, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Charles Baudelaire, Lead section
Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (UK: ; US: ; French: [ʃaʁl(ə) bodlɛʁ] ; 9 April 1821-31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic.
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Wikipedia: George Orwell
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: George Orwell, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: George Orwell, Lead section
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 - 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell.
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Wikipedia: Mark Twain
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Mark Twain, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Mark Twain, Lead section
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist.
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Wikipedia: Victor Hugo
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Victor Hugo, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Victor Hugo, Lead section
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (French: [viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo] ; 26 February 1802-22 May 1885) was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
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Wikipedia: Marcel Proust
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Marcel Proust, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Marcel Proust, Lead section
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( PROOST; French: [maʁsɛl pʁust]; 10 July 1871-18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist best known for his novel À la recherche du temps perdu (translated into English as In Search of Lost Time, earlier Remembrance of Things Past), which was published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927 and totals around 1.25 million words.
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Wikipedia: James Baldwin
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: James Baldwin, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: James Baldwin, Lead section
James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924, December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems.
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Wikipedia: Jorge Luis Borges
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Jorge Luis Borges, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Jorge Luis Borges, Lead section
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges ( BOR-hess; Spanish: [ˈxoɾxe ˈlwis ˈboɾxes] ; 24 August 1899-14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature.
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Wikipedia: Thomas Mann
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Thomas Mann, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Thomas Mann, Lead section
Paul Thomas Mann (6 June 1875-12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
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Wikipedia: Cesare Pavese
Features Author: Cesare Pavese, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Cesare Pavese, Lead section
Cesare Pavese (UK: pav-AY-zay, -⁠zee, Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare paˈveːze, ˈtʃɛː-, -eːse]; 9 September 1908-27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist.
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Wikipedia: Yoshida Kenkō
Features Author: Yoshida Kenko, Lead section
Quote, Features Author: Yoshida Kenko, Lead section
His most famous work is Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), one of the most studied works of medieval Japanese literature.
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