The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
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To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Literature,
#9801
Waldo Williams
1904 - 1971 (67 years)
Waldo Goronwy Williams was one of the leading Welsh-language poets of the 20th century. He was also a notable Christian pacifist, anti-war campaigner, and Welsh nationalist. He is often referred to by his first name only.
Go to Profile#9802
Thomas Thorild
1759 - 1808 (49 years)
Thomas Thorild , was a Swedish poet, critic, feminist and philosopher. He was noted for his early support of women's rights. In his 1793 treatise Om kvinnokönets naturliga höghet he advocated gender equality.
Go to Profile#9803
Eduardo De Filippo
1900 - 1984 (84 years)
Eduardo De Filippo , also known simply as Eduardo, was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works Filumena Marturano and Napoli Milionaria. Considered one of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century, De Filippo was the author of many theatrical dramas staged and directed by himself first and later awarded and played outside Italy. For his artistic merits and contributions to Italian culture, he was named senatore a vita by the President of the Italian Republic Sandro Pertini.
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Franz Ritter
1803 - 1875 (72 years)
Franz Ritter was a German classical philologist. He studied classical philology at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1828 with a dissertation on Aristophanes' Plutus. In 1829 he obtained his habilitation at the University of Bonn, where in 1833 he was named an associate professor of classical philology.
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Geoffrey D. Chaucer
#9806
Ilia Chavchavadze
1837 - 1907 (70 years)
Prince Ilia Chavchavadze was a Georgian public figure, journalist, publisher, writer and poet who spearheaded the revival of Georgian nationalism during the second half of the 19th century and ensured the survival of the Georgian language, literature, and culture during the last decades of Tsarist rule. He is Georgia's "most universally revered hero" and is regarded as the "Father of the Nation."
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Gavrila Derzhavin
1743 - 1816 (73 years)
Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin was one of the most highly esteemed Russian poets before Alexander Pushkin, as well as a statesman. Although his works are traditionally considered literary classicism, his best verse is rich with antitheses and conflicting sounds in a way reminiscent of John Donne and other metaphysical poets.
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Irwin Shaw
1913 - 1984 (71 years)
Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions , about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man , about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.
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Carl Friedrich Nägelsbach
1806 - 1859 (53 years)
Carl Friedrich Nägelsbach , was a German classical philologist. Nagelsbach was born at Wöhrd near Nuremberg. After studying at the Universities of Erlangen and Berlin, in 1827 he accepted an appointment at the Nuremberg gymnasium. From 1842 up until his death in 1859, he was a professor of philology at the University of Erlangen.
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Ludwig Bachmann
1792 - 1881 (89 years)
Ludwig Gottlob Ernst Bachmann was a German classical philologist. He studied philology in Leipzig, followed by work as a "collaborator" in Halle and as a schoolteacher in Wertheim. In 1825 he embarked on an extended study trip, where he visited libraries in Rome, Naples, Vienna and Paris. In 1829 he obtained his Doctorate of Philosophy.
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Friedrich Adler
1857 - 1938 (81 years)
Friedrich Adler was a Czech-Austrian jurist, translator, and writer of Jewish origin, writing in the German language. Biography Friedrich Adler was born in Kosova Hora. He was the son of innkeeper and soaper Joseph Adler, and his wife Marie Fürth. After his parents' death , Adler was only able to attend school in Amschelberg irregularly. Despite this, he was admitted to a gymnasium in Prague, and to the Karl-Ferdinands University in Prague.
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Hans Kuhn
1899 - 1988 (89 years)
Hans Kuhn was a German philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. He was Professor of Nordic philology at the University of Kiel. Biography Hans Kuhn was born in Minden, Germany on 13 July 1899. After gaining his PhD, Kuhn initially worked as a high school teacher. He completed his habilitation under the supervision of Karl Helm in 1931 at the University of Marburg, where he subsequently lectured for several years.
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Sacha Guitry
1885 - 1957 (72 years)
Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry , known as Sacha Guitry, was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and followed his father into the theatrical profession. He became known for his stage performances, particularly in boulevardier roles. He was also a prolific playwright, writing 115 plays throughout his career. He was married five times, always to rising actresses whose careers he furthered. Probably his best-known wife was Yvonne Printemps to whom he was married between 1919 and...
Go to Profile#9814
Gordon Jennings Laing
1869 - 1945 (76 years)
Gordon Jennings Laing was an American classical scholar, born in London, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1891, taught Latin and Greek at Whetham College, Vancouver, British Columbia , and at the University of Toronto . He took the degree of Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1896, after which he taught and served at Bryn Mawr , Chicago , McGill , and Chicago . He was managing editor of the Classical Journal from 1905 to 1908, associate editor of Classical Philology after 1905, and general editor of the University of Chicago Press after 1908. His publications ...
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Wylie Sypher
1905 - 1987 (82 years)
Feltus Wylie Sypher was an American non-fiction writer and professor. Sypher was born in Mount Kisco, New York, to Harry Wylie Sypher and Martha Berry. He graduated from Amherst College in 1927. He received a master's degree from Tufts University in 1929 and became an instructor at Simmons College. That same year he married Lucy Johnston. In 1932, he received his second master's degree from Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in 1937 from Harvard.
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Francisque Xavier Michel
1809 - 1887 (78 years)
Francisque Xavier Michel was a French historian and philologist. Life He became known for his editions of French works of the Middle Ages, and the French Government, recognizing their value, sent him to England and Scotland to continue his research there. In 1837 he became a member of the Comité Historique and in 1838 chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. In 1839 he was appointed professor of foreign literature in the Faculté des lettres at the University of Bordeaux. Between 1834 and 1842 he published editions of many works written between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in French, English, and Saxon, including the Roman de la rose and the Chanson de Roland.
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Tommaso Campailla
1668 - 1740 (72 years)
Tommaso Campailla was an Italian philosopher, physician, politician and poet. Life Tommaso Campailla was born in Modica, near Syracuse, in 1668. His family belonged to the local nobility. At sixteen he was sent to Catania to study law. He employed his leisure hours in the study of literature, philosophy, science, astronomy, and physics. He studied both neo-Scholastic and Cartesian philosophy, and adopted a mechanical view of the universe.
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Nathan Bodington
1848 - 1911 (63 years)
Sir Nathan Bodington was the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds having been Principal and Professor of Greek at the Yorkshire College since 1883. From 1897 to 1901 he was also Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University.
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Leo Kiacheli
1884 - 1963 (79 years)
Leo Kiacheli was a Soviet and Georgian writer. He is noted for the novels Gvadi Bigva, Tavadis Kali Maya , Almasgir Kibulan, and Haki Adzba. Major works Novels and novellas Tariel Golua Almazgir Kibulan Blood Tavadis Kali Maya Haki Adzba Gvadi Bigva Man of Mountain
Go to Profile#9820
John Logan
1923 - 1987 (64 years)
John B. Logan was an American poet and teacher. Logan was born in Red Oak, Iowa. He earned a bachelor's degree from Coe College, his master's degree from the Iowa University, and did graduate work at Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame in philosophy.
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Mehdi Bayani
1906 - 1968 (62 years)
Mehdi Bayani was the founder and the first head of the National Library of Iran, specialist in Persian manuscripts and calligraphy, writer, researcher, and professor at the University of Tehran. Life and careers Mehdi Bayani was born in 1906 in Hamedan, Iran. His father, "Mirza Mohammad Khan Mostofi Farahani", was from the succession of teachers and accountant of Farahan and his maternal ancestor was "Mirza Soleimaan Bayan ol-Saltaneh Farahani", the head of the royal exchequer and the author of "the treatise on the rules of clerking and accounting". At the age of two, his father died and his mother came to Tehran with him and other children.
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Mohammed Abdul-Hayy
1944 - 1989 (45 years)
Mohammed Abdul-Hayy or Muhammad Abd al-Hayy was a member of the first generation of post-colonial Sudanese writers and academics. Together with Ali El-Mak and Salah Ahmed Ibrahim, he is regarded as a pioneer of modern poetry in Sudan.
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Nicolau Tolentino de Almeida
1740 - 1811 (71 years)
Nicolau Tolentino de Almeida , from Lisbon, was the foremost Portuguese satirical poet of the 18th century. Beginning at age 20, Tolentino studied law for three years at the University of Coimbra; he then ended those studies to teach rhetoric. He was sent to Lisbon in 1776 to fill a post, and was named professor of rhetoric a year later. His interests soon shifted once again, from teaching, to public office. He wrote against the Marquis of Pombal, and therefore gained the favor of Pombal's successor. He was awarded with a sinecure office in the royal administration. In 1790, he was honored wit...
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Georgiana Simpson
1866 - 1944 (78 years)
Georgiana Rose Simpson was a philologist and the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in the United States. Simpson received her doctoral degree in German from the University of Chicago in 1921.
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August Rossbach
1823 - 1898 (75 years)
August Rossbach was a German classical philologist and archaeologist. He is known for his investigations of ancient Greek metrics, defined as a discipline that studies the patterns and arrangements of syllables and words that characterize Greek poetry.
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Marguerite Merington
1857 - 1951 (94 years)
Marguerite Merington was an English-born American author of short stories, essays, dramatic works, and biographies. For several years, she taught in Greek and Latin at the Normal College in New York before pursuing a career as an author.
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Fran Bradač
1885 - 1970 (85 years)
Fran Bradač was a Slovene classical philologist and translator. Life and work Bradač was born in Jama pri Dvoru. He studied classical philology in Vienna from 1905 to 1910, and then continued his education in Zagreb, where he received his doctorate in 1920, followed by further study in Prague and Berlin. He taught classical philology at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts from 1923 until 1945, when he was forced to retire by the new communist regime. Together with Josip Osana, he published the only grammar of Greek in Slovene to date. He also wrote a Greek textbook, compiled a dictionary of foreign vocabulary, and authored several dictionaries of Czech, Latin, and German.
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Johann Friedrich Reichardt
1752 - 1814 (62 years)
Johann Friedrich Reichardt was a German composer, writer and music critic. Early life Reichardt was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, to lutenist and Stadtmusiker Johann Reichardt . Johann Friedrich began his musical training, in violin, keyboard, and lute, as a child. He was a student of Timofey Belogradsky, who in turn was a student of Sylvius Leopold Weiss. When Reichardt was ten years old, his father took the choir in which he sang, the "Wunderknaben", on a concert tour in East Prussia.
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Stephen Murray-Smith
1922 - 1988 (66 years)
Stephen Murray-Smith AM was an Australian writer, editor and educator. Early life and education Murray-Smith's father ran a lucrative business shipping Australian horses to India for the armed forces. It enabled the family to live in Toorak, one of Melbourne's wealthiest suburbs, and to send Stephen to board at Geelong Grammar School from 1934. He described his home as "bookless", adding however that his mother was "a voracious reader all her life", getting her books from the circulating and public libraries.
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Peter Friedrich Röding
1767 - 1846 (79 years)
Peter Friedrich Röding was a German malacologist who lived in Hamburg. Very little is known about this naturalist. Many of Röding's descriptions are of species which were first named by earlier authors such as Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz, Friedrich Wilhelm Martini and Martin Lister. Röding's references to pre-existing descriptions and figures make these names also valid, since they are unequivocally recognizable, and were subsequently adopted by many later authors.
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Thomas Anthony Thacher
1815 - 1886 (71 years)
Thomas Anthony Thacher was an American classicist and college administrator. Early life Thomas A. Thacher was born January 11, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Anne and Peter Thacher. His first American ancestor on his father's side was Thomas Thacher who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1635, and later became minister of the Old South Meeting House in Boston; on his mother's side he was descended from the Rev. Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, one of the founders of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, since known as Yale College. He had his preparatory training at the Hop...
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Remigio Sabbadini
1850 - 1934 (84 years)
Remigio Sabbadini was an Italian classical philologist. Biography Born in Sarego, Province of Vicenza to Giuseppe and Luigia Allegro, a peasant couple, Sabbadini began studying in Veneto before moving to Florence, where he graduated in Latin literature with a thesis on Virgil . Qualified as a lecturer in high schools, in 1886 he became a professor of Latin literature at the University of Catania , and then at the Accademia scientifico-letteraria di Milano from 1900 . He was retired due to his age in 1926, when he was appointed professor emeritus.
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Chang Man-yong
1914 - 1975 (61 years)
Chang Man-yong was a Korean poet and journalist associated with the modernist movement of the 1930s. He was born in Yeonbaek in Hwanghae province, under Japanese rule; he attended Gyeongseong High School in Seoul and later the Mijakki English School in Tokyo.
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Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz
1609 - 1677 (68 years)
Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz was a Lithuanian historian, theologian and translator. He was devoted Jesuit and religious polemicist, interested in genealogy and heraldry. He served as a censor, bishops advisor and Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania.
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Johann Karl Eduard Buschmann
1805 - 1880 (75 years)
Johann Karl Eduard Buschmann was a German philologist. His research in comparative philology was directed chiefly toward the dialects of Malaysia and Polynesia and those of Central and Northwestern America. He worked closely with Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt.
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Albert Lewin
1894 - 1968 (74 years)
Albert Lewin was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Personal life Lewin was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He earned a master's degree at Harvard and taught English at the University of Missouri. During World War I, he served in the military and was afterwards appointed assistant national director of the American Jewish Relief Committee. He later became a drama and film critic for the Jewish Tribune until the early 1920s, when he went to Hollywood to become a reader for Samuel Goldwyn. Later he worked as a script clerk for directors King Vidor...
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Alpheus Spring Packard Sr.
1798 - 1884 (86 years)
Alpheus Spring Packard was an American academic who was a professor for more than 40 years at Bowdoin College. Trained as a minister, he was an educator, librarian, and acting President of Bowdoin College for the year 1883–84 until his death . He was the father of four sons and one daughter by his first wife: Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. , Bowdoin class of 1861, Civil War surgeon, entomologist who corresponded with Darwin, and a professor at Brown University with 25 publications; William Alfred Packard , Bowdoin class of 1851; Charles A. Packard, Bowdoin class of 1848; George Packard; and Franc...
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Kiril Hristov
1875 - 1944 (69 years)
Kiril Genchev Hristov was a Bulgarian poet, fiction writer, playwright and translator. Biography Kiril Genchev Hristov was born on 29 June 1875 in Stara Zagora. He studied in his hometown, in Samokov, Tarnovo and Sofia. He was orphaned as a young boy, his two uncles, officer Georgi Abadjiev and lawyer Stefan Kirov, a law professor at Sofia State University, helped raise him. In 1895 he was sent on a scholarship from the Ministry of War to the Naval Academy in Trieste, where he became acquainted with the works of classical and modern Italian poets, such as Dante Alighieri, Giacomo Leopardi, Jo...
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Aizu Yaichi
1881 - 1956 (75 years)
Aizu Yaichi was a Japanese poet, calligrapher and historian. Biography Yaichi was born in the Furumachi area of Niigata, Niigata, and was a professor emeritus of ancient Chinese and Japanese art at Waseda University. His focus was mostly on Buddhist art of the Asuka and Nara eras.
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Axel Gabriel Sjöström
1794 - 1846 (52 years)
Axel Gabriel Sjöström was a Finnish educator and poet. Biography He was born in Janakkala, and became professor of Greek Literature at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki in 1833. He married Margareta Sofia Helsberg in 1828. During his lifetime a few of his poems earned him a high, but short-lived, reputation in Finnish literary circles. Aside from original poetry, Sjöström also did translations from Greek and German .
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Robert Eugen Zachrisson
1880 - 1937 (57 years)
Robert Eugen Zachrisson, born 15 January 1880 in Karlskrona, Sweden and died 28 July 1937, was a Swedish philologist. Zachrisson became a student in 1900, Bachelor of Arts in 1902, Licentiate of Philosophy in 1908, PhD and Associate Professor in the English language in 1909, all at the University of Lund. He was from 1910 to 1921 a Lecturer in German and English at the Högre lärarinneseminariet in Stockholm, and was named to the professorship of English in Uppsala in 1911 and in Gothenburg in 1913 as the professor of English at the University of Uppsala. There his students included Rune Forsberg.
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Salem Bouhageb
1827 - 1924 (97 years)
Salem Bouhageb was a Tunisian reformer, jurist, and poet. He was considered one of the leading Tunisian reformers of his era; among his many disciples were Béchir Sfar, Abdelaziz Thâalbi, Ali Bach Hamba, Mohamed Nakhli, Mahmoud Messadi, Mohamed Snoussi and Mohamed Tahar Ben Achour. His son Khelil Bouhageb was Prime Minister of Tunisia for a time; another son, Hassine Bouhageb, was a doctor.
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R. P. Sethu Pillai
1896 - 1961 (65 years)
R. P. Sethu Pillai , was a Tamil scholar, writer and professor of Tamil at the University of Madras. Biography Sethu pillai was born at Rajavallipuram, Tirunelveli District in 1896. He was educated and practiced as a lawyer. He became interested in Tamil after listening to a speech of Maraimalai Adigal at Palayamkottai in June 1912. After a brief career in politics , he became a teacher. During 1930-36, he taught at Annamalai University. In 1936, he became a senior lecturer at the Madras University. In 1946, he succeeded Prof. Vaiyapuri Pillai as the Reader of Tamil and the Head of the Tamil department in the University.
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Fredrik Hasselqvist
1722 - 1752 (30 years)
Fredrik Hasselquist was a Swedish traveller and naturalist. Hasselquist was born at Törnevalla, which is two kilometers east of Linghem, Östergötland. He studied under Carl Linnaeus at Uppsala University and became one of the "Apostles of Linnaeus". On account of the frequently expressed regrets of Carl Linnaeus at the lack of information regarding the natural history of the Levant, Hasselquist resolved to undertake a journey to that country. With a sufficient subscription having been obtained to defray expenses, he reached Smyrna towards the end of 1749.
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Ernest Hamel
1826 - 1898 (72 years)
Ernest Hamel was a French lawyer, poet, historian, journalist and politician. He served as a member of the French Senate from 1892 to 1898, representing Seine-et-Oise. Early life Ernest Hamel was born on 2 July 1826 in Paris, France. His great-uncle, Charles François Lhomond, was a grammarian.
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Sabahattin Eyüboğlu
1908 - 1973 (65 years)
Sabahattin Eyüboğlu was a Turkish writer, essayist, translator and film producer. Biography Sabahatttin Eyüboğlu was born in 1908 on the Black Sea coast town of Akçaabat near Trabzon. His father Mehmet Rahmi was governor of Trabzon and was chosen by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a member of parliament.
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Edward Henry Blakeney
1869 - 1955 (86 years)
Edward Henry Blakeney was an English classical scholar and poet, born in Mitcham. He died in his hometown Winchester. Life Edward Henry Blakeney was the son of William Blakeney of Westward Ho!, a Paymaster-in-Chief in the Navy. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1891 and M.A. in 1895. From 1895 to 1901 he was headmaster of Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, from 1901 to 1904 headmaster of Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, and from 1904 to 1918 headmaster of King's Ely. He was an Assistant Master at Winchester College fro...
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John Kearsley Mitchell
1798 - 1858 (60 years)
John Kearsley Mitchell was an American physician and writer, born in Shepherdstown, Virginia . Orphaned at the age of eight, and sent to his late father's family in Scotland at the age of thirteen, Kearsley was educated at Ayr Academy and the University of Edinburgh.
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Franz Volkmar Fritzsche
1806 - 1887 (81 years)
Franz Volkmar Fritzsche was a German classical philologist. He was the son of theologian Christian Friedrich Fritzsche . He studied under philologist Gottfried Hermann at the University of Leipzig, where in 1825 he received his habilitation. In 1828, he succeeded Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke as professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at the University of Rostock. At Rostock, he founded a philological seminar, and in 1836/37, he served as university rector.
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Edward Tyrrel Channing
1790 - 1856 (66 years)
Edward Tyrrel Channing was an American rhetorician. He was a professor at Harvard College, brother to William Ellery Channing and Walter Channing, and cousin of Richard Henry Dana Sr. Biography Channing was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of William and Lucy Channing. In 1807 he graduated from Harvard College, and began the practice of law in Boston, but devoted his attention chiefly to literature. From 1818–1819 he was the second editor of the North American Review after William Tudor , and remained a regular contributor through much of his life.
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