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.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
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,
#10001
Maurice Browne
1881 - 1955 (74 years)
Maurice Browne was a man of the theatre in the United States and the United Kingdom. A poet, actor and theatre director, he has been credited, along with his then-wife Ellen Van Volkenburg, as the founder of the Little Theatre Movement in America through his work with the Chicago Little Theatre.
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Václav Tille
1867 - 1937 (70 years)
Václav Tille was a Czech writer. He also used the pseudonym Václav Říha. External links
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Michael Beer
1800 - 1833 (33 years)
Michael Beer was a German Jewish poet, author and playwright. Early life Beer was born to a wealthy Jewish family, the son of salonnière Amalie Beer. His elder brother was the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer; another brother was the astronomer Wilhelm Beer.
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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.
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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.
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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
#10009
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...
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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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Ivor Gurney
1890 - 1937 (47 years)
Ivor Bertie Gurney was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. He was born and raised in Gloucester. He suffered from bipolar disorder through much of his life and spent his last 15 years in psychiatric hospitals. Critical evaluation of Gurney has been complicated by this, and also by the need to assess both his poetry and his music. Gurney himself thought of music as his true vocation: "The brighter visions brought music; the fainter verse".
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William Taylor
1765 - 1836 (71 years)
William Taylor , often called William Taylor of Norwich, was a British essayist, scholar and polyglot. He is most notable as a supporter and translator of German romantic literature. Early life He was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England on 7 November 1765, the only child of William Taylor , a wealthy Norwich merchant with European trade connections, by his wife Sarah , second daughter of John Wright of Diss, Norfolk. William Taylor was taught Latin, French and Dutch by John Bruckner, pastor of the French and Dutch Protestant churches in Norwich, in preparation for continuing his father's continental trading in textiles.
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Petru Th. Missir
1856 - 1929 (73 years)
Petru Th. Missir was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and jurist. Born in Roman, Principality of Moldavia, into a family of ethnic Armenian merchants, he graduated from Iași's National College in 1873. While a student at the University of Vienna's law faculty, he entered and became secretary of the România jună society. He later studied law at Berlin University, where he earned a doctorate in 1879. A member of Junimea, he also served as the organization's attorney; he was both a lifelong friend to Ion Luca Caragiale and close to Titu Maiorescu and Petre P. Carp. After working as a magis...
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Jean-Michel Charlier
1924 - 1989 (65 years)
Jean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote. Life Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924. In 1945 he got a job as a draughtsman in Brussels with World Press, the syndicate of Georges Troisfontaines, which worked mainly for Spirou magazine. The following year he and artist Victor Hubinon created the four-page comic strip L'Agonie du Bismarck. Charlier wrote the script and also drew the ships and airplanes. In 1947, Charlier and Hubinon began the long-running air-adventure comic strip Buck Danny. After a few year...
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Adib Pishavari
1844 - 1930 (86 years)
Seyyed Ahmad Adib Pishavari , also known as Sayyed Ahmad B. Sehab al-Din Razawi , was a Sufi scholar who born in or near Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan, and was descended from Omar Sohravardi. Adib was a master of Persian literature.
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Ferdinand Holthausen
1860 - 1956 (96 years)
Ferdinand Holthausen was a German scholar of English and old Germanic languages. Life Holthausen received his doctorate in 1884 from Universität Leipzig with his thesis Studien zur Thidrekssaga. He received his Habilitation in 1885 at Heidelberg. He then helds posts at Göttingen and Gießen , before becoming Professor für Altgermanistik at the University of Gothenburg. From 1900 until his retirement in 1925, he was Professor ordinarius for English studies at Universität Kiel. He then became an emeritus professor, but from 1927 to 1935 he was also a guest professor at Universität Frankfurt.
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Henry Martyn Clark
1857 - 1916 (59 years)
Henry Martyn-Clark was an Afghan-born adopted British medical missionary stationed in Amritsar in the late 19th century. Biography Clark was born to Afghan parents, and was adopted after his mother's death by Elizabeth and Rev. Robert Clark in 1859. It is thought that he was named Henry Martyn after the Anglican missionary to Persia and India. Clark was educated at the University of Edinburgh and received his MD in 1892. In 1881 he was accepted by the Church Missionary Society to start the Amritsar Medical Mission as a Medical Missionary. He left for Amritsar to join his father on 4 February 1882.
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Caroline Ransom Williams
1872 - 1952 (80 years)
Caroline Ransom Williams was an Egyptologist and classical archaeologist. She was the first American woman to be professionally trained as an Egyptologist. She worked extensively with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other major institutions with Egyptian collections, and published Studies in ancient furniture , The Tomb of Perneb , and The Decoration of the Tomb of Perneb: The Technique and the Color Conventions , among others. During the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago Oriental Institute's first season in Luxor, she helped to develop the "Chicago House method" ...
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George Stuart
1715 - Present (311 years)
George Stuart FRSE LLD was an 18th-century Scottish classicist. He was joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. Life From 1741 to 1775 he was Professor of Humanities at the University of Edinburgh also serving as the University Librarian during this period. The humanities course included the teaching of Latin and the study of Roman Antiquities.
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Muthuswami Dikshitar
1775 - 1835 (60 years)
Muthuswami Dikshitar , mononymously Dikshitar, was a South Indian poet, singer and veena player, and a legendary composer of Indian classical music, who is considered one of the musical trinity of Carnatic music. Muthuswami Dikshitar was born on 24 March 1775 in Tiruvarur near Thanjavur, in what is now the state of Tamil Nadu in India, to a family that is traditionally traced back to Virinichipuram in the northern boundaries of the state. His compositions, of which around 500 are commonly known, are noted for their elaborate and poetic descriptions of Hindu gods and temples and for capturing the essence of the raga forms through the vainika style that emphasises gamakas.
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Maurits Hansen
1794 - 1842 (48 years)
Maurits Christopher Hansen was a Norwegian writer. He was born in Modum as a son of Carl Hansen and Abigael Wulfsberg . In October 1816 he married teacher Helvig Leschly . He was a father-in-law of Eilert Sundt, and thus grandfather of Einar Sundt.
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Heinrich Schenkl
1859 - 1919 (60 years)
Heinrich Schenkl was an Austrian classical philologist. He was the son of classical philologist Karl Schenkl. From 1876 to 1880 he studied classical philology, archaeology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, where his instructors included Theodor Gomperz and Wilhelm von Hartel. For several years he worked as a gymnasium teacher in Vienna, and in 1892 became an associate professor at the University of Graz. From 1896 onward, he served as a full professor at Graz, being named university dean in 1899. In 1917 he appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Vienna.
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Edward Harper Parker
1849 - 1926 (77 years)
Edward Harper Parker was an English barrister and sinologist who wrote a number of books on the First and Second Opium Wars and other Chinese topics. On his return to England he ended his career as a university professor.
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Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko
1842 - 1903 (61 years)
Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko was a German librarian and scholar, born in Neustadt, Silesia. Biography From 1859 to 1863 he studied classical philology at the universities of Breslau and Bonn. At Bonn, he was influenced by philologist Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl and worked as an assistant at the university library. In 1863, he received his doctorate with a thesis on the prologues of Plautus and Terence. Following graduation, he worked as a schoolteacher in Opole and then in Lucerne .
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Jean d'Arras
1350 - 1394 (44 years)
Jean d'Arras was a 14th-century writer from Northern France about whom little is known. He collaborated with Antoine du Val and Fouquart de Cambrai in putting together a collection of stories entitled L'Évangile des quenouilles . The frame story features a group of ladies at their spinning who relate the current theories on a great variety of subjects. The work is of considerable value for the light it throws on medieval manners, and for its echoes of folklore, sometimes deeply buried under layers of Christian tradition.
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Jack Brooks
1912 - 1971 (59 years)
Jack Brooks was an English-American lyricist. Brooks was born in Liverpool, England. His family was Jewish and originally from Russia, having changed their surname to Brooks from Bruch. He wrote lyrics of many popular songs, including "Ole Buttermilk Sky" "That's Amore" and " Wagon Train" the second theme used on the television program, Wagon Train. He joined the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1946.
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Raymond Weeks
1863 - 1954 (91 years)
Raymond Weeks was an American linguist and academic. He was Chair of Romance Languages at the University of Missouri from 1895 to 1908, and later taught at Columbia University in New York City. Early life Raymond Weeks was born on January 2, 1863, in Tabor, Iowa. He was educated at Price High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1890 and a master's degree in 1891.
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Fan Zhongyan
989 - 1052 (63 years)
Fan Zhongyan , courtesy name Xiwen , was a Chinese military strategist, philosopher, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. After serving the central government for several decades, Fan was appointed Prime Minister or Chancellor over the entire Song empire. Fan's philosophical, educational and political contributions continue to be influential to this day, and his writings remain a core component of the Chinese literary canon. His attitude towards official service is encapsulated by his oft-quoted line on the proper attitude of scholar-officials: "They were the first to worry the worries of All-under-Heaven, and the last to enjoy its joys".
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Nathaniel Cotton
1707 - 1788 (81 years)
Nathaniel Cotton was an English physician and poet. Cotton is thought to have studied at Leiden University, possibly under Herman Boerhaave. Cotton specialised in the care of patients with mental health issues, maintaining an asylum known as the Collegium Insanorum, at St Albans. William Cowper was one of his patients and held Cotton in high regard.
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Francis Harvey Green
1861 - 1951 (90 years)
Francis Harvey Green was an American educator, poet and lecturer. He served as Chair of English at West Chester Normal School for 30 years and as Headmaster of the Pennington School. The Francis Harvey Green Elementary School in Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, and two libraries at West Chester University were named in his honor.
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August Wilmanns
1833 - 1917 (84 years)
August Wilmanns was a German classical philologist and librarian. He studied classical philology at the Universities of Bonn and Tübingen, receiving his doctorate in 1863 with a dissertation on the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro. In 1870 he began work as a librarian at the Universitätsbibliothek in Freiburg, followed by professorships at the Universities of Innsbruck and Kiel . In 1874 he was named Oberbibliothekar at the University of Königsberg, shortly afterwards, given the same title at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Göttingen .
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Harley Granville-Barker
1877 - 1946 (69 years)
Harley Granville-Barker was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directing and was a major figure in British theatre in the Edwardian and inter-war periods. As a writer his plays, which tackled difficult and controversial subject matter, met with a mixed reception during his lifetime but have continued to receive attention.
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Constantijn Huygens
1596 - 1687 (91 years)
Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem , was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.
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Martin Luther D'Ooge
1839 - 1915 (76 years)
Martin Luther D'Ooge was a Dutch-born American classics scholar. His Huguenot family emigrated to the US in 1851. He was Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Michigan from 1868 to 1912.
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Camille Roy
1870 - 1943 (73 years)
Camille Roy was a Canadian priest and literary critic. He wrote extensively about the development of French-Canadian literature, and its importance in the promotion of French language and culture and of Christian ideals.
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John Lyly
1554 - 1606 (52 years)
John Lyly was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian. He was best known during his lifetime for his two books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and its sequel Euphues and His England , but is perhaps best remembered now for his eight surviving plays, at least six of which were performed before Queen Elizabeth I. Lyly's distinctive and much imitated literary style, named after the title character of his two books, is known as euphuism. He is sometimes grouped with other professional dramatists of the 1580s and 1590s like Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Thomas Lodge, as one of the so-called University Wits.
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Charles Lee
1870 - 1956 (86 years)
Charles James Lee was a British author. He published five novels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in addition to many short stories and plays about the working people of Cornwall. Life Charles Lee was born in London to an artistic family. He was educated at Highgate School, was awarded a BA from London University in 1889 and published his first novel, Widow Woman, in 1896. Suffering from bad health, he visited Cornwall in 1900 for its better climate, and stayed in Cornwall for seven years. There he lived amongst the group of artists who formed the Newlyn School. His Cornish Tales ha...
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Antonio Minturno
1500 - 1574 (74 years)
Antonio Sebastiano Minturno was an Italian poet and critic, and Bishop of Ugento. His influential literary theories were largely Aristotelian. He was born at Minturno, then part of the Kingdom of Naples.
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Leslie Hotson
1897 - 1992 (95 years)
John Leslie Hotson, was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles. Biography He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He went on to hold a number of academic posts.
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William Young Sellar
1825 - 1890 (65 years)
William Young Sellar FRSE LLD was a Scottish classical scholar. Life Sellar was born at Morvich in Sutherland the son of Patrick Sellar of Westfield, Morayshire and his wife Anne Craig of Barmakelty, Moray. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy 1832 to 1839 and afterwards studied classics at the University of Glasgow. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, as a Snell Exhibitioner. Graduating with a first-class in classics, he was elected fellow of Oriel, and, after holding assistant professorships at Durham, Glasgow and St Andrews, was appointed professor of Greek at St Andrews . In 1863 he...
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Matthias Bernegger
1582 - 1640 (58 years)
Matthias Bernegger was a German philologist, astronomer, university professor and writer of Latin works. Life Bernegger's Protestant family was, like other so called exulanten, expelled from Habsburg monarchy during the counter reformation. They settled in Regensburg, where Bernegger attended the Gymnasium. In 1599, the 17-year-old began studies in Strasbourg, mainly in the fields of philology and natural sciences. He was fascinated by astronomy and was in contact with Johannes Kepler and Wilhelm Schickard.
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