Homer, name traditionally assigned to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two major epics of Greek antiquity. Nothing is known of Homer as an individual, and it is a matter of controversy whether a single person can be said to have written both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The Iliad is set in the final year of the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and the inhabitants of the city of Troy. The legendary conflict forms the background for the central plot of the story: the wrath of Greek hero Achilles. Insulted by his commander in chief, Agamemnon, the young warrior Achilles withdraws from the war, leaving his fellow Greeks to suffer terrible defeats at the hands of the Trojans. Achilles rejects the Greeks' attempts at reconciliation, but allows his companion Patroclus to lead his troops in his place. Patroclus is slain, and Achilles, filled with fury and remorse, turns his wrath against the Trojans and kills their leader, Hector (son of King Priam). The poem closes as Achilles surrenders the corpse of Hector to Priam for burial, recognizing a certain kinship with the Trojan king as they both face the tragedies of mortality and bereavement.

The Odyssey describes the return of the Greek hero Odysseus from the Trojan War. The opening scenes depict the disorder that has arisen in Odysseus's household during his long absence: A band of suitors is living off of his wealth as they woo his wife, Penelope. The epic then tells of Odysseus's ten years of traveling, during which he has to face a series of dangers. The second half of the poem begins with Odysseus's arrival at his home island of Ithaca, where he tests the loyalty of his servants; plots and carries out a bloody revenge on Penelope's suitors; and is reunited with his son, his wife, and his aged father.

In a direct way Homer was the parent of all succeeding Greek literature. Drama, historiography, and even philosophy all show the mark of the issues, comic and tragic, raised in the epics and of the techniques Homer used to approach them. But for his most successful followers, his work was as much a critical and comic target as a model.  


Sappho (lived 7th century BC), Greek poet, whose poetry was so renowned that Greek philosopher Plato referred to her two centuries after her death as the tenth muse. Sappho was born on the island of Lésvos, probably in the city of Mytilini.

Sappho wrote nine books of odes and a number of epithalamia (wedding songs), elegies, and hymns, but only a few fragments remain. Her poems are marked by beauty of diction, simplicity of form, and intensity of emotion. She invented the verse form known as Sapphics, a four-line stanza in which the first three lines are each 11 syllables long and the fourth is 5 syllables long. Sappho influenced many later Greek poets, particularly Theocritus.  


Aeschylus (525-456 BC), Greek dramatist, the earliest of the great tragic poets of Athens. He is called the father of Greek tragedy. By introducing the innovation of a second actor, Aeschylus created the possibility of dramatic dialogue in which the action of a play is advanced. He also elaborated the staging of the drama, introducing costumes and scenery. Aeschylus was born in Eleusis.

Aeschylus is said to have written about 90 plays. His tragedies, first performed about 500 BC, were presented as trilogies (groups of three), usually bound together by a common theme. The titles of about 80 of his plays are known, but only 7 have survived. The earliest is The Persians, presented in 472 BC, a historical tragedy about the Battle of Salamís.

Prometheus Bound, a work of uncertain date, portrays the punishment of the defiant Prometheus by Zeus. It is probably the first play of a Promethean trilogy, the others being Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer. The three plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides— produced in 458 BC— form the trilogy known as the Oresteia, or story of Orestes.  


Sophocles (496-406 BC), one of the three great tragic dramatists of ancient Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Euripides.

Sophocles was born in Colonus Hippius (now part of Athens). Sophocles composed more than 100 plays, of which 7 complete tragedies and fragments of 80 or 90 others are preserved. The seven surviving plays are Ajax (451-444 BC), Antigone (after 441 BC), Maidens of Trachis (after 441 BC), Oedipus the King (430 to 415 BC), Electra (430 to 415 BC), Philoctetes (409 BC), and Oedipus at Colonus (produced posthumously in 401 BC). Also preserved is a large fragment of the Investigators.

All seven tragedies are considered outstanding for their powerful, intricate plots and dramatic style, and at least three— Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus— are generally regarded as masterpieces. Antigone, an outstanding lyrical drama, develops a main Sophoclean theme, dealing with the pain and suffering caused when an individual, obstinately defying the dictates of divine will or temporal authority, or refusing to yield to destiny and circumstance, instead obeys some inner compulsion that leads to agonizing revelation and, ultimately, to a mysterious vindication of that person's behavior and life. Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, and Maidens of Trachis in varying forms repeat the themes of Antigone. Oedipus the King is justly famed for its flawless construction, its dramatic power, and its effective dramatic irony.

Sophocles is considered by many modern scholars the greatest of the Greek tragedians. Sophocles made important contributions to dramatic technique by increasing the number of actors from two to three, thus lessening the influence of the chorus and making possible greater complication of the plot and the more effective portrayal of character; and by making each play an independent psychological and dramatic unity. Sophocles also effected a transformation in the spirit and significance of a tragedy; thereafter, although problems of religion and morality still provided the themes, the nature of humans and their problems and struggles became the chief interest of Greek tragedy.  


Euripides (480-406 BC), Greek dramatist, with Aeschylus and Sophocles, the third of the great Attic tragic poets. His work exerted great influence on Roman drama, and in more recent times he influenced English, German, and French drama. According to tradition, he was born in Salamís.

Euripides was constantly attacked by Athenian comedy writers, and Aristophanes in particular made him a subject of a satire in his play The Frogs (405 BC). Although Euripides' plays were famous throughout Greece, they were criticized for their unconventionality, for their natural dialogue, and for their independence from traditional religious and moral values.

Euripides represented the new moral, social, and political movements occurring in Athens toward the end of the 5th century BC. It was a period of enormous intellectual discovery, and new truths were being established in all branches of knowledge. Euripides, reacting to them, brought a new kind of consciousness to the writing of tragedy. He was interested in the experience of the ordinary individual rather than in the experiences of legendary figures from the epics of Homer. Sharing in the intellectual skepticism of the day, Euripides challenged the religious and moral dogmas of the past in his plays.

Euripides' dramas received criticism for their structure, partly because his use of the chorus as independent of the chief action of the drama was unconventional. He was also criticized for using the explanatory prologue, in which he divulges to the spectators the events preceding the opening of the play and often outlines coming events. Of the many plays ascribed to Euripides, 18 survive. The dated dramas include Alcestis (438 BC), Medea (431 BC), and Orestes (408 BC). Those of uncertain date include Andromache, Electra, and Iphigenia in Tauris.  


Aristophanes (448-385 BC), Greek playwright, who is considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in literary history. His plays have remained popular because of their wit, comic invention, and poetic language. He is believed to have been born in Athens.

Aristophanes wrote more than 40 plays, of which 11 still exist. He was first and foremost a satirist. During his lifetime Athens underwent a period of convulsive cultural and social change, and he found a ready target in the politicians, poets, and philosophers of his day. No class, age, or profession was exempt from his satire. The Clouds (423 BC) satirizes Greek philosopher Socrates, whose penetrating analysis of established values Aristophanes considered to be opposed to the interests of the state. In The Wasps (422 BC) Aristophanes satirized the courts of justice of the day. Lysistrata (411 BC), a satire on war, in which women strike for peace by practicing celibacy, is his most famous work. His other plays include The Birds (414 BC) and Plutus (388 BC).  


Virgil (70-19 BC), Roman poet, author of the masterpiece the Aeneid, the most influential work of literature produced in ancient Rome. Virgil was born Publius Vergilius Maro in Ande. In 19 BC Virgil set out on a trip to Greece and Asia with the intention of revising his masterpiece, the Aeneid, already substantially completed, and then of devoting the remainder of his life to philosophical study. He became ill before leaving Athens and died shortly after his arrival at Brundisium (now Brindisi, Italy).

In 37 BC Virgil completed his first major work, the ten pastoral poems, Eclogues, or Bucolics. Virgil preserved the pastoral style, such as the good-natured banter of the shepherds and their love songs, dirges, and singing matches, but he gave the Eclogues an original and more national character by introducing real people and events into the poems and by referring through allegory to other people and events. The Georgics, or Art of Husbandry, a poem on the life of the farmer, was written from 36 to 29 BC. The poem exhibits the highest artistic perfection to be found in Latin poetry.

Virgil devoted his last ten years to the composition of the Aeneid, a mythological epic describing the wanderings of the hero Aeneas after the fall of Troy (see Trojan War) to his military victory in Italy. Aeneas escaped from Troy carrying his aged father on his shoulders and leading his young son Ascanius by the hand. He assembled a fleet and sailed the eastern Mediterranean Sea with the surviving Trojans to Thrace, Crete, Epirus, and Sicily before being shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. Here Dido, queen of Carthage, fell in love with Aeneas and was driven to suicide on his subsequent departure. After landing at the mouth of the Tiber River in Italy, Aeneas killed Turnus, king of the Rutulians, in a war for the hand of Lavinia, princess of Latium. According to Virgil, the Romans were directly descended from Ascanius.

The Aeneid's style and treatment are derived from the Iliad and the Odyssey, ancient Greek epics attributed to Homer. The Aeneid is usually considered the first great literary epic and is a deliberate attempt by Virgil to glorify Rome. Virgil's style and technique of versification influenced English poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  


Ovid (43 BC-AD 17), Roman poet, whose narrative skill and unmatched linguistic and metrical virtuosity have made him the most popular of the Roman poets. Ovid was born Publius Ovidius Naso in Sulmo (now Sulmona). His private life was that of an exuberant, wealthy, and somewhat licentious man of letters. In AD 8, Ovid was banished to Tomi, in the Roman province of Dacia (now Constanta, Romania). According to Ovid, one reason for his banishment was the publication of Ars Amatoria, a poem on the art of love. A second reason may have been his knowledge of a scandal involving the emperor's daughter.

Ovid's poetry falls into three divisions: the works of his youth, of his middle age, and of his years in exile at Tomi. In the first period, Ovid continued the elegiac tradition (see Elegy) of other Roman poets. He wrote Amores, erotic poems characterized by artificiality and cleverness. His interest in mythology is reflected in his Heroides, or Epistulae Heroidum, 21 fictional love letters, mostly from mythological heroines to their lovers.

In his middle period Ovid wrote Metamorphoses, in 15 books. The work's unifying theme is the transformations recorded in mythology and legend from the creation of the world to the time of Roman emperor Julius Caesar, whose change into a celestial star marks the last of the series. The other work of the middle period is the Fasti, a poetic calendar describing various Roman festivals.

The works composed during Ovid's exile are pervaded by melancholy and despair. They include the Tristia, five books of elegies that describe his unhappy existence at Tomi; Epistulae ex Ponto, poetic letters; and Ibis, a short invective invoking destruction on a personal enemy.  


Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italian poet, and one of the supreme figures of world literature, who was admired for his spiritual vision and for his intellectual accomplishment.

Dante was born in Florence, and the most significant event of his youth, according to his own account, was his meeting in 1274 with Beatrice, the woman whom he loved, and whom he exalted in his later works. Little is known about Dante's education, although his works reveal a knowledge that encompassed nearly all the learning of his age.

Dante's first important literary work, La vita nuova, (The New Life) was written not long after Beatrice died. Combining verse and prose, it narrates the course of Dante's love for Beatrice and his ultimate resolve to write a work that would be a worthy monument to her.

Active in the turbulent political life of Florence, Dante was elected one of the six priors, or magistrates, of Florence, a post he held for only two months. The rivalry between two factions within the Guelph Party of Florence (see Guelphs and Ghibellines) became intense, and one of the factions, in 1302, banned Dante from Florence for two years and fined him heavily. Failing to make payment, he was condemned to death should he ever return to Florence. Dante spent his exile partly in Verona and partly in other northern Italian cities.

In 1316 the city of Florence invited Dante to return, but the terms offered him were those generally reserved for pardoned criminals. Dante rejected the invitation, maintaining that he would never return unless he were accorded full dignity and honor. He continued to live in exile, spending his last years in Ravenna.

Dante's epic masterpiece, La divinia commedia (The Divine Comedy), was probably begun about 1307 and was completed shortly before his death. The work is an allegorical (see Allegory) narrative in verse of the poet's imaginary journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. It is divided into three sections named the Inferno (Hell), the Purgatorio (Purgatory), and the Paradiso (Paradise). In each of these three realms the poet meets with mythological, historical, and contemporary characters, each of whom symbolizes a particular fault or virtue, either religious or political. Dante is guided through hell and purgatory by the Roman poet Virgil, who is, to Dante, the symbol of reason. The woman Dante loved, Beatrice, whom he regards as a manifestation and an instrument of divine will, guides him through paradise. Dante intended the poem for his contemporaries and wrote it in Italian rather than Latin.

In the centuries following the invention of printing, almost 400 Italian editions of The Divine Comedy were published. Editions have appeared illustrated by Italian masters Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo, English artist William Blake, and French illustrator Gustave Doré. It has been translated into more than 25 languages. The work of modern poets throughout the world has been inspired by Dante, especially that of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Gabriele D'Annunzio, and Paul Claudel.


Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313-1375), Italian writer and humanist, one of the great authors of all time. Boccaccio was perhaps born in Paris and was reared in Florence. Boccaccio performed various diplomatic services for the city government. In 1350 he met the celebrated poet and humanist Petrarch, with whom he maintained a close friendship. In Boccaccio's last years, he served as a lecturer on Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Boccaccio's most important work is The Decameron which was begun in 1348 and completed in 1353. This collection of 100 stories is set within a framework of a group of friends telling stories to one another. The ten friends, to escape an outbreak of the plague, have taken refuge in a country villa outside Florence. There they entertain one another over a period of ten days with a series of stories told by each member of the party in turn. Each day's storytelling ends with a canzone, a short lyric poem. The Decameron is the first and finest prose masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. It is notable for the richness and variety of the tales, for its brilliant craftsmanship, and for its penetrating character analysis. Boccaccio gathered material from many sources including the French fabliau, Greek and Latin classics, folklore, and contemporary Italian life.

Boccaccio's other writings include Il filocolo (1336) and Il filostrato (1338), a poem in ottava rima, a verse form he perfected (see Versification). He also wrote a commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy. The structure of English poet Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which also employs the frame story device, is modeled after that of The Decameron.


Pirandello, Luigi (1867-1936), Italian writer, who is considered the most important Italian dramatist of the period between World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). He won the 1934 Nobel Prize in literature.

Pirandello was born in Agrigento, Sicily. He became internationally known through his play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921). Without faith in any fixed standards of ethics, morality, politics, or religion, characters in Pirandello's plays and tales find reality only in themselves, and then discover that they are unstable and inexplicable beings. Pirandello humorously expressed his deep pessimism and his pity for the confusion and suffering of the human condition. He was also an important innovator in stage technique, avoiding the limitations of realism by using elements of fantasy to create the effect he wanted.

Pirandello's other plays include The Pleasures of Honesty (1917), Right You Are If You Think So (1917), Henry IV (1922), and As You Desire Me (1930). He also wrote the novel The Outcast (1901) and the short-story collection Better Think Twice About It (1933).


Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616), Spanish writer, whose novel Don Quixote (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615) is regarded as one of the masterpieces of world literature.

Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares. In 1571 he fought against the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, in which he lost the use of his left hand. While returning to Spain in 1575, Cervantes was captured by Barbary Coast pirates. He was held in Algeria as a slave and was finally ransomed in 1580 by his family and friends.

Back in Spain, Cervantes began to produce poems and plays at a prodigious rate between 1582 and 1585, including his pastoral novel La Galatea (1585). Cervantes then took government jobs, including one collecting taxes, but he was imprisoned several times for failing to explain all of his tax-collecting activities. While in prison Cervantes conceived the idea for his masterpiece, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, the first part of which appeared in 1605. It was an immediate success, although Cervantes never gained substantial wealth from the work because numerous unauthorized editions were produced. The second part of Don Quixote was published in 1615. Cervantes also published a collection of short stories, Exemplary Novels (1613), and completed the allegorical novel Persiles y Sigismunda (1617) four days before his death.

Don Quixote describes the adventures of a Spanish nobleman who, as a result of reading many tales of chivalry, comes to believe that he is a knight who must combat the world's injustices. He travels in search of adventure with his squire, Sancho Panza, a practical peasant. Quixote's imagination often runs away with him, and he sees windmills as giants and country inns as castles. The novel was intended as a satire on medieval tales of chivalry, but it presents a rich picture of Spanish life and contains many insights. Don Quixote had a tremendous influence on the development of prose fiction and has been the subject of many works in other fields of art, including opera, film, ballet, and painting.


Petofi, Sandor, originally Sándor Petrovics (1823-49), Hungarian poet, born in Kisköös in the county of Pest. He became successively an actor and a soldier. His first poem, published in 1842, was followed in 1844 by a volume that secured his fame as a poet. In 1848 he identified himself with the Hungarian revolutionary cause, writing numerous popular war poems, including “Rise, Magyar” (1848), which became the Hungarian national anthem. He died in battle at Segesvár (now SighiSoara, Romania). His poetry, dealing in a clear, direct style with the themes of love and patriotism and revealing the intense feelings and convictions of the author, began a new epoch in Hungarian literature. His long epic about peasant life in Hungary, János the Hero (1845; trans. 1866), is considered his best poem.


Sienkiewicz, Henryk (1846-1916), Polish novelist, born in Wola Okrzejska, near Luków, and educated at the University of Warsaw. In 1870 he became a journalist and from 1876 to 1878 traveled through the U.S. as a special correspondent. Sienkiewicz's great popularity came after the publication of his trilogy on Poland's efforts against invasion in the 17th century: With Fire and Sword (1884; trans. 1890), The Deluge (1886; trans. 1891), and Pan Michael (1888; trans. 1893). Probably his most widely translated work is Quo Vadis (1896), a study of Roman society in the time of the emperor Nero. Sienkiewicz received the 1905 Nobel Prize in literature.


Kundera, Milan (1929- ), Czech novelist, poet, playwright, and short-story writer, known for combining humor, eroticism, and political criticism in his writings. Born in Brno, the son of a noted concert pianist, he attended Charles University in Prague. From 1958 to 1969, he taught film studies at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague. He also worked as a laborer and as a jazz musician. In 1968, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Czech government began requiring all literature to endorse and praise Communist ideals. Kundera refused to conform to the new requirements, and the following year he was fired from his job and publication of his works was banned in his country. In 1975 he emigrated to France, where he taught comparative literature at the University of Rennes from 1975 to 1980 and at the École des Hautes Études in Paris after 1980.

Kundera’s first novel, Þert (1967; translated as The Joke, 1969), and a volume of short stories, Smìšné lásky (1963-1968; Laughable Loves, 1975), attacked Communist political repression through witty and ironic depictions of the lives of Czech people. After 1968, most of Kundera’s writing was first published either in French or in English. Other novels include Þivot je jinde (written 1969; first published as Life is Elsewhere, 1974) and Kniha smichu a zapomnìní (first published in French, 1979; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, 1980), an anthology of reminiscences that led to the revocation of his Czech citizenship. Nesnesnitelná lehkost bytí (first published in French, 1984; The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984), the story of a love affair set against a background of government bureaucracy and political oppression, established Kundera as one of the most important writers in Europe. It became a key text in the history of Eastern European dissidence for its portrait of the emptiness of life within an authoritarian state and in 1988 was made into a successful motion picture. Kundera’s later works include Nesmrtelnost (written 1990; Immortality, 1991); and La lenteur (1995; Slowness, 1996).


Andersen, Hans Christian (1805-1875), Danish author, whose fairy tales have been translated into more than 80 languages and have inspired plays, ballets, films, and works of sculpture and painting. He was born in Odense. His first literary success was “A Walk from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829” (1829). Andersen's first novel, The Improviser (1835), was well received by critics, and his first book of fairy tales was published the same year. Andersen's tales of fantasy, which include “The Ugly Duckling” (1843), “The Emperor's New Clothes” (1837), “The Snow Queen” (1844), “The Red Shoes” (1845), and “The Little Mermaid” (1837), were innovative in their handling of sophisticated feelings and ideas and in their use of the vocabulary and constructions of spoken language.


Maeterlinck, Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard, Count (1862-1949), Belgian author, the outstanding exponent of symbolist drama. He was born in Ghent. Reacting against the prevailing naturalism of French literature, Maeterlinck wrote some symbolist poetry, including Hothouses (1889). He is known principally for his plays, for which he received the 1911 Nobel Prize.

Maeterlinck's plays are characterized by clear and simple writing, by a dreamlike atmosphere, and by the suggestion rather than the direct expression of ideas and emotions. His early plays are marked by an attitude of profound melancholy and pessimism in the face of evil and death; in his later plays this attitude gives way to a belief in the redeeming power of love and in the reality of human happiness. His plays include The Princess Maleine (1889); Pelléas et Mélisande (1892), made into an opera (1902) by French composer Claude Debussy; and The Blue Bird (1909), which has become a classic for children.


Ibsen, Henrik Johan (1828-1906), Norwegian dramatist, whose realistic portrayal of psychological and social problems won him recognition as the father of modern drama. Ibsen was born in Skien. He was stage manager-playwright at the National Theater at Bergen from 1851 to 1857 and director of the theater at Christiania (now Oslo) from 1857 to 1862. From 1863 to 1891 Ibsen lived chiefly in Italy and Germany. In 1891 he returned to Christiania.

Ibsen's early work included the verse drama Peer Gynt (1867), but with Pillars of Society (1877) Ibsen began a series of plays that brought him worldwide fame. These plays included A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and Hedda Gabler (1890). Among Ibsen's other plays are An Enemy of the People (1882) and The Master Builder (1892). Ibsen's plays shocked contemporary audiences, but they were championed by such serious critics as George Bernard Shaw in England. Ibsen's plays ended the romantic and artificial melodramas popular in the 19th century.


Strindberg, (Johan) August (1849-1912), Swedish dramatist, who is often considered the greatest figure in Swedish literature. Strindberg was born in Stockholm. He attended the University of Uppsala intermittently for five years before working as a schoolteacher, tutor, actor, journalist, and librarian.

Strindberg's early works, mostly novels and plays, are strongly naturalistic, written in revolt against the prevailing romanticism of Swedish literature. Strindberg's plays were produced in the early 1870s, but it was not until the publication of the novel The Red Room (1879) that he achieved fame. The most important plays of Strindberg's early naturalistic period are The Father (1887), a domestic tragedy detailing the inherent cruelty of the marriage relationship; The Stronger (1889); and Miss Julie (1889).

Strindberg's second period of literary productivity began with the autobiographical Inferno (1897), which describes his bout with mental illness while in Paris from 1894 to 1896. His later, more expressionistic work was influenced by his Swedenborgian (see Swedenborg, Emanuel) faith, and literary movements such as symbolism and expressionism. Typical of his later work are the plays A Dream Play (1901) and The Spook Sonata (1908), both of which were important in freeing early-20th-century drama from realistic conventions of time, place, and action.

Strindberg ranks with Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen and the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov in his influence on modern drama. In addition to his numerous plays, Strindberg produced novels, short stories, poetry, essays, satire, and works on history and travel.


Lagerlof, Selma Ottiliana Lovisa (1858-1940), Swedish novelist, who wrote many novels and short stories dealing with Swedish life of the past. She was born in Mårbacka. Her works are based on Swedish folktales and are characterized by naturalness and freshness. Her characters are simple in thought and action, and goodness usually triumphs over evil. Lagerlöf was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in literature. Her novels include Jerusalem (1901-1902), Liljecrona's Home (1911), The Outcasts (1918), and the trilogy The Ring of the Löwenskölds (1925-1928). Her collections of stories include From a Swedish Homestead (1899); The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906-1907), a set of fantastic children's stories; and Trolls and Men (2 volumes, 1915, 1921).


Borges, Jorge Luis (1899-1986), Argentine writer, whose challenging avant-garde poems and tales made him one of the foremost figures in Latin American and world literature. Early in his career, Borges helped found several literary and philosophical periodicals and wrote lyrical poetry on historical Argentine themes, as expressed in such collections as Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923). Beginning in 1955, he became director of the National Library and began teaching English at the University of Buenos Aires.

Borges is most famous for his short narrative fiction. His collections include Ficciones (1945), perhaps his most important; Dream Tigers (1960); and The Book of Imaginary Beings (1967). He also wrote philosophical and literary essays. In his writing Borges created a fantastic, totally subjective, and deeply metaphysical world, using his own symbolism.


Neruda, Pablo, pseudonym of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto (1904-1973), Chilean poet, who is considered one of the major poets of the 20th century. Neruda was born in Parral. In 1924 his Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, made him one of Latin America's most famous poets. Neruda's numerous other works include Residence on Earth (1933), General Song (1950), and Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda (1961). Neruda began as a symbolist (see Symbolist Movement), then became a surrealist (see Surrealism), and finally a realist, forsaking the traditional formal framework of poetry for a more down-to-earth form of expression. In recognition of his literary eminence, Neruda was appointed to the Chilean consular service. In 1970 he was named the Chilean Communist Party's candidate for the presidency, and from 1970 to 1972 he was the Chilean ambassador to France. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.


Paz, Octavio (1914- ), Mexican writer and Nobel Prize winner. He was born in Mexico City. Paz's early work explores themes of sensuality and beauty, and examines an individual's communication with the world. In his later poetry, Paz poses questions about the human condition in an individual as well as social context.

Paz was deeply committed to social reform and was involved in many left-wing causes. He joined the Mexican diplomatic corps in 1945 and served in France, Switzerland, Japan, and India. In 1968 Paz resigned as ambassador to India to protest the government massacre of student demonstrators in Mexico City.

Some of his most important works date from the time of his diplomatic service. These include The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), a collection of essays that explain his relationship to the Mexican way of life; his essays on poetry, The Bow and the Lyre, The Poem, The Poetic Revelation, Poetry and History (1956); The Pears of the Elm (1957), a book of literary criticism; and the long poem The Sun Stone (1957). In 1990 he became the first Mexican to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.


Garcia Marquez, Gabriel (1928- ), Colombian novelist and short-story writer, known for his weaving of realism and fantasy in his works. He was born in Aracataca. García Márquez's liberal, left-wing politics angered conservative Colombian dictators. To escape persecution, he spent the 1960s and 1970s in voluntary exile in Mexico and Spain. In the early 1980s he was formally invited back to Colombia. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982 and is considered one of the masters of the technique of magic realism.

García Márquez's best-known novels include No One Writes to the Colonel (1958), about a retired soldier; One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), the story of a Colombian family; and The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), concerning political power and corruption. He also wrote Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), a story of romantic love; and The General in His Labyrinth (1989), a fictional account of South American revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar.