Explore Authors

Menander

342 BC – 290 BC · Greece

Ancient Greek New Comedy playwright. A leading Athenian comic dramatist who profoundly influenced later Roman comedy.

American politician and Democrat who became the first Black mayor of Atlanta and of any major city in the American South.

Court poet of the late Roman Empire. His Latin epics and panegyrics mark him as the last of the classical Latin poets.

American writer known for her aphorism about optimism. Little detailed information about her life is widely available.

American painter and sculptor regarded as a forerunner of Pop Art. His works include Like Olympia in Black Face.

George Gordon Byron

1788 – 1824 · United Kingdom

English poet and a leading figure of Romanticism. His works include "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "Don Juan."

John Stuart Mill

1806 – 1873 · United Kingdom

British philosopher, economist, and political theorist. He laid the foundations of modern liberal thought through works such as On Liberty and Utilitarianism, which advanced utilitarian philosophy.

British zoologist who compared the anatomy of coelenterates such as jellyfish with higher animals to demonstrate embryological similarities. Drawing on fossil studies of invertebrates, he argued that humans arose through evolution.

English clergyman who produced the first complete printed English Bible. He was a leading biblical scholar of the Reformation.

Ancient Greek mathematician known as the Great Geometer. His treatise Conics established the terms ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola.

Chinese philosopher, writer and diplomat. He left writings of maxims and aphorisms.

French literary critic and philosopher. A leading figure in structuralist and post-structuralist literary theory.