Writers through history
The atlas holds 180 people and 5,946 moments here, from 620 BC to 2025. The most recorded lives are William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein and Confucius. Across the Cold War and the Interwar Period.
Notable people
Charles Baudelaire
from 1821 to 1867
20 moments here
French poet, essayist, translator, and art critic, best known for Les Fleurs du mal. Baudelaire lived chiefly in Paris, spent formative school years…
Charles Darwin
from 1809 to 1882
110 moments here
English naturalist, geologist, and biologist whose observations during the global voyage of HMS Beagle and subsequent research led to his theory of…
Charles de Gaulle
from 1890 to 1970
47 moments here
French army officer, leader of Free France during the Second World War, head of France's Provisional Government, and president of the French Fifth…
Charles Dickens
from 1812 to 1870
94 moments here
English novelist, journalist, editor, social reformer, actor and celebrated public reader. This chronology traces documented residences, workplaces,…
Charlie Chaplin
from 1889 to 1977
62 moments here
English actor, comedian, director, writer, producer and composer whose screen persona, the Tramp, became an international icon.…
Cicero
from 106 BC to 43 BC
83 moments here
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman lawyer, orator, philosopher, consul, provincial governor, and defender of the late Republic.…
Confucius
from 551 BC to 479 BC
23 moments here
Confucius, born Kong Qiu, was a teacher, political thinker, and sometime official of the Chinese state of Lu.…
Daniel Defoe
from 1660 to 1731
18 moments here
English merchant, political writer, journalist, intelligence agent, and novelist. This chronology records documented physical presences from his…
Dante Alighieri
from 1265 to 1321
26 moments here
Florentine poet, prose writer, philosopher, and statesman whose Divine Comedy became a foundational work of Italian and European literature.…
Desiderius Erasmus
from 1466 to 1536
27 moments here
Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, theologian, editor, and author. Erasmus was born in the Burgundian Netherlands, educated in the Low…
Doris Lessing
from 1919 to 2013
17 moments here
British novelist Doris May Lessing was born in Kermanshah, Iran, grew up in Southern Rhodesia, and moved to London in 1949.…
Douglas Adams
from 1952 to 2001
25 moments here
English author, screenwriter and humourist best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.…
Du Fu
from 712 to 770
35 moments here
Tang-dynasty Chinese poet and minor official. His documented movements span the capital region, the northwest frontier, Sichuan, the Yangtze…
Dwight D. Eisenhower
from 1890 to 1969
48 moments here
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a United States Army officer, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, and the 34th president of the United…
Edgar Allan Poe
from 1809 to 1849
30 moments here
American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic whose work helped shape Gothic fiction, detective fiction, and early science fiction.…
Epicurus
from 341 BC to 270 BC
7 moments here
Ancient Greek philosopher and founder of Epicureanism. The securely documented outline of his movements runs from his birth and upbringing on Samos…
Ernest Hemingway
from 1899 to 1961
55 moments here
American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Hemingway’s documented movements ranged from Illinois and Michigan to Italy in World War I,…
Euclid
in 300 BC
1 moment here
Ancient Greek mathematician and geometer, conventionally known as Euclid of Alexandria. Biographical evidence is exceptionally sparse: his birthplace…
Euripides
from 480 BC to 406 BC
6 moments here
Euripides was an Athenian tragic playwright traditionally born on Salamis around 480 BC and conventionally said to have died in Macedon around 406…
Fidel Castro
from 1926 to 2016
52 moments here
Cuban revolutionary and political leader who led the 26th of July Movement against Fulgencio Batista, became Cuba's prime minister in 1959, and later…
Francis Bacon
from 1561 to 1626
13 moments here
English philosopher, lawyer, statesman, Attorney General, and Lord Chancellor under James I.…
Francis of Assisi
from 1181 to 1226
33 moments here
Italian Catholic friar, deacon, preacher, and founder of the Order of Friars Minor. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone at Assisi, he renounced his…
François Rabelais
from 1520 to 1553
11 moments here
French Renaissance writer, physician, humanist, and Catholic priest. His birth date is disputed, with scholarship placing it between 1483 and 1494;…
Franz Kafka
from 1883 to 1924
69 moments here
German-language Jewish Czech writer whose fiction transformed modern literature. Born and educated in Prague, Kafka trained as a lawyer and worked…