The Minds Behind the Words

A. A. Milne

English novelist, playwright, and poet (1882 to 1956). Alan Alexander Milne was a master of gentle wit and a defining vo…

Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa'

Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa (724 - 759 AD) was a writer, translator, and thinker of Persian origin who lived during the Umay…

Adam Smith

Adam Smith (b. 1723) was a Scottish philosopher and economist who is widely recognized as the father of modern economics…

Aesop

Aesop (b. 620 BCE) was an ancient Greek storyteller and fabulist who is credited with initiating a highly influential tr…

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890–1976) was an English writer and playwright. She is widely known for her 66 dete…

Albert Camus

French writer, philosopher, and journalist (1913 to 1960). Albert Camus was a pivotal figure in 20th-century thought and…

Alexander Schmemann

Alexander Schmemann (1921–1983) was a Russian-American Eastern Orthodox priest, theologian, and educator who is widely c…

Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) lived with an unbridled energy that mirrored the grand scale of his narratives. Born the son…

Alexandre Dumas (fils)

Alexandre Dumas fils (1824–1895) While his father conquered the world with swashbuckling heroes and sprawling historical…

Alphonse Daudet

Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) was a prominent French novelist, playwright, and short story writer known for his vivid depi…

Alphonse de Châteaubriant

Alphonse de Chateaubriant (1877–1951) began his career as a celebrated voice of the French soil, only to end it as a sym…

Alphonse de Lamartine

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790–1869) was a prominent French poet, statesman, and historian who served a…

Amin Salama

Amin Salama (1921–1998) was an eminent Egyptian translator, scholar, and author who dedicated his life to bridging the g…

Anonyme

Anonyme represents the collective voice of unknown storytellers whose oral traditions and written manuscripts have shape…

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) was a pioneering French aviator and writer who translated the raw peril of early fl…

Antony Hope

Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863–1933), known professionally as Antony Hope, was a prolific British novelist and playwright wh…

Antoun Saadeh

Antoun Saadeh (1904-1949) was a Lebanese writer, thinker, and political philosopher, the founder of the Syrian Social Na…

Antun al-Jumayyil

Antun bin Jamil Al-Jumayyil (1887–1948) was a prominent Lebanese writer, journalist, and politician who left a clear mar…

Aristotle

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath who stands as one of the most influential figures i…

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a Scottish physician who revolutionized the mystery genre, though he often felt i…

Asad Rustum

Asad Rustum (1897–1965), a Lebanese national, was the "Historian of the See of Antioch" and guardian of the Mashriqi (Ea…

Avicenna

Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina (980 CE - 1037 CE), known in the West as "Avicenna," was a Muslim physician, ph…

Bar Hebraeus

Abu al-Faraj Jamal al-Din ibn Harun al-Malati, known as Bar Hebraeus (1226 - 1286 AD), was a prominent Syriac historian,…

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706) was an American polymath, writer, scientist, and statesman who served as one of the Founding…

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and essayist who is wide…

Blair, Eric Arthur

Eric Arthur Blair (b. 1903), who wrote under the pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, and journali…

Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish author whose name became synonymous with the most enduring monster in literary hist…

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (b. 1898) was a British writer, scholar, and lay theologian who became one of the most influential l…

Charles Alexander Pasternak

Charles Alexander Pasternak (b. 1930) is a distinguished British biochemist, academic, and author who has made significa…

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French poet, essayist, and art critic who is widely regarded as one of the m…

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) possessed a rare, radical patience. While his five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle furnishe…

Charles Dickens

English novelist and social critic (1812 to 1870). Charles John Huffam Dickens was the definitive voice of the Victorian…

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian who is best remembered for his personal essays a…

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault (1628–1703) was a French author, lawyer, and high-ranking civil servant who is widely recognized as the…

Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was a pioneering English novelist whose fiercely independent heroines forever changed the …

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was a trailblazing American feminist, sociologist, and author who fiercely dismantl…

Churchill, Winston S. [Spencer]

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (b. 1874) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who served as Prime Mi…

Countess of Ségur

Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Segur (1799–1874), was a prolific French novelist of Russian origin who became one of th…

E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster (1879–1970) was a masterful English novelist whose quiet, elegant prose masked a piercing critique of Edwa…

Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) was an English novelist and poet who revolutionized children's literature under the pen name E.…

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer who became the first woman to win t…

Elias Abu Chabake

Elias Abu Chabake (1903-1947) was a Lebanese poet, writer, and translator, considered one of the most prominent pioneers…

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–1865) was a prominent English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era.…

Elizabeth Von Arnim

Born Mary Annette Beauchamp in Australia and raised in England, Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) found her literary voice…

Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë (1818–1848) was an English novelist and poet who remains one of the most enigmatic figures in the hist…

Enid Blyton

Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English children's writer whose prolific output made her one of the most successful …

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) fundamentally altered the course of modern fiction with his stark, economical prose. Operat…

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald known widely as F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) was the undisputed laureate of the Jazz Age…

Father Ibrahim Sarrouj

Priest, intellectual, and library founder (born in 1942). Father Ibrahim Sarrouj is a Lebanese Orthodox priest and a gua…

Father Nehmeh Saliba

Priest, researcher, and academic (contemporary). Father Nema Saliba is a pastor in the Greek Orthodox Church, and is act…

Felix Salten

Born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest and raised in Vienna, Felix Salten (1869–1945) was a central figure in the "Young Vie…

Fortuné du Boisgobey

Fortuné Du Boisgobey (1821–1891) picked up the torch of the French detective novel when the genre was still in its infan…

Fouad Daaboul

Fouad Daaboul is a renowned Lebanese media figure, journalist, and political analyst, widely regarded as one of the most…

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (b. 1849) was a British-American novelist and playwright best known for her classic childr…

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright best known for her enduring contribut…

François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) was a French writer, diplomat, and statesman who is widely regarded as the fo…

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (b. 1818) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escapin…

Frederick H. Martens

Frederick Herman Martens (1874–1932) was an American author, music journalist, and prolific translator who made signific…

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (b. 1844) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and classical philologist whose work pr…

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian novelist, philosopher, and essayist (1821 to 1881). Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a titan of world literatu…

Gaby Fouad Daaboul

Gaby Fouad Daboul (lawyer) is a contemporary Lebanese poet and writer, considered one of the distinctive voices in the L…

George Eliot

George Eliot (1819–1880) born Mary Ann Evans, possessed one of the most formidable intellects of the Victorian era. She …

George Orwell

George Orwell (1903–1950), born Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, essayist, and critic widely regarded as one …

George Sand

George Sand (1804–1876), born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, was a pioneering French novelist, memoirist, and social crit…

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a titan of French literature and the demanding architect of modern literary realism. He…

Gustave Le Bon

Gustave Le Bon (1841 - 1931) was a renowned French physician, historian, and social psychologist, considered one of the …

Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) was a French writer and journalist who is widely celebrated as a master of the short story…

H. Beam Piper

Henry Beam Piper (1904–1964) was an American science fiction author known for his intricate future histories and sophist…

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells known as H. G. Wells (1866–1946) didn't merely predict the future; he built the imaginative archite…

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish author, poet, and playwright who achieved global renown for his transfo…

Harry Harrison

Harry Maxwell Harrison (1925–2012) was an American science fiction author, illustrator, and editor renowned for his sati…

Hasan Hanafi

Hassan Hanafi (1935–2021) was an influential Egyptian philosopher, academic, and public intellectual who served as a lea…

Henri Guys

Henri-Joseph Guys (1787–1878) was a French diplomat, orientalist, and travel writer who served as the French consul in B…

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian playwright whose uncompromising vision dismantled the artificial conventions of…

Henry David Thoreau

American naturalist, philosopher, and essayist (1817 to 1862). Henry David Thoreau was a leading figure in the Transcend…

Hercule-Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac

Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) was a French writer, poet, and free-thinker of the seventeenth centur…

Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American literary titan whose most profound work went entirely unappreciated during h…

Homer

Ancient Greek poet (c. 8th Century BCE). Homer stands as the foundational figure of the Western canon, a poet whose work…

Honoré de Balzac

French novelist and playwright (1799 to 1850). Honoré de Balzac was a titan of world literature and a founding father of…

Hugh Walpole

Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884–1941) was an English novelist, critic, and dramatist who became one of the most prolific and …

J. M. Barrie

James Matthew Barrie (1860–1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright whose enduring legacy is inextricably linked to …

J. M. Synge

Edmund John Millington Synge (1871–1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, and folklore collector who became a leading figu…

Jacob Grimm

German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785 to 1863) was a seminal figure in the study o…

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was the first great myth-maker of American literature, practically inventing the front…

James Hilton

James Hilton (1900-1954) was an English novelist and screenwriter whose imaginative storytelling left an indelible mark …

James Joyce

James Joyce (1882–1941) was a monumental figure of literary modernism who radically reinvented the boundaries, structure…

Jane Austen

English novelist (1775 to 1817). Jane Austen was a preeminent figure in English literature whose keen observations of th…

Jean de La Fontaine

French poet, fabulist, and writer (1621 to 1695). Jean de La Fontaine was one of the most widely read and enduring figur…

Jean Racine

Jean Racine (1639–1699) was a preeminent French dramatist and one of the three great playwrights of seventeenth-century …

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer whose political philosophy heavily inf…

John Locke

John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlighte…

John R. Bradley

John R. Bradley (b. 1970) is a British journalist, author, and Middle East specialist. He is widely recognized for his d…

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (b. 1806) was a British philosopher, political economist, and civil servant who stood as one of the mos…

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and cleric (1667 to 1745). Jonathan Swift was the undisputed mast…

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short-story writer who is widely regarded as one of the grea…

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a globally renowned French writer, considered one of the founding fathers of science…

Jurji Zaydan

Jurji Habib Zaydan (1861 - 1914) was a Lebanese writer, novelist, and historian, considered one of the most prominent pi…

Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary socialist whose fierce critique o…

Khalil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist who remains one of the most cel…

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum (b. 1856) was an American author, playwright, and journalist best known as the creator of one of the mo…

L. M. Montgomery

Canadian novelist, poet, and short story writer (1874 to 1942). Lucy Maud Montgomery was a defining voice in Canadian li…

Leo Tolstoy

Born into the highest echelons of Russian nobility, Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) became one of the undispu…

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, led a fascinating double life. By day, he was a quie…

Linda Brent

Linda Brent (b. 1813), the pen name of Harriet Jacobs, was an American author, abolitionist, and social reformer. She is…

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) grew up in the intellectual heart of 19th-century New England, surrounded by towering tran…

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (b. 1889) was an Austrian-British philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most…

Madame de Lafayette

Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette (1634-1693), was a French woman of letters and salonnière of…

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist (1869 to 1948). Mohandas Karamcha…

Marcel Proust

French novelist, literary critic, and essayist (1871–1922). Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French nov…

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (b. 121) was a Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher who ruled the Roman Empire from 161 until h…

Mark Twain

Mark Twain (1835–1910), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is widely celebrated as the father of American literature. Raised…

Maroun Abboud

Maroun Abboud (1886–1962) was a pioneering Lebanese writer, literary critic, and educator who played a monumental role i…

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) was born into radical intellectual royalty, the daughter of feminist pioneer Mar…

Maurice Leblanc

Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (1864-1941) was a renowned French novelist and short story writer, famous for creating one o…

Metropolitan George Khodr

Metropolitan of Mount Lebanon, theologian, and luminous writer (born 1923). George Khodr is the spiritual heartbeat of t…

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (b. 1945) is a Greek Eastern Orthodox metropolitan, theologian, and prolific author…

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (1547 to 1616). Miguel de Cervantes is the preeminent figure in Spanish literatur…

Min al-turāth al-ʻālamī

Molière

Molière (1622–1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, is widely celebrated as the supreme master of French comedy. Abandonin…

Monastery of Saint George - Deir el-Harf, Lebanon

An Orthodox monastic community and spiritual destination (its modern revival was launched in late 1957). The monastic co…

Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689–1755) was a French lawyer, man of letters, and poli…

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) remains the undisputed master of American dark romanticism. Haunted by the grim legacy o…

Niccolò Machiavelli

Italian diplomat, philosopher, and historian (1469 to 1527). Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was a central figure of…

Niqula Haddad

Nicola Haddad (1878–1954) was a pioneering Lebanese-Egyptian journalist, sociologist, and novelist who played a signific…

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano (b. 1745) was an African-British abolitionist, writer, and merchant seaman whose life story became one o…

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was the dazzling, controversial epicenter of late-Victorian London society. An Irish-born playwr…

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881–1975) was an English novelist, playwright, and humorist who remains one of the most…

Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille (1606–1684) was a preeminent French dramatist and poet who is widely regarded as the father of French c…

Plato

Plato (b. c. 427 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and educator who is widely regarded as one of the most influential…

Rachel Carson

Rachel Louise Carson (b. 1907) was an American marine biologist, conservationist, and writer whose landmark books advanc…

René Descartes

René Descartes (1596 to 1650), French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. René Descartes is universally celebrate…

Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) was a titanic, fiercely polarizing figure in 19th-century German art whose influence spilled …

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard (1906–1936) was an American author and poet widely regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery s…

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer celebrated for his profound impact o…

Robert W. Chambers

Robert William Chambers (1865–1933) was a prolific American artist and author who achieved immense commercial success du…

Sayyid al-Qimni

Sayyid al-Qemany (1947–2022) was an Egyptian historian, academic, and prominent secular intellectual. He was widely reco…

Scott O'Dell

Scott O'Dell (1898–1989) was an American author and journalist who became one of the most celebrated figures in children…

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was an Austrian neurologist who fundamentally shattered the modern understanding of the human …

Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein

Sigmund Freud (b. 1856) and Albert Einstein (b. 1879) were two of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth ce…

Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC) was a Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher. He is traditionally credited as the aut…

T. Smollett

Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) was a Scottish physician and author who became one of the defining masters of the 18th-centu…

Taha Husayn, Muhammad Kurd Ali, and Ali Mustafa Musharafa

Taha Hussein (1889-1973), Muhammad Kurd Ali (1876-1953), and Ali Mostafa Mosharafa (1898-1950) are three of the most pro…

Taha Hussein

Taha Hussein, Ahmed Mohamed Hassanein Pasha, Ali Mustafa Mosharafa, and Hafez Afifi

Taha Hussein (1889-1973), Ahmed Mohamed Hassanein Pasha (1889-1946), Ali Mostafa Mosharafa (1898-1950), and Hafez Afifi …

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher whose deeply cynical, rigorously logical view of human nature perma…

Thucydides

Thucydides (b. 460 BC) was an Athenian historian and military general. He is widely celebrated for his detailed chronicl…

United States. Office of Strategic Services

The United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the premier intelligence agency of the United States during Wor…

Victor Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo (1802–1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist who became the preeminent figure of the Romanti…

Virgil Gheorghiu

Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu (1916–1992) was a Romanian novelist and Romanian Orthodox priest best known for his powerful…

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire (1694–1778), was born in Paris and was a prominent French writer, …

W. E. Johns

CAPTAIN William Earl Johns (1893–1968), widely known by his pen names W. E. Johns and E. W. Johns, was a British aviator…

Washington Irving

Will Durant

Will Durant (1885–1981) was a visionary American historian and philosopher who dedicated his long life to the democratiz…

William Chapman

William Chapman (1850–1917) was a prominent French-Canadian poet, journalist, and civil servant who played a significant…

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) remains the most influential figure in the history of the English language, a playwright…

Ya'qub Sarruf

Yaqub Sarruf (1852-1927) was a pioneering Lebanese journalist, novelist, and publisher who played a central role in the …

Yusuf Idris

Yusuf Idris (1927–1991) was an Egyptian physician, playwright, and author widely regarded as the master of the modern Ar…

Émile Zola

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who remains one of the …