Peacemaking Poets Click here for musicians for social justice. | Click here for quotations on peace monuments. Click here for return to worldwide list of notable peacemakers (also for meaning of symbols).

1304-1374 - Petrarch - Scholar & lyrical poet. Often called "Father of Humanism." First to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages."

1583-1645 - Hugo Grotius - Jurist, philosopher, theologian, Christian apologist, playwright & poet. Wrote "On the Law of War & Peace" in 1625.

1759-1805 - Friedrich Schiller - Poet. Wrote Ode to Joy ("All men will become brothers.") - 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony - in 1785.

1797-1856 - Heinrich Heine - Romantic poet. Wrote "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people" in 1821.

1803-1882 - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Lecturer, essayist & poet. Leader of Transcendentalist movement. Champion of individualism.

1820-1871 - Alice Cary - Sister of Phoebe Cary (qv). Poet. First president of Sorosis, 1st professional women's club in USA. See Jane Cunningham Croly.

1824-1871 - Phoebe Cary - Sister of Alice Cary (qv). Poet & champion of women's rights.

1826-1894 - John Bedford Leno - Chartist, radical, poet & printer. Leader of Reform League. Called "Burns of Labour" & "poet of the poor."

1861-1941 - Rabindranath Tagore - Bengali polymath. Reshaped literature & music. First non-European to win Nobel Prize in Literature. 1913

1863-1952 - George Santayama - Writer. Best known for "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

1883-1931 - Kahlil Gibran - Artist, poet & philospoher. Wrote "The Prophet" in 1923.

1886-1962 - Ethel Carnie Holdsworth - Poet, writer, feminist & socialist activist. First working-class woman in Britain to publish a novel. She published at least ten.

1886-1967 - Siegfried Sassoon - Author & soldier. A leading poet of WW-I. Described horrors of trenches. Satirised those responsible for a vainglorious war. .

1892-1982 - Archibald MacLeish - Poet & author. Wrote "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak" about 1941.

1893-1918 - Wilfred Owen - Soldier. Leading poet of WW-I. Wrote on horrors of trenches & gas warfare.

1895-1985 - Robert Graves - Poet, soldier, novelist & scholar/translator/writer of antiquity. Wrote "Goodbye to All That," a memoire about his role in WW-I.

1902-1967 - Langston Hughes - Poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, & columnist. Best known for work during Harlem Renaissance.

1904-1990 - B. F. Skinner - Behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher & poet. "Most influential psychologist of the 20th century." 1972

1905-1991 - Joseph Fletcher - Bioethicist involved with abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics & cloning. Founded "situational ethics." 1974 w/Mary Calderone

1911-1972 - Paul Goodman - Sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist & public intellectual. Activist on the pacifist left. P

1919-2010 - Gene Knudsen Hoffman - Counselor, poet, actress, writer & international peacemaker. Founded Compassionate Listening.

1924-1997 - Danilo Dolci - Sociologist, educator & poet. Opposed poverty & the Mafia. Promoted non-violence. Called "The Gandhi of Sicily."

1926-Alive - Thich Nhat Hanh Monk, teacher, author, poet & peace activist now based in France. Year?

1931-2007 - Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghose - Spiritual teacher, philosopher, poet, artist & athlete. Many monuments.

1936-2008 - Nader Khalili - Architect, writer & humanitarian. Invented Superadobe. Translated Persian poetry.

1936-2011 - Václav Havel - Playwright, essayist, poet, dissident & politician. Czech president 1989-2003. Chair of Human Rights Foundation.

1939-Alive - Margaret Atwood - Poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist & environmental activist. Among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history. 1987

1944-Alive - Alice Walker - Author, poet & activist. Best known for "The Color Purple" in 1982. 1997

1945-Alive - Paul Rivero - Poet, journalist & dissident. Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Václav Havel.

1950-Alive - Rowan Williams - Poet & theologian. Archbishop of Canterbury since 2003. P

1955-Alive - Barbara Kingsolver - Novelist, essayist & poet. Writes about social justice, biodiversity & human interaction.