Great Lives

Edwin A. Abbott

1838–1926 · 19th Century

English schoolmaster and Anglican clergyman whose Flatland joins geometric imagination to social satire.

Books for: 9-12

John Adams

1735–1826 · 18th Century

Leader of American independence and second President of the United States.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

John Quincy Adams

1767–1848 · 19th Century

Sixth President of the United States who later, as a congressman, fought the gag rule and argued the Amistad captives' case before the Supreme Court.

Books for: 9-12

Richard Adams

1920–2016 · Postwar Contemporary

English novelist, author of Watership Down.

Books for: 6-8

Samuel Adams

1722–1803 · 18th Century

Boston patriot and Congregationalist organizer who steered Massachusetts toward independence and signed the Declaration.

Books for: 6-8

Jane Addams

1860–1935 · 19th Century

American social reformer who founded Hull House in Chicago and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Books for: 9-12

Aeschylus

c. 525–456 BC · Ancient

Athenian playwright, the earliest Greek tragedian whose plays survive, author of the Oresteia trilogy.

Books for: 9-12

Aesop

c. 620–564 BC (traditional) · Ancient

Storyteller of ancient Greece to whom hundreds of fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare, have been attributed.

Books for: K-2

Akbar the Great

1542–1605 · Renaissance Early Modern

Mughal emperor who expanded his empire across northern India and welcomed debate among religions.

Louisa May Alcott

1832–1888 · 19th Century

American novelist, author of Little Women.

Books for: 3-5

Alexander the Great

356–323 BC · Ancient

Macedonian king who conquered the Persian Empire and spread Greek culture from Egypt to India.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Alfred the Great

849–899 · Medieval

King of Wessex who defended England against the Vikings and promoted learning.

Books for: 9-12

Richard Allen

1760–1831 · 18th Century

American minister and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who led relief work in Philadelphia's 1793 yellow fever epidemic.

Books for: 9-12

Roald Amundsen

1872–1928 · Early 20th Century

Norwegian explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole.

Hans Christian Andersen

1805–1875 · 19th Century

Danish author of fairy tales, including The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes.

Books for: K-2, 6-8

Marguerite de Angeli

1889–1987 · Early 20th Century

American writer and illustrator of children's books, author of the Newbery Medal winner The Door in the Wall.

Books for: 3-5

Fra Angelico

c. 1395–1455 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dominican friar and painter of luminous religious frescoes at San Marco in Florence.

Books for: 9-12

Tamim Ansary

born 1948 · Postwar Contemporary

Afghan-American author of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes and the memoir West of Kabul, East of New York.

Books for: 9-12

Anselm of Canterbury

c. 1033–1109 · Medieval

Monk, archbishop and philosopher of faith seeking understanding.

Books for: 9-12

Susan B. Anthony

1820–1906 · 19th Century

Leader of the campaign for women's right to vote in the United States.

Books for: 3-5

Apollodorus

1st or 2nd century AD (author unknown) · Ancient

Unknown ancient author whose Library, a handbook of the Greek myths from the creation to Odysseus, has come down under the name Apollodorus.

Books for: 9-12

Apollonius of Rhodes

3rd century BC · Ancient

Greek poet and scholar of Alexandria, author of the Argonautica, the epic of Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece.

Books for: 9-12

Apuleius

c. 124–after 170 · Ancient

Latin writer and philosopher from North Africa, author of the Metamorphoses, also called The Golden Ass.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Aquinas

1225–1274 · Medieval

Dominican friar and theologian who joined Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology.

Books for: 9-12

Archimedes

c. 287–212 BC · Ancient

Greek mathematician and engineer of Syracuse, famous for buoyancy, levers and war machines.

Books for: 9-12

Hannah Arendt

1906–1975 · Early 20th Century

German-born American political philosopher, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism and Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Books for: 9-12

Aristophanes

c. 446–c. 386 BC · Ancient

Comic playwright of classical Athens, author of The Clouds, The Birds and Lysistrata.

Books for: 9-12

Aristotle

384–322 BC · Ancient

Greek philosopher and scientist, tutor of Alexander, whose works shaped learning for two thousand years.

Books for: 9-12

Ashoka

c. 304–232 BC · Ancient

Indian emperor who turned from conquest to Buddhist teaching after the bloody Kalinga war.

Books for: 9-12

Athanasius of Alexandria

c. 296–373 · Ancient

Bishop of Alexandria who defended the full divinity of Christ against Arianism.

Books for: 9-12

Richard and Florence Atwater

1892–1948 and 1896–1979 · Early 20th Century

Chicago husband and wife, a classics teacher and a French teacher, who together wrote the Newbery Honor book Mr. Popper's Penguins (1938).

Books for: 3-5

Augustine of Hippo

354–430 · Ancient

North African bishop and theologian, author of the Confessions and City of God.

Books for: 9-12

Augustus

63 BC–AD 14 · Ancient

First Roman emperor, who ended a century of civil wars and began the long Roman peace.

Books for: 9-12

Jane Austen

1775–1817 · 19th Century

English novelist, author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma.

Books for: 9-12

Paul Auster

1947–2024 · Postwar Contemporary

American novelist and memoirist, author of The New York Trilogy.

Books for: 9-12

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

c. 980–1037 · Medieval

Persian physician and philosopher, author of the Canon of Medicine.

Books for: 9-12

Mariano Azuela

1873–1952 · Early 20th Century

Mexican novelist and physician, author of The Underdogs, the first great novel of the Mexican Revolution.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Babbage

1791–1871 · 19th Century

English mathematician who designed the first programmable mechanical computer.

Books for: 9-12

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685–1750 · 18th Century

German composer and organist of the St. Matthew Passion and the Brandenburg Concertos.

Books for: 9-12

Francis Bacon

1561–1626 · Renaissance Early Modern

English statesman and essayist who championed experiment and observation in science.

Books for: 9-12

Honoré de Balzac

1799–1850 · 19th Century

French novelist, author of Father Goriot and the many novels of The Human Comedy.

Books for: 9-12

Frederick Banting

1891–1941 · Early 20th Century

Canadian surgeon who with Charles Best isolated insulin in Toronto in 1921–1922, turning diabetes from a death sentence into a treatable disease.

Books for: 9-12

Nicolò Barbaro

1427/28–c. 1521 · Renaissance Early Modern

Venetian nobleman whose day-by-day diary is one of the most important eyewitness accounts of the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Books for: 9-12

J. M. Barrie

1860–1937 · 19th Century

Scottish novelist and playwright, creator of Peter Pan.

Books for: 3-5

Karl Barth

1886–1968 · Early 20th Century

Swiss Reformed theologian, author of the Church Dogmatics and principal drafter of the Barmen Declaration.

Books for: 9-12

Donald Barthelme

1931–1989 · Postwar Contemporary

American short-story writer known for playful, experimental fiction, collected in Sixty Stories.

Books for: 9-12

Josiah Bartlett

1729–1795 · 18th Century

New Hampshire physician and signer who later served as the state's chief justice and governor.

Books for: 6-8

Clara Barton

1821–1912 · 19th Century

Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross.

Books for: 3-5

Basil the Great

c. 330–379 · Ancient

Bishop of Caesarea who shaped Eastern monasticism and built a great hospital for the poor.

Frédéric Bastiat

1801–1850 · 19th Century

French economist and member of the National Assembly, author of The Law and the parable of the broken window.

Books for: 9-12

L. Frank Baum

1856–1919 · 19th Century

American author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and thirteen more Oz books.

Books for: 3-5

Cesare Beccaria

1738–1794 · 18th Century

Italian jurist whose On Crimes and Punishments (1764) argued against torture and the death penalty and changed criminal law in Europe and America.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Becket

c. 1120–1170 · Medieval

Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in his cathedral after opposing Henry II.

Books for: 9-12

Samuel Beckett

1906–1989 · Early 20th Century

Irish playwright and novelist who wrote in French and English, author of Waiting for Godot, and Nobel laureate.

Books for: 9-12

Bede

c. 672–735 · Medieval

English monk and scholar of Jarrow, author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, often called the father of English history.

Books for: 9-12

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770–1827 · 19th Century

German composer who kept writing great symphonies after he became deaf.

Books for: 9-12

Aphra Behn

c. 1640–1689 · Renaissance Early Modern

English playwright, poet and novelist; among the first English women to earn a living by writing; author of The Rover and Oroonoko.

Books for: 9-12

Alexander Graham Bell

1847–1922 · 19th Century

Teacher of the deaf who invented the telephone.

Books for: 3-5

Saul Bellow

1915–2005 · Postwar Contemporary

Canadian-born American novelist, author of The Adventures of Augie March and Herzog, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Nathaniel Benchley

1915–1981 · Postwar Contemporary

American novelist and children's author, writer of Sam the Minuteman and The Off-Islanders.

Books for: K-2

Benedict of Nursia

c. 480–547 · Medieval

Father of Western monasticism, whose Rule organized monastic life around prayer and work.

Books for: 9-12

Pope Benedict XVI

1927–2022 · Postwar Contemporary

German theologian Joseph Ratzinger, pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013.

Books for: 9-12

Henri Bergson

1859–1941 · Early 20th Century

French philosopher of time, intuition and creative evolution; Nobel Prize in Literature, 1927.

Books for: 9-12

George Berkeley

1685–1753 · 18th Century

Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop, known for the idea that to be is to be perceived.

Books for: 9-12

Bernard of Clairvaux

1090–1153 · Medieval

Cistercian abbot, preacher and adviser to popes and kings.

Books for: 9-12

Claude Bernard

1813–1878 · 19th Century

French physiologist who established the experimental method in medicine and the idea of the internal environment of the body.

Books for: 9-12

Wendell Berry

1934–2026 · Postwar Contemporary

American farmer, poet, novelist and essayist of rural Kentucky, author of The Unsettling of America and the Port William novels.

Books for: 9-12

Otto von Bismarck

1815–1898 · 19th Century

Prussian statesman who unified Germany and became its first chancellor.

William Blackstone

1723–1780 · 18th Century

English jurist whose Commentaries on the Laws of England taught law in Britain and America.

Books for: 9-12

Elizabeth Blackwell

1821–1910 · 19th Century

First woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

William Blake

1757–1827 · 18th Century

English poet, painter and printmaker, author of Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Eugen Bleuler

1857–1939 · 19th Century

Swiss psychiatrist who coined the terms schizophrenia and autism and directed the Burghölzli hospital in Zurich.

Books for: 9-12

Giovanni Boccaccio

1313–1375 · Medieval

Florentine author of the Decameron, friend of Petrarch, and early champion of Dante, one of the founders of Renaissance humanism.

Books for: 9-12

Boethius

c. 477–524 · Medieval

Roman statesman who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy while awaiting execution.

Books for: 9-12

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk

1851–1914 · 19th Century

Austrian economist and finance minister of the Austrian School, known for his theory of capital and interest and his critique of Marx.

Books for: 9-12

Niels Bohr

1885–1962 · Early 20th Century

Danish physicist who explained the structure of the atom using quantum ideas.

W. E. B. Du Bois

1868–1963 · Early 20th Century

American sociologist, historian and civil rights leader, author of The Souls of Black Folk and co-founder of the NAACP.

Books for: 9-12

Simón Bolívar

1783–1830 · 19th Century

The Liberator, who led much of South America to independence from Spain.

Bonaventure

1221–1274 · Medieval

Italian Franciscan theologian, minister general of the Franciscan order and author of The Journey of the Mind into God.

Books for: 9-12

Michael Bond

1926–2017 · Postwar Contemporary

English author of the Paddington Bear books.

Books for: 3-5

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906–1945 · Early 20th Century

German pastor and theologian executed for resisting Hitler.

Books for: 9-12

George Boole

1815–1864 · 19th Century

English mathematician who created Boolean algebra, the logic of true and false later used in computers.

Books for: 9-12

Daniel Boone

1734–1820 · 18th Century

Frontiersman who blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky.

Books for: 3-5

William and Catherine Booth

1829–1912 and 1829–1890 · 19th Century

Methodist evangelists who founded the Salvation Army in London's East End and campaigned for the poor.

Books for: 9-12

James Boswell

1740–1795 · 18th Century

Scottish lawyer and diarist, author of The Life of Samuel Johnson.

Books for: 9-12

John Boyd

1927–1997 · Postwar Contemporary

American fighter pilot and military strategist who developed energy–maneuverability theory and the OODA loop.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Boyle

1627–1691 · Renaissance Early Modern

Irish-born chemist and experimenter, known for Boyle's law of gases.

Books for: 9-12

Ray Bradbury

1920–2012 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine.

Books for: 9-12

William Bradford

1590–1657 · Renaissance Early Modern

Governor of Plymouth Colony for most of its first generation, and author of Of Plymouth Plantation.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Thieleman J. van Braght

1625–1664 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch Mennonite preacher who compiled the Martyrs Mirror (1660), a history of Christians who suffered for their faith.

Books for: 9-12

Louis Braille

1809–1852 · 19th Century

French teacher, blind from childhood, who invented the braille system of raised-dot reading.

Books for: 3-5

Carter Braxton

1736–1797 · 18th Century

Virginia planter who signed the Declaration; the war damaged his commercial ventures, and later stories often exaggerate his losses.

Books for: 6-8

Bertolt Brecht

1898–1956 · Early 20th Century

German playwright and poet, author of The Threepenny Opera and Mother Courage and Her Children.

Books for: 9-12

Josef Breuer

1842–1925 · 19th Century

Austrian physician whose treatment of Anna O. led to the cathartic method, an early basis of psychoanalysis.

Books for: 9-12

Vera Brittain

1893–1970 · Early 20th Century

English writer, nurse and pacifist, author of Testament of Youth, a memoir of the First World War.

Books for: 9-12

Anne Brontë

1820–1849 · 19th Century

English novelist and poet, the youngest of the Brontë sisters, author of Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Books for: 9-12

Charlotte Brontë

1816–1855 · 19th Century

English novelist and poet, eldest of the Brontë sisters to survive childhood, author of Jane Eyre and Villette.

Books for: 9-12

Emily Brontë

1818–1848 · 19th Century

English novelist and poet, author of Wuthering Heights.

Books for: 9-12

Cleanth Brooks

1906–1994 · Postwar Contemporary

American critic and Yale professor, a leading New Critic, author of The Well Wrought Urn and co-author of Understanding Poetry.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Browning

1812–1889 · 19th Century

English poet, master of the dramatic monologue, author of My Last Duchess and The Ring and the Book.

Books for: 9-12

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

1806–1859 · 19th Century

British engineer of the Great Western Railway, bridges and giant iron steamships.

Filippo Brunelleschi

1377–1446 · Renaissance Early Modern

Architect who built the great dome of Florence Cathedral and rediscovered linear perspective.

Books for: 9-12

John Buchan

1875–1940 · Early 20th Century

Scottish novelist and statesman, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps and governor general of Canada.

Books for: 6-8

Thomas Bulfinch

1796–1867 · 19th Century

American author whose retellings of Greek and Roman myths, Arthurian legends and Charlemagne tales were collected as Bulfinch's Mythology.

Books for: 6-8

Mikhail Bulgakov

1891–1940 · Early 20th Century

Russian writer and physician, author of The Master and Margarita.

Books for: 9-12

John Bunyan

1628–1688 · Renaissance Early Modern

English Puritan preacher, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, written partly in prison.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Thornton W. Burgess

1874–1965 · Early 20th Century

American conservationist and author of children's nature stories about Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk and their animal neighbours.

Books for: 3-5

Edmund Burke

1729–1797 · 18th Century

Irish-born statesman and writer, critic of the French Revolution and founder of modern conservatism.

Books for: 9-12

Frances Hodgson Burnett

1849–1924 · 19th Century

English-American novelist and playwright, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.

Books for: 3-5

Robert Burns

1759–1796 · 18th Century

Scotland's national poet: To a Mouse, The Cotter's Saturday Night, Tam o' Shanter, Auld Lang Syne and hundreds of Scottish songs.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Robert Burton

1577–1640 · Renaissance Early Modern

English scholar and clergyman, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Books for: 9-12

Virginia Lee Burton

1909–1968 · Postwar Contemporary

American author and illustrator of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and the Caldecott Medal book The Little House.

Books for: K-2

Vannevar Bush

1890–1974 · Early 20th Century

American engineer who led U.S. scientific research during the Second World War and wrote the essay "As We May Think".

Books for: 9-12

Lord Byron

1788–1824 · 19th Century

Romantic poet of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Hebrew Melodies, who died aiding the Greek war of independence.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

John Cade

1912–1980 · Postwar Contemporary

Australian psychiatrist who in 1949 reported that lithium salts calm mania, the first effective drug treatment in modern psychiatry.

Books for: 9-12

Cædmon

died c. 680 · Medieval

Anglo-Saxon cowherd of Whitby Abbey, the earliest English poet known by name, whose short Hymn survives.

Books for: 9-12

Julius Caesar

100–44 BC · Ancient

Roman general and dictator whose rise and murder ended the Roman Republic.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

John C. Calhoun

1782–1850 · 19th Century

South Carolina statesman, vice president under two presidents, and leading defender of states' rights and slavery before the Civil War.

Books for: 9-12

John Calvin

1509–1564 · Renaissance Early Modern

French Reformer in Geneva whose Institutes shaped Reformed and Presbyterian churches.

Books for: 9-12

Italo Calvino

1923–1985 · Postwar Contemporary

Italian novelist and essayist, author of Invisible Cities, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and Why Read the Classics?

Books for: 9-12

Albert Camus

1913–1960 · Postwar Contemporary

French writer born in Algeria, author of The Stranger and The Plague, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

Books for: 9-12

William Carey

1761–1834 · 19th Century

English Baptist shoemaker who became a missionary to India and Bible translator, often called the father of modern missions.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Carlyle

1795–1881 · 19th Century

Scottish essayist and historian of The French Revolution, On Heroes, Past and Present and Frederick the Great; Victorian prophet of work and sincerity.

Books for: 9-12

Andrew Carnegie

1835–1919 · 19th Century

Scottish-American steel magnate who gave away most of his fortune to libraries and education.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

1737–1832 · 18th Century

The only Catholic signer of the Declaration, one of the richest men in the colonies, and the last of the fifty-six to die.

Books for: 6-8

Lewis Carroll

1832–1898 · 19th Century

English writer and Oxford mathematician, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Rachel Carson

1907–1964 · Postwar Contemporary

Marine biologist and writer whose Silent Spring warned about pesticides.

Books for: 3-5

Jacques Cartier

1491–1557 · Renaissance Early Modern

French navigator who explored the St. Lawrence River and named Canada.

George Washington Carver

c. 1864–1943 · Early 20th Century

Agricultural scientist at Tuskegee who taught crop rotation and found many uses for peanuts.

Books for: K-2, 3-5

Mary Cassatt

1844–1926 · Early 20th Century

American painter who joined the Impressionists in Paris and painted mothers and children.

Willa Cather

1873–1947 · Early 20th Century

American novelist of the Great Plains, author of O Pioneers!, My Ántonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop.

Books for: 9-12

Catherine the Great

1729–1796 · 18th Century

German-born empress who expanded Russia and corresponded with Enlightenment thinkers.

Books for: 9-12

Catherine of Siena

1347–1380 · Medieval

Italian mystic who cared for the sick and urged the pope to return to Rome.

Books for: 9-12

Edith Cavell

1865–1915 · Early 20th Century

British nurse and matron in Brussels who helped Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium and was executed in 1915.

Benvenuto Cellini

1500–1571 · Renaissance Early Modern

Florentine goldsmith and sculptor of the Renaissance, maker of the bronze Perseus and author of a famous autobiography.

Books for: 9-12

Aulus Cornelius Celsus

c. 25 BC–c. AD 50 · Ancient

Roman writer of the early first century whose De Medicina is one of the best sources for ancient medicine.

Books for: 9-12

Miguel de Cervantes

1547–1616 · Renaissance Early Modern

Spanish novelist, playwright and poet, author of Don Quixote.

Books for: 9-12

Jean-Martin Charcot

1825–1893 · 19th Century

French neurologist at the Salpêtrière in Paris who described multiple sclerosis and taught Sigmund Freud.

Books for: 9-12

Charlemagne

c. 747–814 · Medieval

King of the Franks crowned emperor in 800, who united much of western Europe and revived learning.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Martel

c. 688–741 · Medieval

Frankish ruler who stopped an Umayyad army near Tours in 732.

Samuel Chase

1741–1811 · 18th Century

Maryland signer later named to the Supreme Court, impeached by his political opponents in 1805 and acquitted.

Books for: 6-8

Bruce Chatwin

1940–1989 · Postwar Contemporary

English travel writer and novelist, author of In Patagonia.

Books for: 9-12

Geoffrey Chaucer

c. 1343–1400 · Medieval

English poet, author of The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, often called the father of English literature.

Books for: 9-12

Anton Chekhov

1860–1904 · 19th Century

Russian playwright and short-story writer, author of The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

Books for: 9-12

Wu Cheng'en

1500–1582 · Renaissance Early Modern

Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming dynasty, widely considered the author of Journey to the West, the story of the Monkey King.

Books for: 6-8

Ron Chernow

born 1949 · Postwar Contemporary

American biographer, author of Washington: A Life and Alexander Hamilton, which inspired the musical Hamilton.

Books for: 9-12

G. K. Chesterton

1874–1936 · Early 20th Century

English writer of the Father Brown stories, Orthodoxy and witty essays.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Frédéric Chopin

1810–1849 · 19th Century

Polish composer and pianist whose works explored every mood of the piano.

Agatha Christie

1890–1976 · Early 20th Century

English detective novelist, creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and one of the best-selling authors of all time.

Books for: 6-8

Winston Churchill

1874–1965 · Early 20th Century

British prime minister who led his country through the Second World War.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Cicero

106–43 BC · Ancient

Roman orator, lawyer and statesman whose Latin prose became a model for centuries.

Books for: 9-12

Abraham Clark

1726–1794 · 18th Century

New Jersey surveyor and 'poor man's counselor' who signed the Declaration; two of his sons were captured while serving in the army.

Books for: 6-8

Carl von Clausewitz

1780–1831 · 19th Century

Prussian general and military theorist, author of On War.

Books for: 9-12

Henry Clay

1777–1852 · 19th Century

Kentucky senator and Speaker of the House known as the Great Compromiser for his efforts to settle sectional disputes.

Books for: 9-12

Cleopatra VII

69–30 BC · Ancient

Last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, ally of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

George Clymer

1739–1813 · 18th Century

Philadelphia merchant who took his seat after 4 July, signed the Declaration, and later signed the Constitution.

Books for: 6-8

Sir Edward Coke

1552–1634 · Renaissance Early Modern

English judge who defended the common law against royal power and drafted the Petition of Right.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772–1834 · 19th Century

Romantic poet of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, co-author of Lyrical Ballads, and critic of Biographia Literaria.

Books for: 9-12

Wilkie Collins

1824–1889 · 19th Century

English novelist, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone, pioneer of the mystery and detective novel.

Books for: 9-12

Carlo Collodi

1826–1890 · 19th Century

Italian writer and journalist, author of The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Books for: 3-5

Padraic Colum

1881–1972 · Early 20th Century

Irish poet, playwright and children's author who retold myths and legends, including The Golden Fleece.

Books for: 3-5

Christopher Columbus

1451–1506 · Renaissance Early Modern

Genoese sailor whose voyages for Spain began lasting contact between Europe and the Americas.

Books for: K-2, 3-5

Confucius

551–479 BC · Ancient

Chinese teacher whose sayings on virtue, family and government shaped East Asian civilization.

Joseph Conrad

1857–1924 · 19th Century

Polish-born British novelist of the sea and empire, author of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.

Books for: 9-12

Constantine the Great

c. 272–337 · Ancient

First Roman emperor to become a Christian; founder of Constantinople.

Books for: 9-12

James Cook

1728–1779 · 18th Century

British navigator who charted New Zealand, eastern Australia and much of the Pacific.

Olivia Coolidge

1908–2006 · Postwar Contemporary

British-born American writer of books for young readers on Greek myths, history and biography, including The Trojan War.

Books for: 6-8

James Fenimore Cooper

1789–1851 · 19th Century

American novelist of the frontier, author of The Last of the Mohicans and the Leatherstocking Tales.

Books for: 9-12

Nicolaus Copernicus

1473–1543 · Renaissance Early Modern

Polish astronomer who proposed that the Earth and planets move around the Sun.

Books for: 9-12

Frederick Copleston

1907–1994 · Postwar Contemporary

English Jesuit priest and historian of philosophy; author of A History of Philosophy (1946–1975); debated Bertrand Russell on God (1948).

Books for: 9-12

Hernán Cortés

1485–1547 · Renaissance Early Modern

Spanish conquistador who brought down the Aztec Empire.

William Cowper

1731–1800 · 18th Century

Evangelical poet of The Task, John Gilpin and the Olney Hymns, and an early poetic voice against the slave trade.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Stephen Crane

1871–1900 · Early 20th Century

American writer of The Red Badge of Courage, a novel of the Civil War, and of poems and short stories.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Cranmer

1489–1556 · Renaissance Early Modern

Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII and Edward VI who shaped the English Reformation and wrote much of the Book of Common Prayer.

Books for: 9-12

Oliver Cromwell

1599–1658 · Renaissance Early Modern

Puritan general who won the English Civil War and ruled as Lord Protector.

Marie Curie

1867–1934 · Early 20th Century

Polish-French physicist and chemist, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.

Books for: K-2, 3-5

Cyril and Methodius

c. 826–869 and c. 815–885 · Medieval

Greek brothers from Thessalonica, missionaries to the Slavs, who devised the first Slavic alphabet and translated the liturgy and Scriptures.

Cyrus the Great

c. 600–530 BC · Ancient

Founder of the Persian Empire, remembered for letting the exiled Jews return to Jerusalem.

Books for: 9-12

Alice Dalgliesh

1893–1979 · Early 20th Century

Children's author and pioneering editor whose historical stories include The Courage of Sarah Noble and The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.

Books for: K-2

Saint Damien of Molokai

1840–1889 · 19th Century

Belgian priest who served the leprosy settlement on Molokai, Hawaii, until he died of the disease.

Dante Alighieri

1265–1321 · Medieval

Florentine poet, author of the Divine Comedy, which helped establish Italian as a literary language.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Darwin

1809–1882 · 19th Century

English naturalist who proposed evolution by natural selection.

Books for: 9-12

Daniel Defoe

c. 1660–1731 · Renaissance Early Modern

English writer, journalist and merchant, author of Robinson Crusoe.

Books for: 6-8

René Descartes

1596–1650 · Renaissance Early Modern

French philosopher and mathematician, author of I think, therefore I am.

Books for: 9-12

John Dewey

1859–1952 · 19th Century

American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer, a leading figure of pragmatism.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Dickens

1812–1870 · 19th Century

English novelist of the Victorian age, author of Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Emily Dickinson

1830–1886 · 19th Century

American poet of Amherst, Massachusetts, whose nearly 1,800 short poems were mostly published after her death.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

John Dickinson

1732–1808 · 18th Century

American lawyer and Founding Father, author of Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.

Books for: 9-12

Denis Diderot

1713–1784 · 18th Century

French Enlightenment philosopher and chief editor of the Encyclopédie.

Books for: 9-12

Pedanius Dioscorides

c. 40–90 · Ancient

Greek physician and botanist of the first century whose De Materia Medica was the standard guide to medicinal plants for over 1,500 years.

Books for: 9-12

Walt Disney

1901–1966 · Early 20th Century

Animator and entrepreneur who created Mickey Mouse, feature-length cartoons and Disneyland.

Books for: 3-5

Dorothea Dix

1802–1887 · 19th Century

American reformer who campaigned for humane state hospitals for the mentally ill and led Union army nurses.

Books for: 9-12

Mary Mapes Dodge

1831–1905 · 19th Century

American children's author and editor, author of Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, and editor of St. Nicholas magazine.

Books for: 3-5

John Donne

1572–1631 · Renaissance Early Modern

English poet and preacher, a leading Metaphysical poet and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.

Books for: 9-12

Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821–1881 · 19th Century

Russian novelist, author of Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

Books for: 9-12

Stephen A. Douglas

1813–1861 · 19th Century

American senator from Illinois who debated Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and ran against him for president in 1860.

Books for: 9-12

Frederick Douglass

c. 1818–1895 · 19th Century

Escaped from slavery to become a great orator, writer and leader of the abolition movement.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 6-8

Arthur Conan Doyle

1859–1930 · 19th Century

Scottish physician and writer, creator of the detective Sherlock Holmes.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Pierre Duhem

1861–1916 · 19th Century

French physicist, historian and philosopher of science, author of The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory.

Books for: 9-12

Alexandre Dumas

1802–1870 · 19th Century

French novelist and playwright, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Ariel Durant

1898–1981 · Early 20th Century

Co-author with Will Durant of later volumes of The Story of Civilization; Pulitzer Prize (1968) and Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977).

Books for: 9-12

Will Durant

1885–1981 · Early 20th Century

American historian and philosopher; The Story of Philosophy and, with Ariel Durant, the eleven-volume Story of Civilization.

Books for: 9-12

Albrecht Dürer

1471–1528 · Renaissance Early Modern

German painter and printmaker whose woodcuts and engravings spread across Europe.

Amelia Earhart

1897–1937 · Early 20th Century

Aviator who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Johann Eck

1486–1543 · Renaissance Early Modern

German Catholic theologian who debated Martin Luther and Andreas Karlstadt at the Leipzig Disputation of 1519.

Books for: 9-12

Arthur Eddington

1882–1944 · Early 20th Century

English astrophysicist who studied the interiors of stars and led the 1919 eclipse expedition that tested Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Edison

1847–1931 · 19th Century

American inventor of the phonograph and a practical electric light, with over a thousand patents.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 9-12

Jonathan Edwards

1703–1758 · 18th Century

New England pastor and theologian of the Great Awakening.

Books for: 9-12

Einhard

c. 775–840 · Medieval

Frankish scholar at the court of Charlemagne and author of the Life of Charlemagne.

Books for: 9-12

Albert Einstein

1879–1955 · Early 20th Century

German-born physicist of the theory of relativity and E = mc².

Books for: K-2, 9-12

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1890–1969 · Postwar Contemporary

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in World War II and the thirty-fourth president.

Books for: 6-8

George Eliot

1819–1880 · 19th Century

English Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, author of Silas Marner and Middlemarch.

Books for: 9-12

T. S. Eliot

1888–1965 · Early 20th Century

American-born British poet, critic and playwright, author of The Waste Land and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Books for: 9-12

Elizabeth I

1533–1603 · Renaissance Early Modern

Queen of England whose long reign saw the defeat of the Spanish Armada and a golden age of literature.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

William Ellery

1727–1820 · 18th Century

Rhode Island lawyer and merchant who signed the Declaration and later served as a customs collector in Newport.

Books for: 6-8

Elisabeth Elliot

1926–2015 · Postwar Contemporary

American Christian missionary and author of Through Gates of Splendor, about the deaths of five missionaries in Ecuador.

Books for: 6-8

Ralph Ellison

1913–1994 · Postwar Contemporary

American novelist, author of Invisible Man, winner of the National Book Award.

Books for: 9-12

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803–1882 · 19th Century

American essayist, lecturer and poet, leader of the Transcendentalist movement, author of Nature and Self-Reliance.

Books for: 9-12

Friedrich Engels

1820–1895 · 19th Century

German social theorist and businessman, coauthor with Karl Marx of The Communist Manifesto.

Books for: 9-12

Epictetus

c. 50–c. 135 · Ancient

Greek Stoic philosopher, born enslaved, whose teachings were recorded in the Discourses and the Enchiridion.

Books for: 9-12

Epicurus

341–270 BC · Ancient

Greek philosopher who taught that happiness is freedom from pain and fear, founder of the Garden school in Athens.

Books for: 9-12

Desiderius Erasmus

c. 1466–1536 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch scholar who edited the Greek New Testament and wrote The Praise of Folly.

Books for: 9-12

Leif Erikson

c. 970–1020 · Medieval

Norse explorer who reached North America about five hundred years before Columbus.

Books for: 3-5

Jean-Étienne Esquirol

1772–1840 · 19th Century

French psychiatrist, student of Philippe Pinel, who reformed asylums and wrote Mental Maladies.

Books for: 9-12

Eleanor Estes

1906–1988 · Early 20th Century

American children's author and librarian, author of The Moffats, The Hundred Dresses and the Newbery-winning Ginger Pye.

Books for: 3-5

Euclid

fl. c. 300 BC · Ancient

Greek mathematician of Alexandria whose Elements taught geometry for over two thousand years.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Leonhard Euler

1707–1783 · 18th Century

Swiss mathematician, one of the most productive in history, who kept working after going blind.

Euripides

c. 480–406 BC · Ancient

Athenian tragedian, author of Medea, The Trojan Women and The Bacchae.

Books for: 9-12

Eusebius of Caesarea

c. 260–339 · Ancient

Bishop of Caesarea and historian, author of the Ecclesiastical History, the first full history of the early Christian church.

Books for: 9-12

Hans Fallada

1893–1947 · Early 20th Century

German novelist, author of Little Man, What Now? and Every Man Dies Alone, also published as Alone in Berlin.

Books for: 9-12

Michael Faraday

1791–1867 · 19th Century

English experimenter who discovered electromagnetic induction.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

William Faulkner

1897–1962 · Early 20th Century

American novelist of the South, author of The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, and Nobel laureate.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Fergusson

1750–1774 · 18th Century

Edinburgh poet in Scots whose Auld Reekie and The Farmer's Ingle inspired Robert Burns; he died at twenty-four.

Books for: 9-12

Paul Feyerabend

1924–1994 · Postwar Contemporary

Austrian philosopher of science, author of Against Method, who argued that science has no single method.

Books for: 9-12

Henry Fielding

1707–1754 · 18th Century

English novelist, playwright and magistrate; author of Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, Amelia and Jonathan Wild; cofounder of the Bow Street Runners.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Filmer

1588–1653 · Renaissance Early Modern

English political theorist, author of Patriarcha, a defense of the divine right of kings.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Finney

1792–1875 · 19th Century

American revivalist preacher of the Second Great Awakening and president of Oberlin College.

Books for: 9-12

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

1879–1958 · Early 20th Century

American author, educator and reformer whose children's novel Understood Betsy promoted Montessori-style learning.

Books for: 3-5

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1896–1940 · Early 20th Century

American novelist of the Jazz Age, author of The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise.

Books for: 9-12

Alexander Fleming

1881–1955 · Early 20th Century

Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin.

William Floyd

1734–1821 · 18th Century

Long Island landowner who signed the Declaration; his family fled when the British occupied his estate.

Books for: 6-8

Theodor Fontane

1819–1898 · 19th Century

German novelist and poet of the realist era, author of Effi Briest.

Books for: 9-12

Esther Forbes

1891–1967 · Early 20th Century

American novelist and historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for a biography of Paul Revere and the Newbery Medal for Johnny Tremain.

Books for: 6-8

Henry Ford

1863–1947 · Early 20th Century

Automaker whose Model T and moving assembly line put America on wheels.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

E. M. Forster

1879–1970 · Early 20th Century

English novelist and critic, author of A Room with a View, Howards End, A Passage to India and the lectures Aspects of the Novel.

Books for: 9-12

George Fox

1624–1691 · Renaissance Early Modern

English preacher who founded the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, teaching that the inner light of Christ is in every person.

Books for: 9-12

John Foxe

1516/17–1587 · Renaissance Early Modern

English Protestant clergyman and historian whose Actes and Monuments, known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, told the stories of Christian martyrs.

Books for: 9-12

Francis of Assisi

1181/82–1226 · Medieval

Italian friar who embraced poverty, founded the Franciscans and loved all creation.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Viktor E. Frankl

1905–1997 · Early 20th Century

Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, author of Man's Search for Meaning.

Books for: 9-12

Benjamin Franklin

1706–1790 · 18th Century

Printer, scientist, inventor and diplomat; signer of the Declaration and the Constitution.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Rosalind Franklin

1920–1958 · Postwar Contemporary

English chemist whose X-ray photographs of DNA, including Photo 51, were crucial evidence for the double helix.

Books for: 9-12

James George Frazer

1854–1941 · 19th Century

Scottish anthropologist and classicist, author of The Golden Bough, a comparative study of myth, magic and religion.

Books for: 9-12

Frederick the Great

1712–1786 · 18th Century

King of Prussia, a brilliant general and patron of the Enlightenment.

Books for: 9-12

Emmanuel Frémiet

1824–1910 · 19th Century

French sculptor of animals and of the gilded equestrian Joan of Arc at the Place des Pyramides in Paris.

Books for: 9-12

Daniel Chester French

1850–1931 · 19th Century

American sculptor of the Minute Man at Concord and of the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Sigmund Freud

1856–1939 · Early 20th Century

Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis.

Books for: 9-12

Milton Friedman

1912–2006 · Postwar Contemporary

American economist and Nobel laureate, a leading advocate of free markets and author of Capitalism and Freedom.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Frost

1874–1963 · Early 20th Century

American poet of rural New England, author of The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, four times winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Books for: 6-8

Jakob Fugger

1459–1525 · Renaissance Early Modern

Augsburg merchant and banker, perhaps the richest man of his age, who financed emperors.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Fulton

1765–1815 · 19th Century

American engineer who built the first commercially successful steamboat.

Galen

129–c. 216 · Ancient

Greek physician in Rome whose writings dominated medicine for 1,400 years.

Books for: 9-12

Galileo Galilei

1564–1642 · Renaissance Early Modern

Italian astronomer and physicist who turned the telescope on the sky and studied motion.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Vasco da Gama

c. 1469–1524 · Renaissance Early Modern

Portuguese navigator who opened the sea route from Europe around Africa to India.

Mahatma Gandhi

1869–1948 · Early 20th Century

Leader of India's independence movement through nonviolent resistance.

Books for: 3-5

Ruth Stiles Gannett

1923–2024 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of My Father's Dragon and its two sequels.

Books for: K-2

Giuseppe Garibaldi

1807–1882 · 19th Century

Italian patriot and guerrilla general who led the Thousand to help unify Italy.

Elizabeth Gaskell

1810–1865 · 19th Century

English Victorian novelist and biographer, author of Cranford, North and South and The Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Antoni Gaudí

1852–1926 · Early 20th Century

Catalan architect of the Sagrada Família, with buildings inspired by the shapes of nature.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

1777–1855 · 19th Century

German mathematician called the prince of mathematicians.

Lou Gehrig

1903–1941 · Early 20th Century

New York Yankees first baseman who played 2,130 consecutive games and gave the 'Luckiest Man' farewell speech.

Books for: 6-8

Genghis Khan

c. 1162–1227 · Medieval

Founder of the Mongol Empire, the largest land empire in history.

Books for: 9-12

Jean Craighead George

1919–2012 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of more than one hundred nature books for young readers, including My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves.

Books for: 3-5

Elbridge Gerry

1744–1814 · 18th Century

Massachusetts signer who later refused to sign the Constitution without a bill of rights and died as vice president.

Books for: 6-8

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

c. 1058–1111 · Medieval

Persian Muslim theologian, jurist and philosopher whose works, including The Incoherence of the Philosophers and his autobiography, shaped Islamic thought.

Books for: 9-12

Edward Gibbon

1737–1794 · 18th Century

English historian, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Books for: 9-12

Stella Gibbons

1902–1989 · Early 20th Century

English novelist and poet, author of the comic novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932).

Books for: 9-12

Kahlil Gibran

1883–1931 · Early 20th Century

Lebanese-American poet and painter, author of The Prophet.

Books for: 9-12

William Gilbert

1544–1603 · Renaissance Early Modern

English physician to Elizabeth I whose book De Magnete (1600) showed that the Earth is a giant magnet.

Books for: 9-12

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1860–1935 · 19th Century

American writer and lecturer for women's causes, author of The Yellow Wallpaper, Women and Economics and Herland.

Books for: 9-12

Giotto di Bondone

c. 1267–1337 · Medieval

Florentine painter who brought new life and solidity to figures, opening the way to the Renaissance.

Books for: 9-12

Fred Gipson

1908–1973 · Postwar Contemporary

Texas writer, author of Old Yeller.

Books for: 3-5

Kurt Gödel

1906–1978 · Early 20th Century

Austrian-American logician whose incompleteness theorems showed the limits of formal mathematical systems.

Books for: 9-12

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749–1832 · 18th Century

German poet, playwright, novelist and scientist, author of Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Books for: 9-12

Vincent van Gogh

1853–1890 · 19th Century

Dutch painter of The Starry Night and Sunflowers, known for bold color and brushwork.

Books for: 3-5

Nikolai Gogol

1809–1852 · 19th Century

Ukrainian-born Russian writer, author of The Overcoat, The Government Inspector and Dead Souls.

Books for: 9-12

William Golding

1911–1993 · Postwar Contemporary

English novelist, author of Lord of the Flies, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Oliver Goldsmith

c. 1728–1774 · 18th Century

Irish-born author of The Vicar of Wakefield, The Deserted Village and She Stoops to Conquer, and friend of Samuel Johnson.

Books for: 9-12

Adrian Goldsworthy

born 1969 · Postwar Contemporary

British historian of ancient Rome and novelist, author of studies of the Roman army, Julius Caesar and the Pax Romana.

Books for: 9-12

Kenneth Grahame

1859–1932 · 19th Century

Scottish-born writer, author of The Wind in the Willows.

Books for: 3-5

Ulysses S. Grant

1822–1885 · 19th Century

Union general who won the Civil War and served as the eighteenth president.

Books for: 9-12

Gratian

fl. c. 1140; died c. 1145 (uncertain) · Medieval

Twelfth-century teacher of law at Bologna whose Decretum organized church law and founded the study of canon law.

Books for: 9-12

Elizabeth Janet Gray

1902–1999 · Early 20th Century

American librarian and author of the Newbery-winning Adam of the Road, who later tutored Japan's Crown Prince Akihito.

Books for: 6-8

Thomas Gray

1716–1771 · 18th Century

English poet and scholar, author of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Books for: 9-12

Graham Greene

1904–1991 · Early 20th Century

English novelist, author of The Power and the Glory and The Quiet American, whose stories often explore faith and conscience in troubled places.

Books for: 9-12

Gregory the Great

c. 540–604 · Medieval

Pope who reorganized the Church, fed Rome in hard times and sent missionaries to England.

Books for: 9-12

Gregory of Nyssa

c. 335–c. 395 · Ancient

Bishop of Nyssa and one of the Cappadocian Fathers, theologian of the Trinity and author of On the Making of Man.

Books for: 9-12

Lady Gregory

1852–1932 · 19th Century

Irish dramatist and folklorist, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre and reteller of Irish legends.

Books for: 6-8

Wilhelm Griesinger

1817–1868 · 19th Century

German psychiatrist and neurologist who argued that mental illnesses are illnesses of the brain and nerves, and reformed asylum care.

Books for: 9-12

Brothers Grimm

Jacob 1785–1863; Wilhelm 1786–1859 · 19th Century

German scholars Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, who collected folk tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Snow White in Children's and Household Tales.

Books for: 3-5

Hugo Grotius

1583–1645 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch jurist called a father of international law, author of The Rights of War and Peace.

Books for: 9-12

Johannes Gutenberg

c. 1400–1468 · Renaissance Early Modern

German goldsmith who introduced printing with movable metal type to Europe.

Books for: 9-12

Button Gwinnett

c. 1735–1777 · 18th Century

English-born Georgia signer who died in May 1777 of wounds from a duel with Lachlan McIntosh.

Books for: 6-8

H. Rider Haggard

1856–1925 · 19th Century

English writer of adventure novels set in Africa, including King Solomon's Mines and She.

Books for: 6-8

James Norman Hall

1887–1951 · Early 20th Century

American writer who, with Charles Nordhoff, wrote Mutiny on the Bounty and its sequels.

Books for: 6-8

Lyman Hall

1724–1790 · 18th Century

Connecticut-born physician and former Congregationalist minister who represented Georgia in Congress and later served as governor.

Books for: 6-8

Alexander Hamilton

1755 or 1757–1804 · 18th Century

Washington's aide and first Secretary of the Treasury, who built the nation's financial system.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Hammurabi

c. 1810–1750 BC · Ancient

King of Babylon whose law code is one of the oldest written legal collections to survive.

John Hancock

1737–1793 · 18th Century

President of the Continental Congress whose large signature on the Declaration became the most famous on the document.

Books for: 6-8

George Frideric Handel

1685–1759 · 18th Century

German-born composer of Messiah and Water Music who made his career in London.

Hannibal

247–c. 183 BC · Ancient

Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps with elephants to invade Rome.

Books for: 9-12

G. H. Hardy

1877–1947 · Early 20th Century

English mathematician known for number theory, his collaboration with Srinivasa Ramanujan and the essay A Mathematician's Apology.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Hardy

1840–1928 · 19th Century

English novelist and poet, author of Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, set in his imagined Wessex.

Books for: 9-12

John Marshall Harlan

1833–1911 · 19th Century

Supreme Court justice known as "the Great Dissenter" for his lone dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) against racial segregation.

Books for: 9-12

Kyle Harper

born 1979 · Postwar Contemporary

American historian of ancient Rome, author of The Fate of Rome, on climate, disease and the end of the empire.

Books for: 9-12

James Harrington

1611–1677 · Renaissance Early Modern

English political theorist, author of The Commonwealth of Oceana, a model of a republic.

Books for: 9-12

Benjamin Harrison V

1726–1791 · 18th Century

Virginia planter and speaker who signed the Declaration and later served as governor; father of a future president.

Books for: 6-8

John Hart

c. 1711–1779 · 18th Century

Hunterdon County landowner and speaker of the New Jersey Assembly who signed the Declaration and was driven from his farm in 1776.

Books for: 6-8

William Harvey

1578–1657 · Renaissance Early Modern

English physician who discovered the circulation of the blood.

Books for: 9-12

Hatshepsut

c. 1507–1458 BC · Ancient

Woman pharaoh of Egypt's New Kingdom, known for her building projects and trade expedition to Punt.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804–1864 · 19th Century

American novelist and short-story writer, author of The Scarlet Letter and A Wonder-Book.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Joseph Haydn

1732–1809 · 18th Century

Austrian composer called the father of the symphony and the string quartet.

Friedrich A. Hayek

1899–1992 · Early 20th Century

Austrian-British economist and philosopher, author of The Road to Serfdom and winner of the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

Books for: 9-12

Robert Y. Hayne

1791–1839 · 19th Century

South Carolina senator and governor who debated Daniel Webster over states' rights and nullification in 1830.

Books for: 9-12

Henry Hazlitt

1894–1993 · Early 20th Century

American journalist and economist, author of Economics in One Lesson.

Books for: 9-12

Peter Heather

born 1960 · Postwar Contemporary

British historian of late antiquity, author of The Fall of the Roman Empire.

Books for: 9-12

G. W. F. Hegel

1770–1831 · 19th Century

German idealist philosopher, author of the Phenomenology of Spirit and lectures on the philosophy of history.

Books for: 9-12

Werner Heisenberg

1901–1976 · Early 20th Century

German physicist who helped create quantum mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle; Nobel laureate in physics.

Books for: 9-12

Ernest Hemingway

1899–1961 · Early 20th Century

American novelist and journalist, author of A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Carl G. Hempel

1905–1997 · Early 20th Century

German-American philosopher of science known for his account of scientific explanation and the raven paradox.

Books for: 9-12

Henry II of England

1133–1189 · Medieval

King of England whose royal courts, travelling judges and juries laid the foundations of the English common law.

Books for: 9-12

Henry VIII

1491–1547 · Renaissance Early Modern

King of England who broke with the pope and married six times.

Books for: 9-12

Patrick Henry

1736–1799 · 18th Century

Virginia lawyer, orator and Founding Father, remembered for 'Give me liberty, or give me death!'

Books for: 6-8

Matthew Henson

1866–1955 · Early 20th Century

Arctic explorer who was part of the 1909 expedition that claimed the North Pole.

Heraclitus

fl. c. 500 BC · Ancient

Greek philosopher of Ephesus who taught that everything is in constant change, known from surviving fragments.

Books for: 9-12

George Herbert

1593–1633 · Renaissance Early Modern

Welsh-born English poet and country parson, author of The Temple, a collection of devotional poems.

Books for: 9-12

Herodotus

c. 484–c. 425 BC · Ancient

Greek historian from Halicarnassus whose Histories of the Persian Wars earned him the title father of history.

Books for: 9-12

Herophilus

c. 335–c. 280 BC · Ancient

Greek physician at Alexandria, the first known to dissect human bodies systematically and to describe the brain, nerves and pulse.

Books for: 9-12

Judith Herrin

born 1942 · Postwar Contemporary

English archaeologist and historian of Byzantium and Late Antiquity.

Books for: 9-12

Milton Hershey

1857–1945 · Early 20th Century

Candy maker who mass-produced milk chocolate and built the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Hesiod

fl. c. 700 BC · Ancient

Early Greek poet of Boeotia, author of the Theogony and Works and Days.

Books for: 9-12

Hermann Hesse

1877–1962 · Early 20th Century

German-born Swiss novelist, author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game, winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Joseph Hewes

1730–1779 · 18th Century

North Carolina merchant who signed the Declaration, helped fit out the early Continental navy, and died while still in Congress.

Books for: 6-8

Thomas Heyward Jr.

1746–1809 · 18th Century

South Carolina lawyer who signed the Declaration, was captured at Charleston, and later sat as a judge in his state.

Books for: 6-8

Hildegard of Bingen

1098–1179 · Medieval

German abbess, visionary writer, composer and naturalist; a Doctor of the Church.

Laura Hillenbrand

born 1967 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of the nonfiction bestsellers Seabiscuit and Unbroken.

Books for: 9-12

Hippocrates

c. 460–370 BC · Ancient

Greek physician of Kos, called the father of medicine.

Books for: 9-12

Russell Hoban

1925–2011 · Postwar Contemporary

American writer and illustrator of the Frances books for children and of novels for adults.

Books for: K-2

Thomas Hobbes

1588–1679 · Renaissance Early Modern

English philosopher whose Leviathan argued for a strong sovereign to prevent civil war.

Books for: 9-12

E. T. A. Hoffmann

1776–1822 · 19th Century

German writer, composer and judge of the Romantic era, author of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Books for: 3-5

James Hogg

1770–1835 · 19th Century

The Ettrick Shepherd: self-taught Scottish poet and novelist of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

Books for: 9-12

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

1841–1935 · Early 20th Century

Civil War veteran and Supreme Court justice famed for his dissents and the clear and present danger test.

Books for: 9-12

Homer

c. 8th century BC (traditional) · Ancient

Ancient Greek poet to whom tradition credits the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Books for: 9-12

Richard Hooker

1554–1600 · Renaissance Early Modern

English priest and theologian, author of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, a foundational work of Anglican thought.

Books for: 9-12

William Hooper

1742–1790 · 18th Century

Boston-born North Carolina lawyer who was away for the July vote and returned to sign the Declaration in August.

Books for: 6-8

Gerard Manley Hopkins

1844–1889 · 19th Century

English poet and Jesuit priest whose innovative poems, such as God's Grandeur and The Windhover, were published after his death.

Books for: 9-12

Stephen Hopkins

1707–1785 · 18th Century

Longtime Rhode Island governor, the second-oldest signer, whose hand shook as he wrote his name on the Declaration.

Books for: 6-8

Francis Hopkinson

1737–1791 · 18th Century

New Jersey lawyer, musician and satirist who signed the Declaration and later designed several early American emblems.

Books for: 6-8

Horace

65–8 BC · Ancient

Roman lyric poet and satirist of the age of Augustus, author of the Odes, Satires and Epistles.

Books for: 9-12

Edwin Hubble

1889–1953 · Early 20th Century

American astronomer who showed that the universe contains many galaxies and is expanding.

Henry Hudson

c. 1565–1611 · Renaissance Early Modern

English navigator who explored the Hudson River and Hudson Bay looking for a passage to Asia.

Victor Hugo

1802–1885 · 19th Century

French poet, novelist and playwright, author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Books for: 9-12

Johan Huizinga

1872–1945 · Early 20th Century

Dutch historian, author of The Waning of the Middle Ages and Homo Ludens.

Books for: 9-12

David Hume

1711–1776 · 18th Century

Scottish philosopher and historian, a leading skeptic of the Enlightenment.

Books for: 9-12

Irene Hunt

1902–2001 · Early 20th Century

American teacher and children's author of Across Five Aprils, set during the Civil War, and the Newbery-winning Up a Road Slowly.

Books for: 6-8

Samuel Huntington

1731–1796 · 18th Century

Connecticut lawyer who signed the Declaration and later served as president of Congress and governor of his state.

Books for: 6-8

Jan Hus

c. 1370–1415 · Medieval

Czech priest and reformer burned at the Council of Constance.

Aldous Huxley

1894–1963 · Early 20th Century

English novelist and essayist, author of the dystopian novel Brave New World.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Henry Huxley

1825–1895 · 19th Century

English biologist and anatomist known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his defence of the theory of evolution.

Books for: 9-12

Christiaan Huygens

1629–1695 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer who discovered Saturn's moon Titan, invented the pendulum clock and proposed the wave theory of light.

Books for: 9-12

Ibn al-Nafis

1213–1288 · Medieval

Arab physician in Cairo who first described the pulmonary circulation of the blood, centuries before European anatomists.

Books for: 9-12

Ibn Battuta

1304–c. 1369 · Medieval

Moroccan traveler who journeyed some 75,000 miles across the Islamic world and beyond.

Books for: 9-12

Henrik Ibsen

1828–1906 · 19th Century

Norwegian playwright, author of A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler and Peer Gynt, often called the father of modern drama.

Books for: 9-12

Ignatius of Antioch

died c. 108–140 · Ancient

Early bishop of Antioch who wrote seven letters to churches on his way to martyrdom in Rome.

Books for: 9-12

Ignatius of Loyola

1491–1556 · Renaissance Early Modern

Basque soldier turned priest who founded the Jesuits and wrote the Spiritual Exercises.

John Paul II

1920–2005 · Postwar Contemporary

Polish pope from 1978 to 2005, the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries, later canonized.

Books for: 9-12

Irenaeus of Lyon

c. 130–202 · Ancient

Bishop of Lyon whose Against Heresies defended the apostolic faith against the Gnostics.

Books for: 9-12

Washington Irving

1783–1859 · 19th Century

American writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, one of the first American authors famous in Europe.

Books for: 6-8

Isabella I of Castile

1451–1504 · Renaissance Early Modern

Queen of Castile who united Spain with Ferdinand and sponsored Columbus.

Helen Hunt Jackson

1830–1885 · 19th Century

American poet and novelist who championed the rights of Native Americans in A Century of Dishonor and the novel Ramona.

Books for: 9-12

Robert H. Jackson

1892–1954 · Early 20th Century

Supreme Court justice and chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial of Nazi leaders (1945–1946).

Books for: 9-12

Harriet Jacobs

1813–1897 · 19th Century

Formerly enslaved abolitionist and writer, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Books for: 9-12

Henry James

1843–1916 · 19th Century

American-born novelist who settled in England, author of Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw.

Books for: 9-12

William James

1842–1910 · 19th Century

American philosopher and psychologist, often called the father of American psychology, author of The Principles of Psychology and Pragmatism.

Books for: 9-12

Pierre Janet

1859–1947 · 19th Century

French psychologist and physician who studied dissociation and traumatic memory.

Books for: 9-12

John Jay

1745–1829 · 18th Century

American Founding Father, co-author of The Federalist Papers and first chief justice of the United States.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Jefferson

1743–1826 · 18th Century

Author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Edward Jenner

1749–1823 · 18th Century

English country doctor who developed vaccination against smallpox.

Jerome K. Jerome

1859–1927 · 19th Century

English humorist, playwright and editor, author of the comic classic Three Men in a Boat (1889).

Books for: 9-12

Joan of Arc

c. 1412–1431 · Medieval

French peasant girl who led the army to lift the siege of Orléans and was burned at the stake.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

John Chrysostom

c. 347–407 · Ancient

Archbishop of Constantinople, the Golden Mouth, famous for his preaching.

Books for: 9-12

John of Damascus

c. 675–749 · Medieval

Syrian monk and theologian who defended the veneration of icons and summarized Greek Christian doctrine in the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.

Books for: 9-12

John of God

1495–1550 · Renaissance Early Modern

Portuguese soldier turned servant of the sick poor in Granada, founder of the Brothers Hospitallers and patron saint of hospitals.

John of the Cross

1542–1591 · Renaissance Early Modern

Spanish Carmelite friar, mystic and poet who worked with Teresa of Ávila to reform the Carmelite order; author of Dark Night of the Soul.

Books for: 9-12

James Weldon Johnson

1871–1938 · Early 20th Century

Writer, diplomat and civil-rights leader; author of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

Books for: 9-12

Samuel Johnson

1709–1784 · 18th Century

English lexicographer, critic, essayist, and author of Rasselas and A Dictionary of the English Language.

Books for: 9-12

Absalom Jones

1746–1818 · 18th Century

Philadelphia abolitionist and clergyman, cofounder of the Free African Society and the first African American ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.

Books for: 9-12

Chief Joseph

1840–1904 · 19th Century

Leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce who led his people's retreat in 1877 and spoke for their rights for the rest of his life.

Books for: 6-8

Flavius Josephus

c. 37–c. 100 · Ancient

Jewish priest, general and historian whose Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities are major sources for Judea in the first century.

Books for: 9-12

James Joyce

1882–1941 · Early 20th Century

Irish novelist and poet, author of Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses.

Books for: 9-12

Carl Gustav Jung

1875–1961 · Early 20th Century

Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology and introduced ideas such as the collective unconscious, archetypes and introversion.

Books for: 9-12

Norton Juster

1929–2021 · Postwar Contemporary

American architect and author of The Phantom Tollbooth.

Books for: 3-5

Justin Martyr

c. 100–c. 165 · Ancient

Second-century philosopher and Christian apologist whose First Apology gives the earliest full description of Christian Sunday worship.

Books for: 9-12

Justinian I

c. 482–565 · Medieval

Byzantine emperor who codified Roman law and built Hagia Sophia.

Books for: 9-12

Franz Kafka

1883–1924 · Early 20th Century

German-language writer from Prague, author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial.

Books for: 9-12

Anthony Kaldellis

born 1971 · Postwar Contemporary

Greek-American historian of Byzantium, author of The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium.

Books for: 9-12

Immanuel Kant

1724–1804 · 18th Century

German philosopher of the Critique of Pure Reason and the categorical imperative.

Books for: 9-12

Andreas Karlstadt

1486–1541 · Renaissance Early Modern

German theologian at Wittenberg, an early colleague and later critic of Martin Luther in the Reformation.

Books for: 9-12

Kautilya (Chanakya)

4th century BC (traditional) · Ancient

Ancient Indian adviser traditionally named as the author of the Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft.

Books for: 9-12

Yasunari Kawabata

1899–1972 · Early 20th Century

Japanese novelist of Snow Country and Thousand Cranes, the first Japanese author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

John Keats

1795–1821 · 19th Century

English Romantic poet, author of the great odes of 1819, who died at 25.

Books for: 9-12

Helen Keller

1880–1968 · Early 20th Century

American author and activist who lost her sight and hearing as a baby and, with her teacher Anne Sullivan, learned to read, write and speak.

Books for: 3-5

Hugh Kennedy

born 1947 · Postwar Contemporary

British historian of the early Islamic Middle East, author of The Great Arab Conquests and When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World.

Books for: 9-12

John F. Kennedy

1917–1963 · Postwar Contemporary

Thirty-fifth president of the United States, assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

Books for: 9-12

Johannes Kepler

1571–1630 · Renaissance Early Modern

German astronomer who discovered that planets move in ellipses.

Books for: 9-12

Jack Kerouac

1922–1969 · Postwar Contemporary

American writer of the Beat Generation, author of On the Road.

Books for: 9-12

John Maynard Keynes

1883–1946 · Early 20th Century

English economist whose General Theory changed how governments respond to recessions.

Books for: 9-12

Ibn Khaldun

1332–1406 · Medieval

North African historian and scholar whose Muqaddimah is a pioneering study of history, society and economics.

Books for: 9-12

Al-Khwarizmi

c. 780–850 · Medieval

Persian mathematician in Baghdad whose books gave us the words algebra and algorithm.

Søren Kierkegaard

1813–1855 · 19th Century

Danish Christian philosopher who wrote on faith, choice and the individual.

Books for: 9-12

Martin Luther King Jr.

1929–1968 · Postwar Contemporary

Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement, who used nonviolent protest.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Charles Kingsley

1819–1875 · 19th Century

English clergyman, novelist and historian, author of The Water-Babies and The Heroes.

Books for: 3-5

Rudyard Kipling

1865–1936 · Early 20th Century

English writer born in India, author of The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Kim and the poem If—, and Nobel laureate.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Russell Kirk

1918–1994 · Postwar Contemporary

American political theorist and author of The Conservative Mind (1953).

Books for: 9-12

Eric Knight

1897–1943 · Early 20th Century

English-born writer who created the collie Lassie in Lassie Come-Home.

Books for: 3-5

John Knox

c. 1514–1572 · Renaissance Early Modern

Scottish reformer who founded the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Robert Koch

1843–1910 · 19th Century

German doctor who identified the germs that cause anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera.

Arthur Koestler

1905–1983 · Early 20th Century

Hungarian-born British writer and journalist, author of the novel Darkness at Noon.

Books for: 9-12

Anna Komnene

1083–c. 1153 · Medieval

Byzantine princess and historian whose Alexiad records the reign of her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

Books for: 9-12

Emil Kraepelin

1856–1926 · 19th Century

German psychiatrist who built modern psychiatric classification and separated dementia praecox from manic-depressive illness.

Books for: 9-12

Richard von Krafft-Ebing

1840–1902 · 19th Century

German-Austrian psychiatrist and author of an influential medical textbook of sexual disorders.

Books for: 9-12

Peter Kropotkin

1842–1921 · 19th Century

Russian prince, geographer and leading theorist of anarchist communism; author of Mutual Aid and The Conquest of Bread.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas S. Kuhn

1922–1996 · Postwar Contemporary

American physicist and philosopher of science, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).

Books for: 9-12

Abraham Kuyper

1837–1920 · 19th Century

Dutch Reformed theologian, journalist and founder of the Free University of Amsterdam who served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905.

Books for: 9-12

Madeleine L'Engle

1918–2007 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of A Wrinkle in Time and other books for young readers and adults.

Books for: 3-5

Étienne de La Boétie

1530–1563 · Renaissance Early Modern

French magistrate and writer, author of the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude and close friend of Michel de Montaigne.

Books for: 9-12

Selma Lagerlöf

1858–1940 · 19th Century

Swedish author of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 3-5

Imre Lakatos

1922–1974 · Postwar Contemporary

Hungarian-born British philosopher of mathematics and science, author of Proofs and Refutations and the methodology of scientific research programmes.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Lamb

1775–1834 · 19th Century

English essayist and poet, author of the Essays of Elia and, with his sister Mary, Tales from Shakespeare.

Books for: 3-5

Mary Lamb

1764–1847 · 19th Century

English writer who, with her brother Charles, wrote Tales from Shakespeare for children.

Books for: 3-5

Edward William Lane

1801–1876 · 19th Century

British scholar of Arabic who described Egyptian life and translated The Thousand and One Nights.

Books for: 9-12

Andrew Lang

1844–1912 · 19th Century

Scottish writer and scholar who collected fairy tales from around the world in the colored Fairy Books.

Books for: K-2, 3-5

Stephen Langton

c. 1150–1228 · Medieval

Archbishop of Canterbury who helped shape Magna Carta in 1215 and is credited with dividing the Bible into chapters.

Books for: 9-12

Nella Larsen

1891–1964 · Early 20th Century

American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, author of Quicksand and Passing.

Books for: 9-12

Bartolomé de las Casas

1484–1566 · Renaissance Early Modern

Spanish colonist turned Dominican friar and bishop who spent fifty years defending the native peoples of the Americas.

Books for: 9-12

Jean Lee Latham

1902–1995 · Early 20th Century

American author of biographies for young readers, including the Newbery-winning Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

Books for: 6-8

Hugh Latimer

c. 1487–1555 · Renaissance Early Modern

English Protestant reformer and bishop of Worcester, a famous preacher burned at Oxford under Queen Mary I.

Books for: 9-12

Antoine Lavoisier

1743–1794 · 18th Century

French chemist who identified oxygen's role in burning and helped found modern chemistry.

Books for: 9-12

Brother Lawrence

c. 1614–1691 · Renaissance Early Modern

French Carmelite lay brother whose sayings and letters were collected as The Practice of the Presence of God.

Books for: 6-8

D. H. Lawrence

1885–1930 · Early 20th Century

English novelist, short-story writer and poet, author of Sons and Lovers and The Prussian Officer.

Books for: 9-12

T. E. Lawrence

1888–1935 · Early 20th Century

British officer and writer known as Lawrence of Arabia, author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Books for: 9-12

J. Sheridan Le Fanu

1814–1873 · 19th Century

Irish writer of ghost stories and mystery novels, author of the vampire tale Carmilla and Uncle Silas.

Books for: 9-12

Francis Lightfoot Lee

1734–1797 · 18th Century

Quieter of the two Lee brothers in Congress, a Virginia planter who signed the Declaration and the Articles of Confederation.

Books for: 6-8

Harper Lee

1926–2016 · Postwar Contemporary

American novelist, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

Books for: 9-12

Richard Henry Lee

1732–1794 · 18th Century

Virginia statesman who, on 7 June 1776, moved the resolution that the colonies 'are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.'

Books for: 6-8

Robert E. Lee

1807–1870 · 19th Century

Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

1632–1723 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch draper and lens-maker who was the first to see and describe bacteria and other single-celled life.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

1646–1716 · Renaissance Early Modern

German philosopher and mathematician who invented calculus independently of Newton.

Books for: 9-12

Raphael Lemkin

1900–1959 · Early 20th Century

Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the word "genocide" and campaigned for the UN Genocide Convention of 1948.

Books for: 9-12

Pope Leo XIII

1810–1903 · 19th Century

Pope from 1878 to 1903, author of Rerum Novarum, the founding document of modern Catholic social teaching.

Books for: 9-12

Leonardo da Vinci

1452–1519 · Renaissance Early Modern

Italian painter of the Mona Lisa and Last Supper, and a tireless inventor and observer of nature.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Bruno Leoni

1913–1967 · Postwar Contemporary

Italian legal philosopher and lawyer, author of Freedom and the Law, which compared legislation with judge-made law.

Books for: 9-12

Leonidas I

c. 540–480 BC · Ancient

Spartan king who led the stand at Thermopylae against the Persian army.

Books for: 9-12

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

1711–1780 · 18th Century

French writer and governess whose 1756 version of Beauty and the Beast became the best-known form of the tale.

Books for: 3-5

Mikhail Lermontov

1814–1841 · 19th Century

Russian Romantic poet and novelist, author of A Hero of Our Time, often called the poet of the Caucasus.

Books for: 9-12

Gaston Leroux

1868–1927 · Early 20th Century

French journalist and novelist, author of The Phantom of the Opera and The Mystery of the Yellow Room.

Books for: 6-8

Claude Lévi-Strauss

1908–2009 · Postwar Contemporary

French anthropologist who founded structural anthropology and wrote Tristes Tropiques and Structural Anthropology.

Books for: 9-12

C. S. Lewis

1898–1963 · Postwar Contemporary

Oxford scholar and author of The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Francis Lewis

1713–1802 · 18th Century

Welsh-born New York merchant who signed the Declaration; the British destroyed his home and imprisoned his wife.

Books for: 6-8

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

Lewis 1774–1809; Clark 1770–1838 · 19th Century

Leaders of the Corps of Discovery, which crossed the American West to the Pacific and back.

Books for: 9-12

Sinclair Lewis

1885–1951 · Early 20th Century

American novelist who satirized small-town and business life in Main Street and Babbitt; first American Nobel laureate in literature (1930).

Books for: 9-12

Abraham Lincoln

1809–1865 · 19th Century

Sixteenth President, who preserved the Union in the Civil War and ended slavery.

Books for: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

James Lind

1716–1794 · 18th Century

Scottish naval surgeon whose 1747 comparison of treatments showed that citrus fruit cures scurvy.

Charles Lindbergh

1902–1974 · Early 20th Century

Aviator who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

Carl Linnaeus

1707–1778 · 18th Century

Swedish botanist who created the modern system of naming living things.

Joseph Lister

1827–1912 · 19th Century

British surgeon who introduced antiseptic surgery.

Books for: 9-12

Philip Livingston

1716–1778 · 18th Century

New York merchant and philanthropist who signed the Declaration and died the next year while Congress sat at York, Pennsylvania.

Books for: 6-8

David Livingstone

1813–1873 · 19th Century

Scottish missionary doctor who crossed Africa and campaigned against the slave trade.

Livy

59 BC–AD 17 · Ancient

Roman historian, author of a history of Rome from its founding, Ab Urbe Condita.

Books for: 9-12

Arnold Lobel

1933–1987 · Postwar Contemporary

American author and illustrator of children's books, creator of Frog and Toad.

Books for: K-2

John Locke

1632–1704 · Renaissance Early Modern

English philosopher of natural rights and government by consent, admired by the American founders.

Books for: 9-12

Jack London

1876–1916 · Early 20th Century

American author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, drawn from his time in the Klondike Gold Rush.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807–1882 · 19th Century

American poet and Harvard professor, author of Paul Revere's Ride, Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Elias Lönnrot

1802–1884 · 19th Century

Finnish physician and folklorist who compiled the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, from traditional songs.

Books for: 9-12

Louis IX of France

1214–1270 · Medieval

Crusader king of France, known for his justice and piety; Saint Louis.

Louis XIV

1638–1715 · Renaissance Early Modern

The Sun King, who ruled France for 72 years and built the palace of Versailles.

Toussaint Louverture

c. 1743–1803 · 18th Century

Leader of the Haitian Revolution, the only successful large-scale revolt of enslaved people.

H. P. Lovecraft

1890–1937 · Early 20th Century

American writer of weird and horror fiction, creator of the Cthulhu stories.

Books for: 9-12

Ada Lovelace

1815–1852 · 19th Century

English mathematician who wrote what is often called the first computer program.

Books for: 9-12

Lois Lowry

born 1937 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of books for young readers, including The Giver and Number the Stars, both Newbery Medal winners.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Lucretius

c. 99–55 BC · Ancient

Roman poet and philosopher, author of On the Nature of Things, a poem explaining Epicurean philosophy.

Books for: 9-12

Martin Luther

1483–1546 · Renaissance Early Modern

German monk and professor whose challenge to the Church began the Protestant Reformation.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Lyell

1797–1875 · 19th Century

Scottish geologist whose Principles of Geology argued that the earth was shaped slowly by forces still at work today.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Lynch Jr.

1749–c. 1779 · 18th Century

South Carolina signer, as young as Edward Rutledge, who was lost at sea about 1779 on a voyage to France.

Books for: 6-8

Douglas MacArthur

1880–1964 · Postwar Contemporary

American general who commanded in the Pacific in World War II and in Korea.

George MacDonald

1824–1905 · 19th Century

Scottish novelist, poet and minister whose fantasies The Princess and the Goblin and At the Back of the North Wind influenced C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Books for: 3-5

Ernst Mach

1838–1916 · 19th Century

Austrian physicist and philosopher of science whose name is used for the Mach number, the ratio of a speed to the speed of sound.

Books for: 9-12

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469–1527 · Renaissance Early Modern

Florentine diplomat and political philosopher, author of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy.

Books for: 9-12

Alasdair MacIntyre

1929–2025 · Postwar Contemporary

Philosopher who revived the ethics of the virtues in After Virtue.

Books for: 9-12

Patricia MacLachlan

1938–2022 · Postwar Contemporary

American children's author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal.

Books for: K-2

James Madison

1751–1836 · 18th Century

Chief architect of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; fourth President.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Ferdinand Magellan

c. 1480–1521 · Renaissance Early Modern

Portuguese navigator whose Spanish expedition made the first voyage around the world.

Books for: 3-5

Maimonides

1138–1204 · Medieval

Jewish philosopher, legal scholar and court physician in Egypt, author of the Mishneh Torah, the Guide for the Perplexed and medical treatises.

Thomas Malory

d. 1471 · Medieval

English knight and author of Le Morte d'Arthur, the classic English telling of the legend of King Arthur.

Books for: 9-12

Nelson Mandela

1918–2013 · Postwar Contemporary

South African anti-apartheid leader, imprisoned for 27 years, who became the country's first Black president.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas Mann

1875–1955 · Early 20th Century

German novelist, author of Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Katherine Mansfield

1888–1923 · Early 20th Century

New Zealand-born modernist writer of short stories, author of Bliss and The Garden Party.

Books for: 9-12

Lord Mansfield

1705–1793 · 18th Century

Lord Chief Justice of England who ruled in Somerset's case (1772) that a slave could not be forced out of England.

Books for: 9-12

Ammianus Marcellinus

c. 330–c. 395 · Ancient

Roman soldier and historian whose Res Gestae is a chief source for the Roman Empire in the fourth century.

Books for: 9-12

Guglielmo Marconi

1874–1937 · Early 20th Century

Italian inventor who developed long-distance radio communication.

Marcus Aurelius

121–180 · Ancient

Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, author of the Meditations.

Books for: 9-12

Maria Theresa

1717–1780 · 18th Century

Habsburg ruler of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia who reformed her lands and defended her inheritance.

Marie de France

fl. c. 1160–1215 · Medieval

Medieval poet who wrote in French in England, author of the Lais, short verse romances.

Books for: 9-12

Christopher Marlowe

1564–1593 · Renaissance Early Modern

Elizabethan playwright and poet whose Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus made blank verse the voice of English tragedy.

Books for: 9-12

John Marshall

1755–1835 · 19th Century

Fourth Chief Justice of the United States, who established judicial review.

Books for: 9-12

Thurgood Marshall

1908–1993 · Postwar Contemporary

Civil rights lawyer who won Brown v. Board of Education and became the first African American justice of the Supreme Court.

Books for: 9-12

Martin of Tours

c. 316–397 · Ancient

Roman soldier turned monk and bishop, remembered for sharing his cloak with a beggar.

Books for: 9-12

Karl Marx

1818–1883 · 19th Century

German philosopher, economist and revolutionary, co-author of The Communist Manifesto and author of Capital.

Books for: 9-12

George Mason

1725–1792 · 18th Century

Virginia planter and Founding Father who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and refused to sign the Constitution without a bill of rights.

Books for: 6-8

Massasoit (Ousamequin)

c. 1581–1661 · Renaissance Early Modern

Wampanoag sachem who made the 1621 peace with Plymouth and kept it through the rest of his life.

Books for: 9-12

Henry Maudsley

1835–1918 · 19th Century

English psychiatrist after whom the Maudsley Hospital in London is named.

Books for: 9-12

W. Somerset Maugham

1874–1965 · Early 20th Century

British playwright, novelist and short-story writer, author of Of Human Bondage.

Books for: 9-12

Guy de Maupassant

1850–1893 · 19th Century

French writer of the nineteenth century and a master of the short story, author of Boule de Suif and The Necklace.

Books for: 9-12

James Clerk Maxwell

1831–1879 · 19th Century

Scottish physicist who showed that light is an electromagnetic wave.

Robert McCloskey

1914–2003 · Postwar Contemporary

American author and illustrator of Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal, winner of two Caldecott Medals.

Books for: K-2, 3-5

Cyrus McCormick

1809–1884 · 19th Century

American inventor and manufacturer of the mechanical reaper.

John McCrae

1872–1918 · Early 20th Century

Canadian poet, physician and soldier, author of In Flanders Fields.

Books for: 6-8

Warren McCulloch

1898–1969 · Early 20th Century

American neurophysiologist and pioneer of cybernetics who, with Walter Pitts, created the first mathematical model of a neural network.

Books for: 9-12

David McCullough

1933–2022 · Postwar Contemporary

American historian and biographer, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams.

Books for: 9-12

Thomas McKean

1734–1817 · 18th Century

Delaware delegate who voted for independence, signed later than most, and went on to be chief justice and governor of Pennsylvania.

Books for: 6-8

Emperor Meiji

1852–1912 · 19th Century

Emperor of Japan during its rapid transformation into a modern industrial state.

Philip Melanchthon

1497–1560 · Renaissance Early Modern

German humanist scholar, Martin Luther's chief colleague at Wittenberg and author of the Augsburg Confession.

Books for: 9-12

Herman Melville

1819–1891 · 19th Century

American novelist and poet, author of Moby-Dick and Billy Budd.

Books for: 9-12

Gregor Mendel

1822–1884 · 19th Century

Augustinian friar whose pea-plant experiments founded genetics.

Books for: 9-12

Dmitri Mendeleev

1834–1907 · 19th Century

Russian chemist who created the periodic table and predicted undiscovered elements.

Carl Menger

1840–1921 · 19th Century

Austrian economist who founded the Austrian School and helped launch the marginal revolution with his subjective theory of value.

Books for: 9-12

Eric Metaxas

born 1963 · Postwar Contemporary

American author and radio host, writer of biographies of William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther.

Books for: 9-12

Michelangelo

1475–1564 · Renaissance Early Modern

Italian sculptor, painter and architect of the David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and St. Peter's dome.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Arthur Middleton

1742–1787 · 18th Century

South Carolina planter who signed the Declaration, was imprisoned at St. Augustine after the fall of Charleston, and died in 1787.

Books for: 6-8

John Stuart Mill

1806–1873 · 19th Century

English philosopher and economist, author of On Liberty and Utilitarianism.

Books for: 9-12

Arthur Miller

1915–2005 · Postwar Contemporary

American playwright, author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible.

Books for: 9-12

A. A. Milne

1882–1956 · Early 20th Century

English writer best known for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories about his son Christopher Robin and his toys.

Books for: K-2

John Milton

1608–1674 · Renaissance Early Modern

English poet and pamphleteer, author of Paradise Lost.

Books for: 9-12

Else Holmelund Minarik

1920–2012 · Postwar Contemporary

Danish-born American children's author, creator of the Little Bear easy-reader books.

Books for: K-2

Ludwig von Mises

1881–1973 · Early 20th Century

Austrian-American economist of the Austrian School, a defender of free markets and critic of socialism.

Books for: 9-12

Molière

1622–1673 · Renaissance Early Modern

French playwright and actor, author of comedies such as The Misanthrope and Tartuffe.

Books for: 9-12

Claude Monet

1840–1926 · Early 20th Century

French painter whose Impression, Sunrise gave Impressionism its name.

Books for: 3-5

James Monroe

1758–1831 · 18th Century

Fifth president of the United States, who announced the Monroe Doctrine in 1823.

Books for: 6-8

Michel de Montaigne

1533–1592 · Renaissance Early Modern

French writer who invented the essay as a literary form.

Books for: 9-12

Montesquieu

1689–1755 · 18th Century

French political philosopher who described the separation of powers.

Books for: 9-12

L. M. Montgomery

1874–1942 · Early 20th Century

Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables and its sequels.

Books for: 3-5

Dwight L. Moody

1837–1899 · 19th Century

American evangelist who led large revival meetings in Britain and the United States and founded schools and the Moody Bible Institute.

Books for: 9-12

Ralph Moody

1898–1982 · Early 20th Century

American author of Little Britches and other memoirs of growing up on a Colorado ranch and in the West.

Books for: 6-8

Thomas More

1478–1535 · Renaissance Early Modern

English lawyer, author of Utopia and Lord Chancellor, executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church.

Books for: 9-12

J. P. Morgan

1837–1913 · 19th Century

American banker who financed railroads and steel and twice helped steady the U.S. economy.

Lewis Morris

1726–1798 · 18th Century

Lord of the manor of Morrisania who signed the Declaration; his Westchester estate was badly damaged in the war.

Books for: 6-8

Robert Morris

1734–1806 · 18th Century

English-born Philadelphia merchant who signed the Declaration and the Constitution and later went to debtors' prison after failed land speculation.

Books for: 6-8

Samuel Morse

1791–1872 · 19th Century

Painter and inventor who helped develop the electric telegraph and Morse code.

John Morton

c. 1724–1777 · 18th Century

Pennsylvania farmer whose vote helped carry his divided delegation for independence; he died the next year.

Books for: 6-8

Moses

traditional dates c. 1526–1406 BC · Ancient

Hebrew prophet and lawgiver who, according to the Bible, led Israel out of Egypt and received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756–1791 · 18th Century

Austrian child prodigy and composer of operas, symphonies and concertos.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

John Muir

1838–1914 · 19th Century

Scottish-American naturalist and writer who campaigned for national parks and co-founded the Sierra Club.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

John Courtney Murray

1904–1967 · Early 20th Century

American Jesuit theologian who helped shape the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Liberty, author of We Hold These Truths.

Books for: 9-12

Mansa Musa

c. 1280–1337 · Medieval

Ruler of the Mali Empire, famous for his gold-laden pilgrimage to Mecca.

Books for: 9-12

Napoleon Bonaparte

1769–1821 · 19th Century

French general and emperor who conquered much of Europe and gave France its civil code.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Natsume Sōseki

1867–1916 · Early 20th Century

Japanese novelist, author of Kokoro and Botchan, regarded as one of the greatest modern Japanese writers.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Horatio Nelson

1758–1805 · 18th Century

British admiral who destroyed the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar.

Thomas Nelson Jr.

1738–1789 · 18th Century

Virginia signer who, as governor and militia commander, led troops at the siege of Yorktown and risked his own property there.

Books for: 6-8

Pablo Neruda

1904–1973 · Early 20th Century

Chilean poet and diplomat, author of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, and Nobel laureate.

Books for: 9-12

E. Nesbit

1858–1924 · 19th Century

English author of children's books, including The Railway Children and Five Children and It.

Books for: 3-5

John von Neumann

1903–1957 · Early 20th Century

Hungarian-American mathematician whose work shaped computer design, game theory and quantum mechanics.

Books for: 9-12

John Henry Newman

1801–1890 · 19th Century

English theologian and cardinal, leader of the Oxford Movement and a Catholic saint.

Books for: 9-12

Isaac Newton

1643–1727 · Renaissance Early Modern

English mathematician and physicist who described gravity and the laws of motion.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

John Newton

1725–1807 · 18th Century

Former slave-ship captain who became an Anglican clergyman, wrote Amazing Grace and later supported the abolition of the slave trade.

Books for: 9-12

Nicomachus of Gerasa

c. 60–c. 120 · Ancient

Greek mathematician and Neopythagorean philosopher, author of the Introduction to Arithmetic.

Books for: 9-12

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844–1900 · 19th Century

German philosopher, author of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil, who challenged traditional morality and religion.

Books for: 9-12

Florence Nightingale

1820–1910 · 19th Century

English nurse in the Crimean War who founded modern nursing.

Alfred Nobel

1833–1896 · 19th Century

Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes.

Charles Nordhoff

1887–1947 · Early 20th Century

American novelist who, with James Norman Hall, wrote Mutiny on the Bounty.

Books for: 6-8

Solomon Northup

1807 or 1808–after 1857 · 19th Century

Free-born African American who was kidnapped and enslaved for twelve years, author of Twelve Years a Slave.

Books for: 9-12

Mary Norton

1903–1992 · Early 20th Century

English author of The Borrowers, about tiny people who live secretly in a family's house.

Books for: 3-5

Notker the Stammerer

c. 840–912 · Medieval

Monk of St Gall, poet, composer and author of an early life of Charlemagne.

Books for: 9-12

Flannery O'Connor

1925–1964 · Postwar Contemporary

American writer of the South, author of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and other short stories marked by dark humor and Catholic faith.

Books for: 9-12

Scott O'Dell

1898–1989 · Early 20th Century

American author of Island of the Blue Dolphins and other historical novels for young readers.

Books for: 3-5

John O'Hara

1905–1970 · Early 20th Century

American novelist and short-story writer, author of Appointment in Samarra and Butterfield 8.

Books for: 9-12

Eugene O'Neill

1888–1953 · Early 20th Century

American playwright, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature, author of Long Day's Journey into Night.

Books for: 9-12

Caspar Olevianus

1536–1587 · Renaissance Early Modern

German Reformed theologian and preacher at Heidelberg, long honored as co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism, who wrote on the covenant of grace.

Books for: 9-12

Baroness Orczy

1865–1947 · Early 20th Century

Hungarian-born British novelist and playwright, creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Books for: 6-8

Origen

c. 185–c. 253 · Ancient

Alexandrian scholar, teacher and the most learned Christian writer of the third century.

Books for: 9-12

George Orwell

1903–1950 · Early 20th Century

English novelist and essayist Eric Blair, author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Books for: 9-12

William Osler

1849–1919 · 19th Century

Canadian physician who reshaped medical education at Johns Hopkins by bringing students to the bedside and creating the residency system.

Books for: 9-12

Ovid

43 BC–AD 17 or 18 · Ancient

Roman poet, author of the Metamorphoses, a great collection of myths of transformation.

Books for: 9-12

William Paca

1740–1799 · 18th Century

Maryland lawyer and planter who signed the Declaration and later served as governor and as a federal judge.

Books for: 6-8

Robert Treat Paine

1731–1814 · 18th Century

Massachusetts lawyer who signed the Declaration and later served as the state's attorney general and a justice of its supreme court.

Books for: 6-8

Thomas Paine

1737–1809 · 18th Century

English-born American writer whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) made the case for American independence.

Books for: 9-12

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

c. 1525–1594 · Renaissance Early Modern

Italian composer whose smooth, clear church polyphony became a model for centuries.

Paracelsus

1493–1541 · Renaissance Early Modern

Swiss physician and alchemist who attacked ancient authorities, championed chemical medicines and studied miners' diseases.

Books for: 9-12

Ambroise Paré

c. 1510–1590 · Renaissance Early Modern

French barber-surgeon who reformed the treatment of wounds.

Dorothy Parker

1893–1967 · Early 20th Century

American poet, critic and short-story writer known for her sharp wit and a member of the Algonquin Round Table.

Books for: 9-12

Blaise Pascal

1623–1662 · Renaissance Early Modern

French mathematician, inventor and Christian thinker, author of the Pensées.

Books for: 9-12

Boris Pasternak

1890–1960 · Early 20th Century

Russian poet and novelist, author of Doctor Zhivago, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958.

Books for: 9-12

Louis Pasteur

1822–1895 · 19th Century

French scientist of germ theory, pasteurization and the rabies vaccine.

Books for: 9-12

Saint Patrick

5th century · Ancient

British-born missionary bishop to Ireland, who wrote the Confession.

Books for: 9-12

George S. Patton

1885–1945 · Early 20th Century

Hard-driving American tank general of World War II.

Paul the Apostle

c. 5–c. 64/67 · Ancient

Jewish Pharisee who became the leading missionary of early Christianity; his letters are the oldest writings in the New Testament.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Sanders Peirce

1839–1914 · 19th Century

American philosopher, logician and scientist, founder of pragmatism and of the modern study of signs.

Books for: 9-12

John Penn

1740–1788 · 18th Century

Virginia-born North Carolina lawyer who signed the Declaration and the Articles of Confederation.

Books for: 6-8

William Penn

1644–1718 · Renaissance Early Modern

English Quaker leader and writer who founded Pennsylvania as a colony with religious freedom.

Books for: 9-12

Pericles

c. 495–429 BC · Ancient

Leading statesman of Athens in its golden age, who built the Parthenon.

Books for: 9-12

Perpetua and Felicity

died 203 · Ancient

Young mother and her pregnant slave who were martyred together at Carthage in 203; Perpetua's prison diary is among the earliest writings by a Christian woman.

Books for: 9-12

Charles Perrault

1628–1703 · Renaissance Early Modern

French writer whose Stories or Tales from Times Past introduced Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots to print.

Books for: 3-5

Persius

AD 34–62 · Ancient

Roman poet whose six satires express Stoic philosophy.

Books for: 9-12

Peter the Great

1672–1725 · 18th Century

Tsar who forced Russia to modernize and built St. Petersburg.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Peter the Apostle

died c. 64–68 · Ancient

Galilean fisherman who became the leading apostle of Jesus; Catholic tradition counts him the first bishop of Rome.

Books for: 9-12

Francesco Petrarch

1304–1374 · Medieval

Italian poet and scholar, father of humanism, whose sonnets to Laura made the sonnet the great love form of Europe.

Books for: 9-12

Pierre of Cambrai

fl. 1238–1248 · Medieval

Thirteenth-century canon of Saint-Aubert at Cambrai who wrote the earliest known Life of Saint Dymphna, patron of the mentally ill.

Books for: 9-12

Philippe Pinel

1745–1826 · 18th Century

French physician who pioneered humane treatment of the mentally ill, author of A Treatise on Insanity.

Books for: 9-12

Luigi Pirandello

1867–1936 · Early 20th Century

Italian playwright and novelist, author of Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Nobel laureate.

Books for: 9-12

Walter Pitts

1923–1969 · Postwar Contemporary

American logician who, with Warren McCulloch, created the first mathematical model of a neural network in 1943.

Books for: 9-12

Max Planck

1858–1947 · Early 20th Century

German physicist who founded quantum theory.

Plato

c. 428–348 BC · Ancient

Student of Socrates and founder of the Academy, whose dialogues shaped Western philosophy.

Books for: 9-12

Pliny the Elder

AD 23/24–79 · Ancient

Roman naturalist, commander and author of the Natural History, who died during the eruption of Vesuvius.

Books for: 9-12

Plotinus

c. 204–270 · Ancient

Greek philosopher of late antiquity, founder of Neoplatonism, whose teachings were collected in the Enneads.

Books for: 9-12

Plutarch

c. AD 46–after 119 · Ancient

Greek biographer and essayist, author of the Parallel Lives of famous Greeks and Romans.

Books for: 9-12

Edgar Allan Poe

1809–1849 · 19th Century

American poet, short-story writer and critic, author of The Raven and tales of mystery and horror.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Henri Poincaré

1854–1912 · 19th Century

French mathematician and physicist, a founder of topology and chaos theory and author of Science and Hypothesis.

Books for: 9-12

Michael Polanyi

1891–1976 · Early 20th Century

Hungarian-British chemist and philosopher, author of Personal Knowledge.

Books for: 9-12

John Polidori

1795–1821 · 19th Century

English physician and writer, author of The Vampyre, the first modern vampire story in English prose.

Books for: 9-12

Marco Polo

1254–1324 · Medieval

Venetian merchant whose account of China and the court of Kublai Khan amazed Europe.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Polybius

c. 200–c. 118 BC · Ancient

Greek historian of the rise of Rome, whose Histories describe the Roman constitution.

Books for: 9-12

Alexander Pope

1688–1744 · 18th Century

Leading English poet of the early eighteenth century: An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Man and his translation of Homer.

Books for: 9-12

Karl Popper

1902–1994 · Early 20th Century

Austrian-British philosopher of science, who argued that scientific theories must be falsifiable, and author of The Open Society and Its Enemies.

Books for: 9-12

Eleanor H. Porter

1868–1920 · Early 20th Century

American novelist, author of Pollyanna, the story of a girl who plays the 'glad game'.

Books for: 3-5

Beatrix Potter

1866–1943 · Early 20th Century

English author and illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other small animal books, and a naturalist and farmer in the Lake District.

Books for: K-2

Procopius of Caesarea

c. 500–c. 565 · Medieval

Byzantine historian of the wars of the emperor Justinian, author of the History of the Wars and the Secret History.

Books for: 9-12

Marcel Proust

1871–1922 · Early 20th Century

French novelist, author of In Search of Lost Time.

Books for: 9-12

Michael Psellos

c. 1018–c. 1078 · Medieval

Byzantine scholar, courtier and historian, author of the Chronographia.

Books for: 9-12

Claudius Ptolemy

c. 100–170 · Ancient

Alexandrian astronomer and geographer whose Earth-centered system was standard for 1,400 years.

Books for: 9-12

Alexander Pushkin

1799–1837 · 19th Century

Russia's national poet, author of Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov and The Bronze Horseman.

Books for: 9-12

Howard Pyle

1853–1911 · 19th Century

American illustrator and author of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and books of King Arthur, and a teacher of illustrators.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8

Barbara Pym

1913–1980 · Postwar Contemporary

English novelist of quiet comedies about church life and single women in mid-century England, including Excellent Women.

Books for: 9-12

Pythagoras

c. 570–495 BC · Ancient

Greek thinker who founded a brotherhood devoted to number, music and the soul.

Books for: 6-8

Qin Shi Huang

259–210 BC · Ancient

First emperor of a unified China, who standardized writing and began the Great Wall.

François Rabelais

c. 1494–1553 · Renaissance Early Modern

French Renaissance writer, physician and former monk, author of the comic giants Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Books for: 9-12

Jean Racine

1639–1699 · Renaissance Early Modern

French tragic dramatist, author of Andromache, Berenice and Phaedra.

Books for: 9-12

Ramesses II

c. 1303–1213 BC · Ancient

Long-reigning pharaoh of Egypt who built Abu Simbel and made one of the first known peace treaties.

Ayn Rand

1905–1982 · Early 20th Century

Russian-born American novelist and philosopher, author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and founder of Objectivism.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Raphael

1483–1520 · Renaissance Early Modern

Painter of the School of Athens and of serene Madonnas, a master of the High Renaissance.

Books for: 9-12

John Rawls

1921–2002 · Postwar Contemporary

American political philosopher, author of A Theory of Justice.

Books for: 9-12

Wilson Rawls

1913–1984 · Postwar Contemporary

American author of the beloved dog story Where the Red Fern Grows and of Summer of the Monkeys.

Books for: 6-8

Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes)

c. 865–925 or 935 · Medieval

Persian physician and philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age, known in Europe as Rhazes, author of a classic treatise on smallpox and measles.

Books for: 9-12

George Read

1733–1798 · 18th Century

Delaware lawyer who voted against independence on 2 July, then signed the Declaration and later the Constitution.

Books for: 6-8

Ronald Reagan

1911–2004 · Postwar Contemporary

Fortieth president of the United States, from 1981 to 1989, and earlier a film actor and governor of California.

Books for: 6-8

Walter Reed

1851–1902 · 19th Century

U.S. Army doctor whose team proved that mosquitoes spread yellow fever.

Erich Maria Remarque

1898–1970 · Early 20th Century

German novelist, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, based on his experiences as a soldier in the First World War.

Books for: 9-12

Rembrandt van Rijn

1606–1669 · Renaissance Early Modern

Dutch painter of The Night Watch, famous for his use of light and shadow and his self-portraits.

David Ricardo

1772–1823 · 19th Century

English economist of the classical school, known for comparative advantage, the theory of rent and the labour theory of value.

Books for: 9-12

Richard I of England

1157–1199 · Medieval

English king called the Lionheart, a leader of the Third Crusade.

I. A. Richards

1893–1979 · Early 20th Century

English critic and teacher whose Principles of Literary Criticism and Practical Criticism helped found the New Criticism.

Books for: 9-12

José Rizal

1861–1896 · 19th Century

Filipino physician, novelist and reformer, author of Noli Me Tangere, executed by Spain; national hero of the Philippines.

Books for: 9-12

John D. Rockefeller

1839–1937 · 19th Century

Founder of Standard Oil, the richest American of his time, and a major philanthropist.

Books for: 9-12

Auguste Rodin

1840–1917 · 19th Century

French sculptor of The Thinker, The Kiss, and the Monument to the Burghers of Calais.

Caesar Rodney

1728–1784 · 18th Century

Delaware planter and militia leader who rode overnight to Philadelphia so that his state's delegation could vote for independence.

Books for: 6-8

Wilhelm Röntgen

1845–1923 · 19th Century

German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895 and received the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

Peter and Connie Roop

both born 1951 · Postwar Contemporary

Husband-and-wife teachers from Wisconsin who have written more than one hundred children's books, many of them true stories from American history.

Books for: K-2

Eleanor Roosevelt

1884–1962 · Early 20th Century

First Lady of the United States who chaired the United Nations commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Books for: 9-12

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1882–1945 · Early 20th Century

Thirty-second President, who led the U.S. through the Great Depression and most of World War II.

Books for: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Theodore Roosevelt

1858–1919 · Early 20th Century

Twenty-sixth President, conservationist, soldier and writer.

Books for: 3-5, 9-12

Wilhelm Röpke

1899–1966 · Early 20th Century

German economist, one of the intellectual founders of the social market economy behind West Germany's postwar recovery.

Books for: 9-12

Reginald Rose

1920–2002 · Postwar Contemporary

American playwright and screenwriter, author of Twelve Angry Men.

Books for: 9-12

George Ross

1730–1779 · 18th Century

Pennsylvania lawyer appointed to Congress in 1776 who signed the Declaration and died three years later.

Books for: 6-8

Edmond Rostand

1868–1918 · Early 20th Century

French poet and playwright, author of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Books for: 9-12

Murray Rothbard

1926–1995 · Postwar Contemporary

American economist of the Austrian School, student of Ludwig von Mises, and leading theorist of anarcho-capitalism.

Books for: 9-12

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712–1778 · 18th Century

Geneva-born writer of The Social Contract and Emile, whose ideas influenced the French Revolution.

Books for: 9-12

Mary Rowlandson

c. 1637–1711 · Renaissance Early Modern

Colonial American author of one of the first captivity narratives, written after she was held captive during King Philip's War.

Books for: 9-12

Steven Runciman

1903–2000 · Early 20th Century

British historian of the Byzantine Empire and the Crusades, author of A History of the Crusades.

Books for: 9-12

Benjamin Rush

1746–1813 · 18th Century

Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence who wrote on medicine, mental illness and education.

Books for: 6-8, 9-12

Bertrand Russell

1872–1970 · Early 20th Century

British philosopher, logician and campaigner, coauthor of Principia Mathematica and winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books for: 9-12

Samuel Rutherford