Nonfiction Authors A-K Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was an eminent Russian literary critic who is often called the “father” of the......
Gertrude Bell was an English traveler, administrator in Arabia, and writer who played a principal part in the establishment......
John Bell was a Scottish physician and traveler whose vivid account of his journeys did much to awaken Westerners......
Josephine Bell was an English physician and novelist best known for her numerous detective novels, in which poison......
Edward Bellamy was an American writer known chiefly for his utopian novel Looking Backward, 2000–1887. The son......
Hilaire Belloc was a French-born poet, historian, and essayist who was among the most versatile English writers......
Saul Bellow was an American novelist whose characterizations of modern urban man, disaffected by society but not......
Andrey Bely was a leading theorist and poet of Russian Symbolism, a literary school deriving from the Modernist......
Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan French novelist, poet, and essayist who wrote expressively about Moroccan culture,......
Robert Benchley was an American humorist, actor, and drama critic, whose main persona, that of a slightly confused,......
Julien Benda was a novelist and philosopher, leader of the anti-Romantic movement in French criticism, persistent......
Mario Benedetti was an Uruguayan writer who was best known for his short stories. Benedetti was born to a prosperous......
Victoria Benedictsson was a writer noted for her natural and unpretentious stories of Swedish folk life and her......
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson was a poet, biographer, novelist, and writer of numerous informal essays, a genre that he......
Benjamin of Tudela was a rabbi who was the first known European traveler to approach the frontiers of China and......
Walter Benjamin was a man of letters and aesthetician, now considered to have been the most important German literary......
Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, 2nd Baronet was a British publisher whose Sixpenny Library and Sixpenny Poets were......
Alan Bennett is a British playwright who was best known for The Madness of George III (1991) and The History Boys......
Gwendolyn Bennett was an African-American poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist who was a vital figure......
E.F. Benson was a writer of fiction, reminiscences, and biographies, of which the best remembered are his arch,......
Richard Bentley was a British clergyman, one of the great figures in the history of classical scholarship, who......
Thomas Hart Benton was an American writer and Democratic Party leader who championed agrarian interests and westward......
Antonio Benítez Rojo was a short-story writer, novelist, and essayist who was one of the most notable Latin American......
Nina Berberova was a Russian-born émigré writer, biographer, editor, and translator known for her examination of......
Micah Joseph Berdichevsky was an author of works in Hebrew, German, and Yiddish. His impassioned writings, perhaps......
John Berger was a British essayist and cultural thinker as well as a prolific novelist, poet, translator, and screenwriter.......
Sir Isaiah Berlin was a British philosopher and historian of ideas who was noted for his writings on political......
Hector Berlioz was a French composer, critic, and conductor of the Romantic period, known largely for his Symphonie......
Georges Bernanos was a novelist and polemical writer whose masterpiece, The Diary of a Country Priest, established......
Dame Juliana Berners was an English prioress and author of A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (1496), the earliest......
John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners was an English writer and statesman, best known for his simple, fresh, and energetic......
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian writer who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial......
Aline Frankau Bernstein was a theatrical designer and writer, the first major woman designer for the American stage.......
Jeremy Bernstein is an American physicist, educator, and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for......
Daniel Berrigan was an American writer, Roman Catholic priest, and antiwar activist whose poems and essays reflect......
Wendell Berry is an American author whose nature poetry, novels of America’s rural past, and essays on ecological......
John Berryman was a U.S. poet whose importance was assured by the publication in 1956 of the long poem Homage to......
Obadiah of Bertinoro was an Italian rabbinic author whose commentary on the Mishnah (the codification of Jewish......
Henri-Gratien, Comte Bertrand was a French military engineer and general, friend of Napoleon I and his companion......
Sir Walter Besant was an English novelist and philanthropist, whose best work describing social evils in London’s......
Ingrid Betancourt is a Colombian politician whose long captivity as the hostage of Marxist guerrillas and eventual......
Mongo Beti was a Cameroonian novelist and political essayist. A member of the Beti people, he wrote his books in......
John Betjeman was a British poet known for his nostalgia for the near past, his exact sense of place, and his precise......
Albert J. Beveridge was an orator, U.S. senator, and historian. Beveridge was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1887......
Absalon Pederssøn Beyer was a Lutheran humanist scholar, one of the most advanced thinkers in Norway in his day.......
Theodore Beza was an author, translator, educator, and theologian who assisted and later succeeded John Calvin......
Peter Bichsel is a Swiss short-story writer, journalist, and novelist known for his simple, self-conscious writing......
Frank Bidart is an American poet whose introspective verse, notably dramatic monologues by troubled characters,......
Ambrose Bierce was an American newspaperman, wit, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes......
Sir Rudolf Bing was a British operatic impresario who oversaw the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 22 years......
Bingxin was a Chinese writer of gentle, melancholy poems, stories, and essays that enjoyed great popularity. Bingxin......
Bion of Borysthenes was a Greek philosophical writer and preacher. He was a freed slave and the son of a courtesan......
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet known for her polished, witty, descriptive verse. Her short stories and her......
Jens Bjørneboe was a Norwegian novelist, dramatist, essayist, and poet whose work was generally inspired by a sense......
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, editor, public speaker, theatre director,......
George Blake was a writer whose most interesting books are the novels he wrote about Clydeside shipbuilders. He......
Lillie Devereux Blake was an American novelist, essayist, and reformer whose early career as a writer of fiction......
William Blake was an English engraver, artist, poet, and visionary, author of exquisite lyrics in Songs of Innocence......
Rufino Blanco-Fombona was a Venezuelan literary historian and man of letters who played a major role in bringing......
Paul Blanshard was an American writer, polemicist, and lawyer best known for his vitriolic criticism of the Roman......
Marguerite Gardiner, countess of Blessington was an Irish writer chiefly remembered for her Conversations of Lord......
Jean-Richard Bloch was a French essayist, novelist, and playwright active in the cause of socialism. In 1910, while......
Allan Bloom was an American philosopher and writer best remembered for his provocative best-seller The Closing......
Léon Bloy was a French novelist, critic, and polemicist, a fervent Roman Catholic convert who preached spiritual......
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was an English poet best known for his elegant erotic verse and his expression of anti-imperialism.......
Nellie Bly was an American journalist whose around-the-world race against a fictional record brought her world......
Robert Bly was an American poet, translator, editor, and author, perhaps best known to the public at large as the......
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron.......
Maxwell Bodenheim was a poet who contributed to the development of the Modernist movement in American poetry but......
Johann Jakob Bodmer was a Swiss historian, professor, and critical writer who contributed to the development of......
Louise Bogan was an American poet and literary critic who served as poetry critic for The New Yorker from 1931......
Eavan Boland was an Irish poet and literary critic whose expressive verse explored familiar domestic themes and......
Rolf Boldrewood was a romantic novelist best known for his Robbery Under Arms (1888) and A Miner’s Right (1890),......
John Bolton is an American government official who served as national security adviser (2018–19) to United States......
Carrie Jacobs Bond was a composer-author of sentimental art songs that attained great popularity. Bond as a child......
Jacques Bongars, seigneur de Bauldry et de La Chesnaye was a French diplomat and classical scholar who compiled......
Yves Bonnefoy was perhaps the most important French poet of the latter half of the 20th century. Bonnefoy was also......
Bono is the lead singer for the popular Irish rock band U2 and a prominent human rights activist. He was born of......
Karl Viktor von Bonstetten was a Swiss writer (in both French and German) of wide cosmopolitan interests and outlook.......
Andrew Boorde was an English physician and the author of the first English guidebook to Europe. Boorde (also spelled......
Johan Borgen was a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, and essayist, one of 20th-century Norway’s......
Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer whose works became classics of 20th-century......
Ernest G. Bormann was an American communication theorist best known as the originator of symbolic convergence theory......
George Borrow was an English traveler, linguist, and one of the most imaginative prose writers of the 19th century.......
James Boswell was a friend and biographer of Samuel Johnson (Life of Johnson, 2 vol., 1791). The 20th-century publication......
Pierre Boulle was a French novelist who successfully combined adventure and psychology in works dealing largely......
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist who was a public intellectual in the tradition of Émile Zola and Jean-Paul......
Randolph Silliman Bourne was an American literary critic and essayist whose polemical articles made him a spokesman......
Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne was a French diplomat and one-time secretary to Napoleon Bonaparte. His Mémoires......
Catherine Bowen was an American historical biographer known for her partly fictionalized biographies. After attending......
Elizabeth Bowen was a British novelist and short-story writer who employed a finely wrought prose style in fictions......
Walter Bower was the author of the Scotichronicon, the first connected history of Scotland, which expands and continues......
Paul Bowles was an American-born composer, translator, and author of novels and short stories in which violent......
Belle Boyd was a spy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and later an actress and lecturer. Boyd......
Martin Boyd was an Anglo-Australian novelist, best known for The Montforts (1928), a novel noted for its vigorous......
Pappy Boyington was an American World War II flying ace who shot down 28 enemy Japanese planes, organized the legendary......
Menno ter Braak was a Dutch critic whose cutting intellect and challenging of preciousness in art earned him the......
Gamaliel Bradford was a biographer who cultivated “psychography,” a new type of biographical writing that sought......
Georg Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who, from 1870 through the turn of the century, exerted an enormous......
Kazimierz Brandys was a Polish novelist and essayist remembered both for his early espousal of Socialist Realism......