Writers Who Changed History

by D.K. Publishing, James Naughtie (Foreword)

Explore the fascinating lives and loves of the greatest novelists, poets, and playwrights.

Lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings of writers’ homes, studies, and personal artifacts—along with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and their correspondence— Writers Who Changed History introduces the key ideas, themes, and literary techniques of each writer, revealing the imaginations and personalities behind some of the world’s greatest novels, short stories, poems, and plays.

Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured novelist, playwright, or poet, biographical entries trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each individual and influenced their work, revealing insights into the larger-than-life characters, plots, and evocative settings that they created. Each entry explains how the person’s writing developed during their lifetime and sets it in context, conveying a powerful sense of the place and the period of history in which they lived.

Covering an eclectic range of authors from the Middle Ages to the present day, Writers Who Changed History provides a compelling glimpse of the lives and loves of each great writer.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

368 pages, Hardcover

Published May 14, 2024

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Edward Canade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like reading biographies and this book was my cup of tea serving up one after another. I really enjoyed learning some details about authors I’ve read and many I had only heard about.

I wish I could read one book at least by each author mentioned.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read! I enjoyed reading about well loved writers throughout history and about many I wasn't aware of as well. I would have enjoyed longer synopsises of some of them, who only given shorten forms, but given the length of the book already, it is understandable that much probably needed to be cut down. I loved the beautiful pictures throughout that really helped provide visual context to the stories.

[Bill Glose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This splendid book is a must-have reference for your literary shelf. Each imminent author is beautifully portrayed and their lives described in easily digestible fashion. The short sections also describe what was going on in their region at the time and what impact they had on the local culture and the world at large.

[Susan Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read about 3 chapters before I realized that this book needed a forever home with me as a hardback. I ordered it online. Some books are just meant to be cherished. The illustrations are better served with a hardback, as well.