Maxim Gorky
He was a Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the socialist realism literary method, and a political activist. Gorky was also a five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Rainer Maria Rilke
He was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. Rilke wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.
Richard Wagner
He was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, “music dramas”).
Giuseppe Verdi
He was an Italian opera composer. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
He was a futuristic Soviet poet, playwright, artist, and actor. He was affected by the movement socialist realism.
Richard Strauss
He was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
