The greatest German literary figure of the modern era, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, critic, theater director, and statesman. He is best known for Faust, which he started at the age of 23 and finished shortly before his death, 60 years later.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, written at the age of 25, quickly achieved cult status and remains an exemplar of the Sturm und Drang literary movement. In addition to hundreds of poems of all kinds, Goethe wrote a series of classic memoirs of his childhood and travels as well as numerous essays on scientific subjects.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence Italy in 1265. In 1301, a political dispute lead to his exile from Florence.

Over the next few years he made his home in Verona, Lucca and other cities. By 1310 he had written Inferno and Purgatorio, the first two books of his Divine Comedy.

He wrote the third and concluding book, Paradiso, in the years after he found sanctuary in Ravenna in 1318.

An allegorical account of his wanderings in a spiritual wilderness and eventual salvation under the guidance of his beloved Beatrice, The Divine Comedy is recognised as Dante's masterwork and a landmark of world literature. He died in exile in 1321 and was buried in Ravenna.

James Allen was born in Leicester, England, in 1864. He took his first job at age 15 to support his family, after his father was murdered while looking for work in America. Allen was employed as a factory knitter and a private secretary until the early 1900s, when he became increasingly known for his motivational writing.

His 1903 work As a Man Thinketh earned him worldwide fame as a prophet of inspirational thinking and influenced a who's-who of self-help writers, including Napoleon Hill.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803-April 27, 1882) was a famous lecturer, philosopher, poet, and writer. He led the transcendentalist movement of the 1800s, mentored Henry David Thoreau, and was a pioneer of multiculturalism in American writing.

Andrew Murray has been Chief of Staff of Unite union since 2011, and was previously its Director of Communications. He was Chair of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 to 2011, when he was replaced by Jeremy Corbyn, and again from 2015 to 2016.

From 1978 to 1984 he worked as a parliamentary and political correspondent for the Morning Star newspaper. He is the author of a number of books on history and politics, including Off the Rails: The Crisis on Britain's Railways (Verso 2001), A New Labour Nightmare (Verso 2003) and Stop the War: The Story of Britain's Biggest Mass Movement (Bookmarks 2005, with Lindsey German). He worked as part of the strategic leadership of Labour's 2017 general election campaign.

John Bunyan (1628–88) was an English preacher and writer who wrote over sixty books and tracts. Bunyan was a Reformed Baptist, and his religious beliefs led to his persecution during the Restoration. While imprisoned Bunyan wrote the spiritual allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which quickly became one of the foundational texts of Protestant thought.

Voltaire (1694 1778) was a French man of letters and a leading figure of the Enlightenment, known for his outspokenness and polemical writings.

The philosophical novellas Candide and Zadig are among his most celebrated works.

John Milton (1608 74) is best known for his epic masterpiece Paradise Lost and for his commitment to the republican cause.

He wrote the crucial justifications for the trial and execution of King Charles I and was Secretary for Foreign Tongues, thus becoming the voice of the revolution. His influence on English literature can only be rivalled by Shakespeare.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844. After the death of his father, a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was raised from the age of five by his mother in a household of women. In 1869 he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, where he taught until 1879 when poor health forced him to retire. He never recovered from a nervous breakdown in 1889 and died eleven years later.

Known for saying that 'god is dead,' Nietzsche propounded his metaphysical construct of the superiority of the disciplined individual (superman) living in the present over traditional values derived from Christianity and its emphasis on heavenly rewards. His ideas were appropriated by the Fascists, who turned his theories into social realities that he had never intended.

Florence Scovel Shinn carried out her work in the first half of the 20th century.

Through her teachings and numerous books, she was a profound influence on Louise Hay and other pioneers of personal transformation.