Writers and literary biographies

František Ladislav Čelakovský

František Ladislav Čelakovský (1799–1852) was a Czech poet and philologist of the National Revival, best known for his Echo of Russian Songs and Echo of Czech Songs.

František Martin Pelcl

František Martin Pelcl, also spelled Pelzel, was a Czech historian and Enlightenment figure who in 1793 became the first professor of Czech language and literature at Prague University.

Frantsishak Bahushevich (Францішак Багушэвіч; 1840–1900) was a Belarusian poet and lawyer who wrote as Matsei Buračok; his collections The Belarusian Pipe (1891) and The Belarusian Fiddle (1894) founded modern Belarusian literature.

Franz Fühmann

Franz Fühmann (1922–1984) was a German writer, one of the most significant authors of East Germany, who worked as poet, essayist, and translator of Hungarian and Czech poetry.

Franz Grillparzer

Franz Grillparzer, full name Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (1791–1872), was an Austrian dramatist, poet, and civil servant from Vienna, the leading Austrian playwright of the nineteenth century.

Franz Hellens

Franz Hellens, pen name of Frédéric Van Ermengem (1881–1972), was a Belgian novelist and poet who wrote in French, founded the review Le Disque vert, and developed fantastic realism.

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883–1924), Prague German-Jewish writer of The Trial, The Castle, Amerika, and The Metamorphosis; insurance clerk whose friend Max Brod defied his burn order and published his manuscripts posthumously.

Franz Karl Ginzkey

Franz Karl Ginzkey (1871–1963) was an Austrian writer and former k.u.k. officer and cartographer, known for the Lower Austrian anthem words and the 1904 children's book Hatschi Bratschis Luftballon.

Franz Theodor Csokor

Franz Theodor Csokor (1885–1969) was an Austrian dramatist and novelist, considered the leading representative of Austrian expressionist drama, and led the Austrian PEN Club from 1947 to 1969.

Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel (1890–1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet, a leading figure of German expressionism known for The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and The Song of Bernadette.

Fred Khumalo

Fred Khumalo, born 1966, is a South African novelist, short story writer, and journalist known for historical fiction that recovers forgotten episodes of South Africa's past, and winner of the European Union Literary Award.

Frédéric Mistral

Frédéric Mistral was a Provençal poet and lexicographer who founded Le Félibrige, compiled a major Occitan dictionary, and shared the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Frederick Marryat

Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) was a British naval officer and novelist, a pioneer of nautical fiction known for Mr Midshipman Easy and Marryat's Code of flag signals.

Frederik Pohl

Frederik George Pohl Jr., known as Frederik Pohl, was an American science fiction writer, editor, and fan whose 1977 novel Gateway won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell awards.

Frederik van Eeden

Frederik van Eeden (1860–1932) was a Dutch poet, novelist, and psychiatrist who co-founded De Nieuwe Gids in 1885, pioneered psychotherapy in the Netherlands, and coined the term "lucid dream".

Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman (born 1981) is a Swedish novelist, born in Stockholm and raised in Helsingborg, author of A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove) and the Beartown trilogy, translated into more than 40 languages.

Fredrika Bremer

Fredrika Bremer (1801–1865) was a Swedish novelist born in Finland, the first Swedish fiction writer with an international reputation, whose 1856 novel Hertha helped win unmarried women legal majority.

Freida McFadden

Freida McFadden, also known as Sara Cohen, is an American physician and bestselling author of psychological thrillers. She is known for The Housemaid and has sold 90 million copies worldwide.

Fricis Bārda

Fricis Bārda (1880–1919) was a Latvian poet, teacher, and essayist regarded as a leading representative of neoromanticism in Latvian literature, brother of poet Anton Bārda.

Frieda Hughes

Frieda Rebecca Hughes (born 1960), English poet, painter and children's author, daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; works include Wooroloo, Forty-Five, and George: A Magpie Memoir (2023).

Frieda Lawrence

Frieda Lawrence, also known as Frieda Weekley, was a German baroness and writer. She wrote the memoir Not I, But the Wind and managed D. H. Lawrence's estate.

Friedebert Tuglas

Friedebert Tuglas (1886–1971), born Friedebert Mihkelson, was an Estonian writer best known for short stories like Popi ja Huhuu and as a founder of the Estonian Writers' Union.

Friedrich Christian Delius

Friedrich Christian Delius (1943–2022) was a German novelist, poet, and essayist who chronicled the Federal Republic of Germany and won the Georg Büchner Prize in 2011.

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué was a German Romantic writer and Prussian officer (1777–1843), remembered chiefly for his 1811 tale Undine about a water spirit.

Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990) was a Swiss playwright, novelist, and essayist whose tragicomic plays The Visit and The Physicists were central to the postwar revival of German theater.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) was a German religious poet from Quedlinburg whose epic Der Messias, published from 1748 to 1773, transformed German verse by abandoning rhyme for classical hexameter.

Friedrich Hebbel

Friedrich Hebbel (Christian Friedrich Hebbel, 1813–1863) was a German poet and dramatist whose bourgeois drama Maria Magdalena opened a new dimension for the domestic tragedy of the middle class.

Friedrich Hölderlin

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) was a German lyric poet, novelist, and translator, author of Hyperion and the great hymns Der Rhein, Brot und Wein, and Patmos.

Friedrich Leopold, Count Stolberg

Friedrich Leopold, Count Stolberg (Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, 1750–1819) was a German lyric poet and travel writer who traveled with Goethe and converted to Catholicism in 1800.