Fathers of Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer

Father of English Literature

• The Canterbury Tales

• English

Washington Irving

Father of American Literature

• Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

• American

Francis Bacon

Father of Modern English Prose

• Essays and aphorisms

• English

Edgar Allan Poe

Father of Modern Short Story

• The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher

• English

Michel de Montaigne

Father of the Essay

• Invented the modern essay

• French

Henrik Ibsen

Father of Modern Drama

• A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler

• Norwegian

Daniel Defoe

Father of the English Novel

• Robinson Crusoe

• English

Aeschylus

Father of Greek Tragedy

• Oresteia trilogy

• Greek

Aristophanes

Father of Greek Comedy

• Lysistrata, The Frogs

• Greek

Socrates (oral); Aristotle (written)

Father of Western Philosophy / Logic

• Socratic Method / Poetics

• Greek

Cicero

Father of Roman Oratory / Latin Prose

• Speeches and letters

• Roman

Francisco Balagtas

Father of Filipino Literature

• Florante at Laura

• Filipino

Pedro Bukaneg

Father of Ilocano Literature

• Biag ni Lam-ang

• Filipino

Severino Reyes

Father of Tagalog Drama

• Walang Sugat

• Filipino

Deogracias A. Rosario

Father of Modern Filipino Short Story

• Urban Tagalog fiction

• Filipino

Paz Marquez-Benitez (Mother) & Carlos P. Romulo (Father)

Father of Philippine Literature in English

• Dead Stars / Essays and speeches

Rabindranath Tagore

Father of Indian Literature

• Gitanjali (Nobel Prize winner)

• Indian

Bede the Venerable

Father of English History