Greatest Writer of your Country

You can find the full bios of most if not all mentioned here on this site

1.Ismail Kadare

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4604409.stm

2. Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940)

By far the greatest and most influential figure of Albanian literature in the first half of the twentieth century was the Franciscan pater Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940) who more than any other writer gave artistic expression to the searching soul of the now sovereign Albanian nation. Lauded and celebrated up until the Second World War as the �national poet of Albania� and the �Albanian Homer,� Fishta was to fall into sudden oblivion when the communists took power in November 1944. The very mention of his name became taboo for forty-six years.

3. Naim Frash�ri (1846-1900) is nowadays widely considered to be the national poet of Albania. He spent his childhood in the village of Frash�r where he no doubt began learning Turkish, Persian and Arabic and where, at the Bektashi monastery, he was imbued with the spiritual traditions of the Orient. In Janina (Ioannina), Naim Frash�ri attended the Zosimaia secondary school which provided him with the basics of a classical education along Western lines. Here he was to study Ancient and Modern Greek, French and Italian and, in addition, was to be tutored privately in oriental languages. As he grew in knowledge, so did his affinity for his pantheistic Bektashi religion, for the poets of classical Persia and for the Age of Enlightenment. His education in Janina made of him a prime example of a late nineteenth-century Ottoman intellectual equally at home in both cultures, the Western and the Oriental.

Naim Frash�ri is the author of a total of twenty-two works: four in Turkish, one in Persian, two in Greek and fifteen in Albanian.

4. Martin Barleti was a humanist of Albanian descent, the first and greatest Albanian historian, and a Catholic priest.

When Barleti lived in Shkod�r he was a scholar and a clergyman. In 1474 the Turks besieged Shkod�r. Barleti participated in the defense of the town both in the first siege in 1474 and the second time in 1478. When Shkod�r fell to the Ottomans he escaped to Italy where he became a profound connoisseur of history, classical literature and the Latin language. In Venice he wrote the "History of Skanderberg (Historia de vita et rebus gestis Scanderbegi) (1508-1511), "The Siege of Shkod�r" (De obsidione Scodransi, Venice, 1504) and "A Brief History of Lives of Popes and Emperors" (Compendium vitarum ponticum et imperatorum, Venice, 1555).

His most well-known work is the biography of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis (The story of life and deeds of Skanderbeg, the prince of Epirotes). It was printed in Rome between 1506 and 1510, probably between 1508 and 1510. The book rapidly spread in several languages and eventually was translated into Latin and Portuguese four times 1582 and German seven times 1533. It is still the foundation of Skanderbeg studies, and also established the Skanderbeg cult that was important for the formation of the Albanian national self-consciousness. This book is considered as an albanian cultural treasure and today is in Biblioteka Kombetare in Tirana, Albania.

(I didnt put him as first because his works were not in Albanian)



Edited by Theodore Felix

1.     Who is generally accepted to be the greatest 
        writer of your country and/or mother-tongue?