Daughter of the poet Lord Byron, Lovelace collaborated with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine and wrote what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine — making her the world's first computer programmer a century before computers existed. She foresaw that the machine could compose music and handle any symbolic operation, not just arithmetic.

One of the most original and influential poets in American literature, Dickinson spent most of her life in near-total seclusion in Amherst, Massachusetts, writing nearly 1,800 poems that almost none of her contemporaries ever read. Her unconventional use of dashes, slant rhyme, and compressed metaphysical thought was not fully appreciated until decades after her death.

One of the leading interpreters of Shakespeare on both stage and screen, Branagh directed and starred in celebrated adaptations of Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing. He was nominated for multiple Academy Awards and brought Shakespeare to new mass audiences with his visually ambitious film productions.

Dewey created the Dewey Decimal Classification system in 1876 at the age of 21, providing a universal framework for organizing library collections that is still used in most public and school libraries worldwide. He also co-founded the American Library Association.

One of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, Messiaen drew on Catholic mysticism, birdsong, and exotic modes of his own invention to create a unique musical language. His Quartet for the End of Time was composed and premiered in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in 1941, with the composer himself playing a battered upright piano.