Korean Culture Explained: Life, History, Music & Language | NowHitz · 22

Kim Gu was born in Haeju in 1876. He was active in the Korean independence movement and the Korean Provisional Government, and wrote the memoir Baekbeom Ilji. He died in 1949.

Born in Seoul in 1939, Jeong studied philosophy at Yonsei University and made his literary debut through Hyundae Munhak in 1965. His collections include The Dream of Things, So Little Time to Love and Whisper of Splendor.

Park Mok-wol (born Park Yeong-jong in Gyeongju in 1916) was a major Korean lyric poet. He began publishing in the literary journal Munjang in 1940 and, in 1946, joined Cho Chi-hun and Park Tu-jin in the three-poet anthology Cheongrokjip. His poetry is known for spare images of nature, hometown landscapes and a distinctly musical Korean rhythm.

Yi Yuksa was a Korean poet and independence activist born in Andong in 1904. Born Yi Won-rok, he was repeatedly imprisoned for anti-colonial activities under Japanese rule. His best-known works include “Green Grapes,” “The Summit” and “Wilderness.” He died in 1944 while detained in Beijing.

An early woman painter and writer in modern Korea. She studied Western painting in Tokyo and traveled through Europe and the United States from 1927 to 1929, studying art in Paris and recording the experience in writing and art.

A poet and Buddhist monk. He wrote for the reform of Korean Buddhism and was one of the 33 signatories to the Korean Declaration of Independence in 1919. In 1926 he published The Silence of Love, a collection in which love, truth, freedom and the nation can overlap as poetic meanings.