Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was born and lived in Copenhagen. His many works of philosophy and theology, including Either/Or, Fear and Trembling,  and The Sickness Unto Death, have exercised a profound influence on modern thought.

W.H. Auden (1907—1973) was born in North Yorkshire, England, the son of a doctor. He studied at Oxford and published his first book, Poems, in 1930, immediately establishing himself as one of the outstanding voices of his generation. Auden emigrated to New York in 1939, where he became a US citizen and converted to Anglicanism. He wrote essays, critical studies, plays, and opera librettos for such composers as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Hans Werner Henze, as well as the poems for which he is most famous.