man of letters
Celebrated literary figure
A man of letters is someone devoted to literary pursuits—a writer, scholar, or intellectual engaged with literature and ideas.
The phrase suggests broad cultivation rather than narrow specialization: Samuel Johnson was the quintessential man of letters.
It sounds somewhat old-fashioned today, evoking an era when public intellectuals shaped cultural conversation through essays, criticism, and correspondence.
- essayistAuthor of short prose
- writerCreator of texts
- pen and paperBasic tools for correspondence
- man of the worldExperienced, urbane individual
- scholarLearned, studious person
polymath · ivory tower · philosopher · armchair philosopher · public intellectual · poet · antiquarian · biographer · litterateur · rhetorician · pamphleteer · literary critic · critic · novelist · humanist · dramatist · theorist · literary figure
- literatiauthor, writer, poet, novelist, essayist
- sophisticatessophisticate, connoisseur, aesthete, bon vivant, cosmopolitan
- worldlyworldly, cosmopolitan, globe-trotter, globetrotter, world traveler
man of lettersphilistine
Art-dismissing ignoramus
anti-intellectual · man of action · ignoramus · illiterate · lowbrow
letter, letters, lettered, lettering, manned, manning, manly, manliness, manhood