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Murasaki Shikibu is the best known writer to emerge from Japan's glorious Heian period. Her novel, The Tale of Genji (Genji-monogatari) is considered to be one of the world's finest and earliest novels. Some argue that Murasaki is the world's first modern novelist.
Henry Savery. Savery's memorial stone on the Isle of the Dead at Port Arthur. Henry Savery (4 August 1791 â 6 February 1842) was a convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than its literary merit.