According to Pauley, "literature was the first branch of the arts to be affected by the Nazis." "As early as April 1933, the Nazis had compiled a long blacklist of "left", democratic, and Jewish authors which included several famous authors of the nineteenth century." Large scale book burnings were staged across Germany in May 1933. Two thousand five hundred writers, including Nobel prize winners and writers of worldwide best sellers, left the country voluntarily or under duress, and were replaced by people without international reputations."