past simple or present perfect

[Mrxkms]

Complete the sentences with the correct tense of the verbs in brackets. (past simple or present perfect ) .

1- Gibran Khalil Gibran …….. (illustrate) lots of his books. In the 1960s his book, the Prophet ……… ( become) a countercultural guide .

2- William Shakespeare ……………. ( write ) Romeo and Juliet, one of the most famous tragic plays in history. He also …………… (act) in the Globe Theatre in London.

The suggested answers for the above mentioned sentences are
1- has illustrated / became
2- wrote / acted
Why did we use the present perfect in the first one, while we used the past simple in the second one? Although the two sentences are similar and I cant find any difference between them at all.

By the way I read these sentences in grammar section in an English book

[Jamie (K)]

The correct answer for the first one would be, "Gibran Khalil Gibran illustrated lots of his books. In the 1960s, his book the Prophet became a countercultural guide."

In both cases, the simple past is called for, because both of the authors are dead and cannot write any more books.

That sentence was also punctuated wrong, by the way.