Famous writers
A list of famous writers / authors / poets throughout
history.
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English poet and
playwright. Famous plays include Macbeth, Romeo and
Juliet, Merchant of Venice and Hamlet.Shakespeare is
widely considered the seminal writer of the English
language.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Anglo-Irish writer born in
Dublin. Swift was a prominent satirist, essayist and author.
Notable works include Gulliver’s Travels (1726), A Modest
Proposal and A Tale of a Tub.
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British author best known
for his compilation of the English dictionary. Although not
the first attempt at a dictionary, it was widely considered to
be the most comprehensive – setting the standard for later
dictionaries.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German poet,
playwright, and author. Notable works of Goethe
include: Faust, Wilhelm Meister’s
Apprenticeship and Elective Affinities.
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote
romantic fiction combined with social realism. Her novels
include: Sense and Sensibility (1811),Pride and
Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816).
Honore de Balzac (1799 – 1850) French novelist and short
story writer. Balzac was an influential realist writer who
created characters of moral ambiguity – often based on his
own real life examples. His greatest work was the collection
of short stories La Comédie humaine.
Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) French author of historical
dramas, including – The Count of Monte Cristo (1844),
and The Three Musketeers (1844). Also prolific author of
magazine articles, pamphlets and travel books.
Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) French author and poet. Hugo’s
novels include Les Misérables, (1862) and Notre-Dame de
Paris (1831).
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) – English writer and social
critic. His best known works include novels such as Oliver
Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol.
Charlotte Bronte (1816 – 1855) English novelist and poet,
from Haworth. Best known novel ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847).
Emily Bronte (1818 – 1848) English novelist. Emily Bronte is
best known for her novel Wuthering Heights (1847), and her
poetry.
George Eliot (1819 – 1880) Pen name of Mary Ann Evans.
Wrote novels, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas
Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), andDaniel
Deronda (1876)
Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) Russian novelist and moral
philosopher. Famous works include the epic novels – War
and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina(1877). Tolstoy also
became an influential philosopher with his brand of
Christian pacificism.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist, journalist
and philosopher. Notable works include Notes from
Underground, Crime and Punishment andThe Idiot
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Oxford mathematician and
author. Famous forAlice in Wonderland, Through the
Looking Glass, and poems like The Snark.
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) American writer and humorist,
considered the ‘father of American literature’. Famous
works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist and poet. Hardy
was a Victorian realist who was influenced by Romanticism.
He wrote about problems of Victorian society – in
particular, declining rural life. Notable works include: Far
from the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the
d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895).
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) – Irish writer and poet. Wilde
wrote humorous satirical plays, such as ‘The Importance of
Being Earnest‘ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’.
Kenneth Graham (1859 – 1932) Author of the Wind in the
Willows (1908), a classic of children’s literature.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) Irish playwright and
wit. Famous works include: Pygmalion (1912), Man and
Superman (1903) and Back to Methuselah(1921)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) British author of
historical novels and plays. Most famous for his short stories
about the detective – Sherlock Holmes, such as The Hound
of the Baskervilles (1902) and Sign of Four (1890).
Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) English conservationist and
author of the imaginative children’s books, such as the Tales
of Peter Rabbit (1902).
Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) French author. Best known for
epic novel l À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost
Time) published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.
William Somerset Maugham 1874 – 1965) British novelist
and writer. One of most popular authors of 1930s. Notable
works included The Moon and Sixpence (1916), The Razor’s
Edge (1944), and Of Human Bondage (1915)
P.G.Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) English comic writer. Best
known for his humorous and satirical stories about the
English upper classes, such as Jeeves and
Wooster and Blandings Castle.
Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) English modernist writer,
member of the Bloomsbury group. Famous novels
include: Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927)
and Orlando (1928).
James Joyce (1882 – 1941) Irish writer from Dublin. Joyce
was one of most influential modernist avant-garde writers
of the Twentieth Century. His novelUlysses (1922), was
ground-breaking for its stream of consciousness style. Other
works include Dubliners (1914) and Finnegans Wake (1939).
D H Lawrence (1885 – 1930) English poet, novelist and
writer. Best known works include: Sons and Lovers, The
Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)
– which was banned for many years.
Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) British fictional crime writer.
Many of her books focused on series featuring her
detectives ‘Poirot’ and Mrs Marple.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) – Professor of Anglo-Saxon and
English at Oxford University. Tolkien wrote the best selling
mythical trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Other works include,
The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, and a translation
of Beowulf.
Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970) British writer best known for her
autobiography –Testament of Youth (1933) – sharing her
traumatic experiences of the First World War.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) American author. Iconic
writer of the ‘jazz age’. Notable works include The Great
Gatsby (1925), and Tender Is the Night (1934) – cautionary
tales about the ‘Jazz decade’ and the American Dream
based on pleasure and materialism.
Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) British children’s writer, known
for her series of children’s books – The Famous Five and The
Secret Seven. Blyton wrote an estimated 800 books over 40
years.
C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) Irish / English author and professor
at Oxford University. Lewis is best known for The Chronicles
of Narnia, a children’s fantasy series. Also well known as a
Christian apologist.
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) Ground breaking
modernist American writer. Famous works included For
Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) and A Farewell to Arms (1929).
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977) Russian author
of Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962)
Barbara Cartland (1901 – 2000) One of most prolific and
best selling authors of the romantic fiction genre. Some
suggest she has sold over 2 billion copies worldwide.
John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) American writer who
captured the social change experienced in the US around
the time of the Great Depression. Famous works include –
Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath
(1939) and East of Eden (1952).
George Orwell (1903 – 1950) – English author. Famous
works include Animal Farm, and 1984. – Both stark
warnings about the dangers of totalitarian states, Orwell
was also a democratic socialist who fought in the Spanish
Civil War, documenting his experiences in “Homage to
Catalonia” (1938).
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish avant garde, modernist
writer. Beckett wrote minimalist and thought provoking
plays, such as ‘Waiting for Godot’(1953) and ‘Endgame‘
(1957). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1969.
Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) – French author, journalist, and
philosopher. Associated with existentialism and absurdism.
Famous works included The Myth of Sisyphus, The
Stranger and The Plague.
Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) English author, best known for his
children’s books, such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory, James and The Giant Peachand The BFG.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008) Russian author,
historian and political critic. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 for his work in exposing
the nature of Soviet totalitarianism. e.g, The Gulag
Archipelago (1965-67).
J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010) American author. Most
influential novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Wrote many
short stories for New Yorker magazine, such as “A Perfect
Day for Bananafish”
Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) American novelist, who wrote
satirical and black comedy. His most famous work is ‘Catch
22′ (1961) – a satire on the futility of war.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927 – 2014) Colombian author.
Wrote: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn
of the Patriarch (1975) andLove in the Time of
Cholera (1985). Nobel Prize in Literature (1982).
Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) Dutch-Jewish diarist. Known for
her diary ‘Anne Frank‘ Published posthumously by her
father – recalling her life hiding from Gestapo in occupied
Holland.
Salman Rushdie (1947 – ) Anglo-Indian author. His works
combine elements of magic realism, satire and historical
fiction – often based on Indian sub-continent. Notable
works include Midnight’s Children (1981), Shame (1983) and
Satanic Verses (1988).
Stephen King (1947 – ) American author of contemporary
horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and
fantasy. One of the best selling authors of modern times.
George R.R Martin (1948 – ) American author of epic
fantasy series – A Song of Ice and Fire, – his international
best-selling series of fantasy, adapted for the screen as a
Game of Thrones.
Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) British writer of humorous
and absure science fiction. Adams wrote a best selling
trilogy (of five books) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy –
which began as a BBC play.
J.K.Rowling (1965 – ) British author of the Harry Potter
Series – which has become the best selling book series of all
time. Her first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone (1997). Rowling has also published adult fiction, such
as The Casual Vacancy (2012) and The Cuckoo’s
Calling (2013)
Khaled Hosseini (1965 – ) Afghan born American writer.
Notable works include: The Kite Runner (2003) A Thousand
Splendid Suns (2007) And the Mountains Echoed (2013
Poets
Homer (c. 8th Century B.C. ) Considered the greatest of the
ancient Greek poets. Homer was the author of the two epic
poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Sappho ( c 570 BC) One of the first published female writers.
Much of her poetry has been lost but her immense
reputation has remained. Plato referred to Sappho as one of
the great ten poets.
Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC) Roman poet. Wrote three
epics Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the Aeneid.
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet of the Middle Ages.
His Divine Comedy, is one of most influential European
works of literature. Dante is also called the “Father of the
Italian language”.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) Considered the Father of
English Literature. Best known for Canterbury Tales (1475).
John Milton (1608 – 1674) English poet. Best known for his
epic poemParadise Lost (1667), written in blank verse –
telling the Biblical story of man’s fall. Also
wrote Areopagitica (1644) in defence of free speech.
William Blake (1757 –1827) English mystic and romantic
poet, wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
Also hand-painted many of his works.
William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) English romantic poet
from Lake District, many poems related to natures, such as
his Lyrical Ballads.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) English romantic
poet. Author ofThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai
Khan.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) English romantic poet.
Famous works include Queen Mab and Prometheus
Unbound
John Keats (1795 –
1821) English Romantic Poet, best known for his Odes, such
as Ode to a Nightingale, Endymion.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) American
Transcendentalist poet and writer.
Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Popular Victorian poet,
wrote Charge of the Light Brigade, Ulysses, although In
Memoriam A.H.H.
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) American poet. Wrote Leaves
of Grass, a ground breaking new style of poetry.
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) American female poet. Led
secluded lifestyle, and left legacy of many short vivid
poems, often on themes of death and immortality.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) Indian poet. Awarded
Nobel Prize for Literature for his work – Gitanjali.
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) – Influential American poet, one
of most highly regarded of the Twentieth Century. Most
famous work ‘The Road Not Taken’ (1916)
Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014 ) – Modern American poet and
writer.
Other categories of writers:
More Famous Poets – Other poets, including W.B. Yeats,
Wilfred Owen, Rumi, Czeslaw Milosz
Famous philosophers – including Aristotle, Immanuel Kant,
Baruch Spinoza, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, Thomas
Paine and David Hume.
Famous Economist writers – including Adam Smith, John
Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman.
Political / social activist writers – People who have written
about political and human rights. Including Olaudah
Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Nelson Mandela, William
Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Spiritual writers – including St Teresa of Avila, Sri
Aurobindo, Meister Eckhart, Desiderius Erasmus, St Therese
of Lisieux and Swami Vivekananda.
Female authors – Female authors, including the Bronte
sisters, Maya Angelou, Jane Austen and J.K. Rowling.