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Famous Writers

The best-known novelists, poets and playwrights in our archive, ranked by historical popularity.

957 writers in our database, ranked by historical popularity. Page 11 of 20.

Most famous writer

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Highest historical popularity score (HPI 93.2)

Most common birth month

February

92 of 957 were born in February

Living vs deceased

119 / 838

12% are still living

Most common nationality

American

186 people, 19% of the list

Editor-written profiles

289

30% have a full original profile so far

The ranked list (from #501)

  1. 501Manon RolandManon RolandSalon hostess of the Girondins guillotined in 1793, remembered for her last words to Liberty.🇫🇷French · Born March 17, 1754 · Died November 8, 1793View profile
  2. 502A. A. MilneA. A. MilneCreated Winnie-the-Pooh, the honey-loving teddy bear of the Hundred Acre Wood, in a series of children's books.🇬🇧British · Born January 18, 1882 · Died January 31, 1956View profile
  3. 503PremchandPremchandPioneered realistic social fiction in Hindi and Urdu, with the novel Godan and short stories like Kafan.British Raj · Born July 31, 1880 · Died October 8, 1936View profile
  4. 504Max FrischMax FrischSwiss dramatist and novelist whose novels Stiller and Homo Faber explore identity and responsibility.🇨🇭Swiss · Born May 15, 1911 · Died April 4, 1991View profile
  5. 505Jaroslav SeifertJaroslav SeifertPoet whose lyrical verse earned the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984, the first Czech writer to win it.Czechoslovak · Born September 23, 1901 · Died January 10, 1986View profile
  6. 506Olga TokarczukOlga TokarczukWon the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018 and the International Booker Prize for her novel Flights.🇵🇱Polish · Born January 29, 1962View profile
  7. 507Pietro MetastasioPietro MetastasioCourt poet in Vienna whose libretti, such as Didone abbandonata, were set to music by hundreds of composers.Born January 3, 1698 · Died April 2, 1782View profile
  8. 508
    Dd
    Daphne du MaurierNovelist whose gothic bestseller Rebecca, set at Manderley, was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into an Oscar-winning film.🇬🇧British · Born May 13, 1907 · Died April 19, 1989View profile
  9. 509Walter RaleighWalter RaleighElizabethan courtier and explorer who sponsored the Roanoke colony in America and was later executed under James I.🇬🇧English · Born January 22, 1552 · Died October 28, 1618View profile
  10. 510
    MS
    Muriel SparkScottish novelist who wrote The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a sharp and witty portrait of a charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher.🇬🇧British · Born February 1, 1918 · Died April 13, 2006View profile
  11. 511Maurice DenisMaurice DenisPainter of the Nabis group who helped lay the theory of modern art.🇫🇷French · Born November 25, 1870 · Died November 3, 1943View profile
  12. 512Antonio TabucchiAntonio TabucchiItalian novelist and Portuguese specialist whose Pereira Maintains, set in 1930s Lisbon, became his best-known work.🇮🇹Italian · Born September 24, 1943 · Died March 25, 2012View profile
  13. 513Eugène SueEugène SueSerial novelist whose The Mysteries of Paris, published in a newspaper, became a sensation and inspired many imitators.🇫🇷French · Born January 20, 1804 · Died August 3, 1857View profile
  14. 514
    SL
    Stieg LarssonJournalist whose Millennium crime trilogy, opening with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, became a global publishing success after his death.🇸🇪Swedish · Born August 15, 1954 · Died November 9, 2004View profile
  15. 515Lorenzo Da PonteLorenzo Da PonteWrote the Italian libretti for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte.Venetian · Born March 10, 1749 · Died August 17, 1838View profile
  16. 516MultatuliMultatuliDutch author of Max Havelaar, the satirical novel that exposed colonial abuses in the Dutch East Indies.🇩🇪German · Born March 2, 1820 · Died February 19, 1870View profile
  17. 517Patrick WhitePatrick WhiteNobel Prize-winning novelist whose book Voss, about a doomed expedition across the Australian interior, established his reputation for visionary fiction.🇦🇺Australian · Born May 28, 1912 · Died September 29, 1990View profile
  18. 518Abdulrazak GurnahAbdulrazak GurnahAwarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature for novels such as Paradise, which explore colonialism and the experience of refugees.Tanzanian · Born December 20, 1948View profile
  19. 519Clarice LispectorClarice LispectorWrote The Hour of the Star and Near to the Wild Heart, landmarks of Brazilian modernist fiction.🇧🇷Brazilian · Born December 10, 1920 · Died December 9, 1977View profile
  20. 520Odysseas ElytisOdysseas ElytisPoet who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature, known for the long work To Axion Esti.🇬🇷Greek · Born November 2, 1911 · Died March 18, 1996View profile
  21. 521John IrvingJohn IrvingNovelist whose fourth book, The World According to Garp, brought him wide acclaim and a large readership.🇺🇸American · Born March 2, 1942View profile
  22. 522Mihai EminescuMihai EminescuRomanian Romantic poet whose long poem Luceafărul is regarded as a landmark of the national literature.Moldavian · Born January 15, 1850 · Died June 15, 1889View profile
  23. 523Alejo CarpentierAlejo CarpentierCuban novelist whose The Kingdom of This World helped define the idea of marvellous realism in Latin American fiction.🇫🇷French · Born December 26, 1904 · Died April 24, 1980View profile
  24. 524Pierre LotiPierre LotiNaval officer turned novelist whose romance Madame Chrysanthème, set in Japan, typified his taste for exotic settings.🇫🇷French · Born January 14, 1850 · Died June 10, 1923View profile
  25. 525Jean Anthelme Brillat-SavarinJean Anthelme Brillat-SavarinGastronome whose book The Physiology of Taste is a founding text of food writing.🇫🇷French · Born April 1, 1755 · Died February 2, 1826View profile
  26. 526Nikolay ChernyshevskyNikolay ChernyshevskyWrote What Is to Be Done?, the 1863 novel that inspired a generation of Russian radicals.🇷🇺Russian · Born July 12, 1828 · Died October 17, 1889View profile
  27. 527Witold GombrowiczWitold GombrowiczWriter whose absurdist novel Ferdydurke mocked social convention and national pieties, making him a major voice in modern Polish literature.🇵🇱Polish · Born August 4, 1904 · Died July 24, 1969View profile
  28. 528Tirso de MolinaTirso de MolinaWrote the Golden Age play The Trickster of Seville, which introduced the character of Don Juan to the stage.🇪🇸Spanish · Born March 24, 1583 · Died March 12, 1648View profile
  29. 529LucanLucanComposed the unfinished epic Pharsalia on the Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey.Roman · Born November 3, AD 39 · Died April 30, AD 65View profile
  30. 530Clemens BrentanoClemens BrentanoCo-edited the folk-song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Achim von Arnim, a key work of German Romanticism.Prussian · Born September 8, 1778 · Died July 28, 1842View profile
  31. 531Abay KunanbaiulyAbay KunanbaiulyWrote the Book of Words, a collection of reflective prose and poetry that became a cornerstone of modern Kazakh literature.🇷🇺Russian · Born July 29, 1845 · Died June 23, 1904View profile
  32. 532
    IM
    Iris MurdochNovelist and philosopher who won the Booker Prize for "The Sea, the Sea" and wrote "Under the Net".🇮🇪Irish · Born July 15, 1919 · Died February 8, 1999View profile
  33. 533Emilio SalgariEmilio SalgariAdventure novelist who created the pirate hero Sandokan, whose tales were enormously popular with Italian readers.🇮🇹Italian · Born August 21, 1862 · Died April 25, 1911View profile
  34. 534John le CarréJohn le CarréSpy novelist who wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.🇬🇧British · Born October 19, 1931 · Died December 12, 2020View profile
  35. 535Sinclair LewisSinclair LewisNovelist who wrote Main Street and Babbitt, and in 1930 became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.🇺🇸American · Born February 7, 1885 · Died January 10, 1951View profile
  36. 536Aleksey TolstoyAleksey TolstoySoviet writer who completed the historical novel Peter the First and wrote the science fiction story Aelita.🇫🇷French · Born December 29, 1882 · Died February 23, 1945View profile
  37. 537Eduardo GaleanoEduardo GaleanoJournalist and author of Open Veins of Latin America, a influential account of the continent's exploitation since colonial times.🇺🇾Uruguayan · Born September 3, 1940 · Died April 13, 2015View profile
  38. 538Edmond RostandEdmond RostandDramatist whose 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac, about a gifted poet with a famously large nose, remains hugely popular.🇫🇷French · Born April 1, 1868 · Died December 2, 1918View profile
  39. 539Christa WolfChrista WolfWrote The Quest for Christa T. and Cassandra, becoming a leading literary voice of East Germany.🇩🇪German · Born March 18, 1929 · Died December 1, 2011View profile
  40. 540Edgar WallaceEdgar WallaceProlific thriller writer whose crime novels, such as The Four Just Men, made him hugely popular, and who co-created King Kong.🇬🇧British · Born April 1, 1875 · Died February 10, 1932View profile
  41. 541Edmond de GoncourtEdmond de GoncourtWriter who, with his brother Jules, kept the celebrated Goncourt Journal and left funds to found the Académie Goncourt.🇫🇷French · Born May 26, 1822 · Died July 16, 1896View profile
  42. 542Natalia GinzburgNatalia GinzburgWrote Family Lexicon, a Strega Prize-winning memoir-novel assembled from her family's sayings and anecdotes.🇮🇹Italian · Born July 14, 1916 · Died October 7, 1991View profile
  43. 543V. S. NaipaulV. S. NaipaulWon the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote A House for Mr Biswas.Trinidadian-British · Born August 17, 1932 · Died August 11, 2018View profile
  44. 544Harry MulischHarry MulischDutch author whose novel The Assault, about wartime reprisals, became his best-known work and won international acclaim.🇳🇱Dutch · Born July 29, 1927 · Died October 30, 2010View profile
  45. 545Bernhard SchlinkBernhard SchlinkLawyer and novelist whose international bestseller The Reader explores guilt and Germany's Nazi past through a postwar love affair.🇩🇪German · Born July 6, 1944View profile
  46. 546Pierre BoullePierre BoulleFrench novelist who wrote The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes, both adapted into celebrated films.🇫🇷French · Born February 20, 1912 · Died January 30, 1994View profile
  47. 547Christoph Martin WielandChristoph Martin WielandWrote the verse epic Oberon and translated many of Shakespeare's plays into German.Biberach an der Riß · Born September 5, 1733 · Died January 20, 1813View profile
  48. 548Henry FieldingHenry FieldingWrote The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, a comic novel that helped establish the form in English.🇬🇧British · Born April 22, 1707 · Died October 8, 1754View profile
  49. 549H. L. MenckenH. L. MenckenBaltimore journalist and critic known as the Sage of Baltimore for his satire of American life.🇺🇸American · Born September 12, 1880 · Died January 29, 1956View profile
  50. 550Anna SeghersAnna SeghersGerman novelist whose wartime book The Seventh Cross told the story of an escape from a Nazi concentration camp.East German · Born November 19, 1900 · Died June 1, 1983View profile

How we rank and select

  • Ranking: people are ordered by their Historical Popularity Index (HPI) from Pantheon. HPI combines how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about a person, how many page views those articles get, how evenly the views are spread across languages and how long ago the person lived. People Pantheon does not yet cover are listed after them, ordered by our own popularity score (the number of Wikipedia language editions with an article about them).
  • Membership: each person appears in one occupation list only, based on their primary occupation as classified by Pantheon (for example, a queen who wrote poetry is listed as royalty, not as a writer). Kings, queens, emperors, sultans and royal consorts are not listed as politicians or writers: anyone who held a monarch's office on Wikidata, and never served as a president or head of government, counts as royalty. For the few people Pantheon does not cover, we use the primary field recorded in our database.
  • One-line summaries: each summary is an original line written for this site with AI assistance under our editorial rules, then checked against the Wikipedia introduction so no wording is copied.
  • Statistics: every figure on this page is calculated live from our database each time the page loads, so it changes as we add people.

Further reading

Reviewed by the Who Shares My Birthday editorial team.

Last reviewed: October 2026

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