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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 18 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 #851)

  1. 851Langston HughesLangston HughesPoet and leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance who brought jazz rhythms into verse, as in The Weary Blues.🇺🇸American · Born February 1, 1901 · Died May 22, 1967View profile
  2. 852Audre LordeAudre LordePoet and essayist whose collection Sister Outsider examined racism, sexism and homophobia from a Black lesbian feminist perspective.🇺🇸American · Born February 18, 1934 · Died November 17, 1992View profile
  3. 853Philip SidneyPhilip SidneyElizabethan courtier and soldier who wrote the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella and the prose romance Arcadia.🇬🇧British · Born November 30, 1554 · Died October 17, 1586View profile
  4. 854George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonaldScottish minister and author of the fantasy novels Phantastes and The Princess and the Goblin, admired by C. S. Lewis.🇬🇧British · Born December 10, 1824 · Died September 18, 1905View profile
  5. 855Éric-Emmanuel SchmittÉric-Emmanuel SchmittPlaywright and novelist whose play Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran was adapted into a film starring Omar Sharif.🇫🇷French · Born March 28, 1960View profile
  6. 856Maria KonopnickaMaria KonopnickaPoet who wrote the patriotic poem Rota, long treated as an unofficial anthem of Polish independence.🇷🇺Russian · Born May 23, 1842 · Died October 8, 1910View profile
  7. 857Carl SandburgCarl SandburgHis multi-volume biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years won a Pulitzer Prize in history.🇺🇸American · Born January 6, 1878 · Died July 22, 1967View profile
  8. 858Kingsley AmisKingsley AmisComic novelist whose campus satire Lucky Jim became a defining English novel of the 1950s and won him lasting fame.🇬🇧British · Born April 16, 1922 · Died October 22, 1995View profile
  9. 859Harold BloomHarold BloomYale professor and critic whose The Western Canon and The Anxiety of Influence made him a famous voice in literary debate.🇺🇸American · Born July 11, 1930 · Died October 14, 2019View profile
  10. 860Richard AldingtonRichard AldingtonPoet who helped launch Imagism and later wrote the novel Death of a Hero about the First World War.🇬🇧British · Born July 8, 1892 · Died July 27, 1962View profile
  11. 861Joan DidionJoan DidionEssayist and novelist whose memoir The Year of Magical Thinking examined grief after her husband's sudden death.🇺🇸American · Born December 5, 1934 · Died December 23, 2021View profile
  12. 862Germaine GreerGermaine GreerWrote The Female Eunuch, a bestselling 1970 book that became a landmark of second-wave feminism.🇦🇺Australian · Born January 29, 1939View profile
  13. 863Amrita PritamAmrita PritamPunjabi writer whose poem Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu mourned the bloodshed of Partition.🇮🇳Indian · Born August 31, 1919 · Died October 31, 2005View profile
  14. 864Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanWrote the short story The Yellow Wallpaper and the feminist utopian novel Herland.🇺🇸American · Born July 3, 1860 · Died August 17, 1935View profile
  15. 865SakiSakiShort-story writer whose sharp, darkly comic tales, such as Sredni Vashtar and The Open Window, satirised Edwardian society.🇬🇧British · Born December 18, 1870 · Died November 13, 1916View profile
  16. 866Christina RossettiChristina RossettiWrote the narrative poem Goblin Market, alongside devotional verse and love lyrics such as Remember.🇬🇧British · Born December 5, 1830 · Died December 29, 1894View profile
  17. 867Anne ApplebaumAnne ApplebaumHistorian who won a Pulitzer Prize for Gulag: A History.🇺🇸American · Born July 25, 1964View profile
  18. 868Richard AdamsRichard AdamsNovelist whose debut Watership Down turned a band of rabbits into one of Britain's best-loved adventure stories.🇬🇧British · Born May 9, 1920 · Died December 24, 2016View profile
  19. 869Martin AmisMartin AmisNovelist whose satirical books Money and London Fields made him a leading voice of British fiction from the 1980s.🇬🇧British · Born August 25, 1949 · Died May 19, 2023View profile
  20. 870
    SD
    Sergei DovlatovWriter of darkly comic autobiographical prose such as The Suitcase and The Compromise, drawn from Soviet life and emigration to New York.🇺🇸American · Born September 3, 1941 · Died August 24, 1990View profile
  21. 871Suzanne CollinsSuzanne CollinsAuthor of The Hunger Games trilogy, a dystopian young adult series that became a bestselling book and film phenomenon.🇺🇸American · Born August 10, 1962View profile
  22. 872Clive BarkerClive BarkerHorror writer whose Books of Blood story collections made his name, and who also directed the film Hellraiser.🇬🇧British · Born October 5, 1952View profile
  23. 873Matthew ArnoldMatthew ArnoldVictorian poet and critic who wrote Dover Beach and the influential essay collection Culture and Anarchy.🇬🇧British · Born December 24, 1822 · Died April 15, 1888View profile
  24. 874Thomas GrayThomas GrayWrote Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, one of the most quoted and admired English poems of the eighteenth century.🇬🇧British · Born December 26, 1716 · Died July 30, 1771View profile
  25. 875János AranyJános AranyHungarian poet who wrote the Toldi trilogy, a narrative work that became a cornerstone of national literature.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born March 2, 1817 · Died October 22, 1882View profile
  26. 876Suman PokhrelSuman PokhrelNepali poet, lyricist and playwright whose poetry features on university syllabi in Nepal and India.Nepali · Born September 21, 1967View profile
  27. 877Mary Baker EddyMary Baker EddyReligious leader who founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, and wrote its central text, Science and Health.🇺🇸American · Born July 16, 1821 · Died December 3, 1910View profile
  28. 878Kenneth GrahameKenneth GrahameCreated The Wind in the Willows, the children's classic about Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger on the riverbank.🇬🇧British · Born March 8, 1859 · Died July 6, 1932View profile
  29. 879Annie ProulxAnnie ProulxNovelist and short story writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News and wrote Brokeback Mountain.🇺🇸American · Born August 22, 1935View profile
  30. 880Djuna BarnesDjuna BarnesModernist writer whose 1936 novel Nightwood became a cult classic and a landmark of lesbian literature.🇺🇸American · Born June 12, 1892 · Died June 18, 1982View profile
  31. 881Dorothy ParkerDorothy ParkerWit of the Algonquin Round Table whose sharp poems, reviews and short stories skewered New York society.🇺🇸American · Born August 22, 1893 · Died June 7, 1967View profile
  32. 882Noël CowardNoël CowardWrote the comedies Private Lives and Blithe Spirit, along with witty songs such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen.🇬🇧British · Born December 16, 1899 · Died March 26, 1973View profile
  33. 883Alex HaleyAlex HaleyAuthor of Roots, which became a landmark TV series, and co-writer of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.🇺🇸American · Born August 11, 1921 · Died February 10, 1992View profile
  34. 884Konstantin BalmontKonstantin BalmontPoet who became a leading Symbolist voice of Russia's Silver Age and translated Shelley, Poe and Calderón.🇷🇺Russian · Born June 3, 1867 · Died July 24, 1942View profile
  35. 885Rebecca WestRebecca WestWrote Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, a vast account of Yugoslavia, and reported on the Nuremberg trials.🇬🇧British · Born December 21, 1892 · Died March 15, 1983View profile
  36. 886Amélie NothombAmélie NothombBelgian novelist whose Fear and Trembling, drawn from her time in a Tokyo company, won the Académie française's grand prize.🇧🇪Belgian · Born July 9, 1966View profile
  37. 887Cornelia FunkeCornelia FunkeChildren's author whose fantasy novel Inkheart, about characters who leap from the page, became an international bestseller and a film.🇩🇪German · Born December 10, 1958View profile
  38. 888John Millington SyngeJohn Millington SyngeDramatist of the Abbey Theatre whose play The Playboy of the Western World provoked riots on its first Dublin run.Born April 16, 1871 · Died March 24, 1909View profile
  39. 889Margaret FullerMargaret FullerTranscendentalist critic who wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century and edited the journal The Dial.🇺🇸American · Born May 23, 1810 · Died July 19, 1850View profile
  40. 890Orson Scott CardOrson Scott CardScience fiction author whose novel Ender's Game won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, followed by its sequel doing the same.🇺🇸American · Born August 24, 1951View profile
  41. 891George HerbertGeorge HerbertPriest and metaphysical poet whose posthumous collection The Temple includes devotional verse such as Easter Wings.🇬🇧English · Born April 3, 1593 · Died March 1, 1633View profile
  42. 892Adrienne RichAdrienne RichPoet whose collection Diving into the Wreck won the National Book Award and became a landmark of feminist writing.🇺🇸American · Born May 16, 1929 · Died March 27, 2012View profile
  43. 893Hilaire BellocHilaire BellocWrote the comic verse collection Cautionary Tales for Children and The Path to Rome, alongside many works of history and polemic.🇫🇷French · Born July 27, 1870 · Died July 16, 1953View profile
  44. 894Angela CarterAngela CarterAuthor of the reworked fairy-tale collection The Bloody Chamber and the novel Nights at the Circus.🇬🇧British · Born May 7, 1940 · Died February 16, 1992View profile
  45. 895Tom StoppardTom StoppardWrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a celebrated play that put two minor Hamlet characters at centre stage.🇬🇧British · Born July 3, 1937 · Died November 29, 2025View profile
  46. 896Richard WrightRichard WrightAuthor of the novel Native Son and the memoir Black Boy, both unflinching accounts of racism in America.🇺🇸American · Born September 4, 1908 · Died November 28, 1960View profile
  47. 897Willa CatherWilla CatherWrote prairie novels including O Pioneers! and My Ántonia, and won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours.🇺🇸American · Born December 7, 1873 · Died April 24, 1947View profile
  48. 898Viktor DykViktor DykCzech poet and nationalist politician, jailed during the First World War for opposing Austro-Hungarian rule.Czechoslovak · Born December 31, 1877 · Died May 14, 1931View profile
  49. 899Stephenie MeyerStephenie MeyerWriter of the Twilight vampire romance series, whose books became a worldwide bestselling phenomenon and a hit film franchise.🇺🇸American · Born December 24, 1973View profile
  50. 900Samuel SmilesSamuel SmilesAuthor of Self-Help, the 1859 Victorian bestseller that urged readers to improve themselves through thrift, character and hard work.🇬🇧British · Born December 23, 1812 · Died April 16, 1904View 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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