Famous Writers

The ranked list (from #201)

1. 201Grazia DeleddaWon the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature, chiefly for novels such as Reeds in the Wind set in Sardinia.🇮🇹Italian · Born September 27, 1871 · Died August 15, 1936
2. 202Henrik PontoppidanDanish novelist who shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote the epic novel Lykke-Per.🇩🇰Danish · Born July 24, 1857 · Died August 21, 1943
3. 203Dario FoSatirical playwright whose farce Accidental Death of an Anarchist made him a Nobel laureate in literature.🇮🇹Italian · Born March 24, 1926 · Died October 13, 2016
4. 204Johanna SpyriSwiss writer whose children's novel Heidi, about an orphan girl in the Alps, became a worldwide classic.🇨🇭Swiss · Born June 12, 1827 · Died July 7, 1901
5. 205Joseph HellerWrote Catch-22, the satirical wartime novel whose title entered the language for an absurd, no-win predicament.🇺🇸American · Born May 1, 1923 · Died December 10, 1999
6. 206Nikos KazantzakisWrote Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, novels of Greek life and spiritual struggle.🇬🇷Greek · Born February 18, 1883 · Died October 26, 1957
7. 207Jaroslav HašekCzech satirist who wrote the unfinished comic novel The Good Soldier Švejk, set during the First World War.Czechoslovak · Born April 30, 1883 · Died January 3, 1923
8. 208J. K. RowlingCreated the Harry Potter series, seven fantasy novels about a young wizard at Hogwarts school.🇬🇧British · Born July 31, 1965
9. 209Primo LeviChemist who survived Auschwitz and described it in If This Is a Man.🇮🇹Italian · Born July 31, 1918 · Died April 11, 1987
10. 210Herta MüllerWon the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature for novels such as The Land of Green Plums, depicting life under Ceaușescu.Romanian-German · Born August 17, 1953
11. 211Dale CarnegieAuthor of How to Win Friends and Influence People, a self-improvement classic that has sold millions of copies worldwide.🇺🇸American · Born November 24, 1888 · Died November 1, 1955
12. 212Mary WollstonecraftAuthor of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a founding text of modern feminist thought.🇬🇧British · Born April 27, 1759 · Died September 10, 1797
13. 213Shmuel Yosef AgnonHebrew novelist who shared the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature, with works including A Guest for the Night and The Bridal Canopy.🇩🇪German · Born August 8, 1887 · Died February 17, 1970
14. 214Bartolomé de las CasasSpanish friar who exposed the abuse of Indigenous people in the Americas.🇪🇸Spanish · Born November 11, 1474 · Died July 17, 1566
15. 215Anna AkhmatovaPoet who chronicled the suffering of Stalin's terror in Requiem, a cycle of poems written in secret and memorised by friends.🇷🇺Russian · Born June 23, 1889 · Died March 5, 1966
16. 216Nasir al-Din al-TusiPersian astronomer who built the Maragheh observatory and advanced trigonometry.Hashashshin · Born February 17, 1201 · Died June 25, 1274
17. 217Arthur C. ClarkeScience fiction writer who co-created 2001: A Space Odyssey with Stanley Kubrick and wrote Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama.🇬🇧British · Born December 16, 1917 · Died March 19, 2008
18. 218JamiPersian poet whose Haft Awrang, a set of seven poems, made him a leading literary figure at Herat.Timurid Empire · Born November 7, 1414 · Died November 9, 1492
19. 219Elfriede JelinekNovelist and playwright whose bleak, satirical novel The Piano Teacher helped her win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004.🇦🇹Austrian · Born October 20, 1946
20. 220Peter HandkeAustrian writer awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature, known for the play Offending the Audience and the film Wings of Desire.🇦🇹Austrian · Born December 6, 1942
21. 221Gao XingjianPlaywright and novelist who won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature, known for the novel Soul Mountain.🇫🇷French · Born January 4, 1940
22. 222Vladimir MayakovskyLeading voice of Russian Futurism, whose poems such as A Cloud in Trousers and the play The Bathhouse made his reputation.🇷🇺Russian · Born July 19, 1893 · Died April 14, 1930
23. 223Pär LagerkvistSwedish writer awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature, best remembered for his short novel Barabbas.🇸🇪Swedish · Born May 23, 1891 · Died July 11, 1974
24. 224Ralph Waldo EmersonLeader of the Transcendentalist movement, best known for his essay Self-Reliance.🇺🇸American · Born May 25, 1803 · Died April 27, 1882
25. 225Germaine de StaëlWrote the novel Corinne and the essay De l'Allemagne, and hosted an influential salon while opposing Napoleon.🇫🇷French · Born April 22, 1766 · Died July 14, 1817
26. 226Kenzaburō ŌeJapanese novelist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote A Personal Matter.🇯🇵Japanese · Born January 31, 1935 · Died March 3, 2023
27. 227Isabel AllendeChilean-American novelist whose debut "The House of the Spirits" became an international bestseller and established her worldwide reputation.Chilean-American · Born August 2, 1942
28. 228Pierre CorneilleTragedian whose play Le Cid was a landmark of French classical drama and a sensation in 1637.🇫🇷French · Born June 6, 1606 · Died October 1, 1684
29. 229Ludovico AriostoWrote Orlando Furioso, the great Renaissance romance epic that influenced European poetry for centuries.Born September 8, 1474 · Died July 6, 1533
30. 230Eckhart TolleSpiritual teacher whose bestselling book The Power of Now urged readers to live fully in the present moment.🇩🇪German · Born February 16, 1948
31. 231Patrick ModianoFrench novelist who won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature for books exploring memory and the Occupation, such as Missing Person.🇫🇷French · Born July 30, 1945
32. 232Erik Axel KarlfeldtSwedish poet of rural Dalarna imagery, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature after his death in 1931.🇸🇪Swedish · Born July 20, 1864 · Died April 8, 1931
33. 233Claude SimonWrote The Flanders Road and won the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature.🇫🇷French · Born October 10, 1913 · Died July 6, 2005
34. 234Luigi PirandelloWrote the play Six Characters in Search of an Author and won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature.🇮🇹Italian · Born June 28, 1867 · Died December 10, 1936
35. 235Bram StokerAuthor of the Gothic horror novel Dracula, which introduced Count Dracula and shaped the modern vampire story.🇮🇪Irish · Born November 8, 1847 · Died April 20, 1912
36. 236Jacob GrimmLinguist who, with his brother Wilhelm, collected Grimms' Fairy Tales.Prussian · Born January 4, 1785 · Died September 20, 1863
37. 237Walt WhitmanTransformed American poetry with Leaves of Grass, a collection in free verse that he revised and expanded throughout his life.🇺🇸American · Born May 31, 1819 · Died March 26, 1892
38. 238Paul AusterWriter who made his name with The New York Trilogy, a set of inventive detective stories about identity and chance.🇺🇸American · Born February 3, 1947 · Died April 30, 2024
39. 239Karen BlixenWrote Out of Africa, her memoir of running a coffee farm in Kenya, under the pen name Isak Dinesen.🇩🇰Danish · Born April 17, 1885 · Died September 7, 1962
40. 240Alphonse DaudetWrote Letters from My Windmill, a much-loved collection of Provençal stories and sketches.🇫🇷French · Born May 13, 1840 · Died December 16, 1897
41. 241François de La RochefoucauldDistilled worldly cynicism into the Maximes, a collection of short, biting observations on self-interest.🇫🇷French · Born September 15, 1613 · Died March 17, 1680
42. 242Frans Eemil SillanpääWon the 1939 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Finnish writer to receive it.🇫🇮Finn · Born September 16, 1888 · Died June 3, 1964
43. 243Arthur MillerPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible became fixtures of the modern stage, the latter allegorising McCarthyism.🇺🇸American · Born October 17, 1915 · Died February 10, 2005
44. 244Czesław MiłoszPoet and essayist whose The Captive Mind examined intellectuals under communism, and who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.Polish-American · Born June 30, 1911 · Died August 14, 2004
45. 245Alberto MoraviaItalian novelist whose debut The Time of Indifference offered a bleak portrait of a bourgeois Roman family.🇮🇹Italian · Born November 22, 1907 · Died September 26, 1990
46. 246Ryūnosuke AkutagawaShort-story writer whose tales Rashōmon and In a Grove inspired Kurosawa's film, and who gave his name to Japan's leading literary prize.🇯🇵Japanese · Born March 1, 1892 · Died July 24, 1927
47. 247Robert MusilAustrian novelist who spent decades on the unfinished modernist masterpiece The Man Without Qualities.🇦🇹Austrian · Born November 6, 1880 · Died April 15, 1942
48. 248Jean-Marie Gustave Le ClézioFrench-Mauritian author who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote the novel Desert.French-Mauritian · Born April 13, 1940
49. 249J. M. CoetzeeWon the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature and twice took the Booker Prize, including for Disgrace.South African-Australian · Born February 9, 1940
50. 250Ismail KadareWrote The General of the Dead Army and won the first International Booker Prize in 2005 for his body of work.Albanian · Born January 28, 1936 · Died July 1, 2024