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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 7 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 #301)

  1. 301Konstantinos P. CavafyKonstantinos P. CavafyAlexandrian poet whose small body of historical and sensual verse, including Ithaka, made him a central figure in modern Greek literature.🇪🇬Egyptian · Born April 29, 1863 · Died April 29, 1933View profile
  2. 302Alphonse de LamartineAlphonse de LamartineRomantic poet who published Méditations poétiques and later served as foreign minister in France's revolutionary government of 1848.🇫🇷French · Born October 21, 1790 · Died February 28, 1869View profile
  3. 303Ali-Shir Nava'iAli-Shir Nava'iWrote the Khamsa and championed Chagatai Turkic as a literary language to rival Persian.Timurid Empire · Born February 9, 1441 · Died January 3, 1501View profile
  4. 304Julio CortázarJulio CortázarWrote the experimental novel Hopscotch, whose chapters can be read in more than one order, and many inventive short stories.🇲🇽Mexican · Born August 26, 1914 · Died February 12, 1984View profile
  5. 305Sylvia PlathSylvia PlathConfessional poet whose collection Ariel and semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar secured her lasting reputation after her early death.🇺🇸American · Born October 27, 1932 · Died February 11, 1963View profile
  6. 306Paul ÉluardPaul ÉluardPoet who helped found the Surrealist movement and wrote the celebrated wartime poem Liberté.🇫🇷French · Born December 14, 1895 · Died November 18, 1952View profile
  7. 307Octavio PazOctavio PazMexican poet and essayist who wrote The Labyrinth of Solitude and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990.🇲🇽Mexican · Born March 31, 1914 · Died April 19, 1998View profile
  8. 308Christopher MarloweChristopher MarloweWrote Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great, pioneering Elizabethan tragedies in blank verse.🇬🇧British · Born February 6, 1564 · Died May 30, 1593View profile
  9. 309Joseph RothJoseph RothAustrian novelist who wrote Radetzky March, a family saga portraying the decline of the Habsburg empire.🇦🇹Austrian · Born September 2, 1894 · Died May 27, 1939View profile
  10. 310Giosuè CarducciGiosuè CarducciWon the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906 and was regarded as Italy's national poet, notably for Odi barbare.🇮🇹Italian · Born July 27, 1835 · Died February 16, 1907View profile
  11. 311Harry MartinsonHarry MartinsonSwedish sailor-turned-poet, best known for the space epic Aniara, and a joint Nobel laureate in Literature in 1974.🇸🇪Swedish · Born May 6, 1904 · Died February 11, 1978View profile
  12. 312Frank HerbertFrank HerbertCreated the desert planet Arrakis in Dune, one of the most celebrated science-fiction novels ever published.🇺🇸American · Born October 8, 1920 · Died February 11, 1986View profile
  13. 313William WordsworthWilliam WordsworthRomantic poet who shaped English literature through Lyrical Ballads, produced with Coleridge, and the long autobiographical poem The Prelude.🇬🇧British · Born April 7, 1770 · Died April 23, 1850View profile
  14. 314Verner von HeidenstamVerner von HeidenstamAwarded the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature for work such as the historical cycle The Swedes and Their Chieftains.🇸🇪Swedish · Born July 6, 1859 · Died May 20, 1940View profile
  15. 315Mirza GhalibMirza GhalibUrdu and Persian poet of the late Mughal court, celebrated for his ghazals and his vivid letters.British Raj · Born December 27, 1797 · Died February 15, 1869View profile
  16. 316Graham GreeneGraham GreeneWrote novels including Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory and The Quiet American, mixing moral questions with thriller plots.🇬🇧British · Born October 2, 1904 · Died April 3, 1991View profile
  17. 317Susan SontagSusan SontagCritic whose essay "Notes on 'Camp'" made her famous, later followed by the influential books On Photography and Illness as Metaphor.🇺🇸American · Born January 16, 1933 · Died December 28, 2004View profile
  18. 318Oliver Wendell HolmesOliver Wendell HolmesBoston physician and writer who composed the poem Old Ironsides and the essay collection The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.🇺🇸American · Born August 29, 1809 · Died October 7, 1894View profile
  19. 319Wilhelm GrimmWilhelm GrimmWith his brother Jacob, collected and edited Children's and Household Tales, the fairy-tale collection known worldwide as Grimms' Fairy Tales.Prussian · Born February 24, 1786 · Died December 16, 1859View profile
  20. 320William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsIrish poet of The Tower and The Wild Swans at Coole, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.🇮🇪Irish · Born June 13, 1865 · Died January 28, 1939View profile
  21. 321Jorge AmadoJorge AmadoBrazilian novelist who wrote Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, vivid stories of life and politics in the state of Bahia.🇧🇷Brazilian · Born August 10, 1912 · Died August 6, 2001View profile
  22. 322Nicolas Boileau-DespréauxNicolas Boileau-DespréauxWrote L'Art poétique, the 1674 verse treatise that set out the rules of French classicism.🇫🇷French · Born November 1, 1636 · Died March 13, 1711View profile
  23. 323Sándor PetőfiSándor PetőfiPoet whose National Song helped ignite the 1848 revolution in Budapest, and who is regarded as Hungary's national poet.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born December 31, 1822 · Died July 31, 1849View profile
  24. 324James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore CooperWrote The Last of the Mohicans, a frontier romance in his Leatherstocking Tales series.🇺🇸American · Born September 15, 1789 · Died September 14, 1851View profile
  25. 325Henning MankellHenning MankellCreated the gloomy Swedish detective Kurt Wallander, hero of a bestselling series of crime novels adapted for television.🇸🇪Swedish · Born February 3, 1948 · Died October 5, 2015View profile
  26. 326Arthur de GobineauArthur de GobineauFrench diplomat and writer whose Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races became a foundation of later racist ideology.🇫🇷French · Born July 14, 1816 · Died October 13, 1882View profile
  27. 327Jack KerouacJack KerouacWrote On the Road, the 1957 novel that became a defining text of the Beat Generation.🇺🇸American · Born March 12, 1922 · Died October 21, 1969View profile
  28. 328Pietro AretinoPietro AretinoSharp-tongued satirist whose Sonetti lussuriosi and biting letters made him feared by princes and popes alike.Venetian · Born April 19, 1492 · Died October 21, 1556View profile
  29. 329John GalsworthyJohn GalsworthyNovelist and dramatist who chronicled a wealthy upper-middle-class family in The Forsyte Saga and won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature.🇬🇧British · Born August 14, 1867 · Died January 31, 1933View profile
  30. 330Ian FlemingIan FlemingCreator of the spy James Bond, he wrote twelve novels featuring the secret agent, beginning with "Casino Royale".🇬🇧British · Born May 28, 1908 · Died August 12, 1964View profile
  31. 331Isabelle de CharrièreIsabelle de CharrièreEnlightenment writer whose novels include Lettres neuchâteloises and Caliste, written from her home in Colombier.🇨🇭Swiss · Born October 20, 1740 · Died December 27, 1805View profile
  32. 332Saint-John PerseSaint-John PersePoet and diplomat who wrote Anabase and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960.🇫🇷French · Born May 31, 1887 · Died September 20, 1975View profile
  33. 333Jacques PrévertJacques PrévertWrote the poetry collection Paroles and the screenplay for the film Les Enfants du Paradis.🇫🇷French · Born February 4, 1900 · Died April 11, 1977View profile
  34. 334Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinHosted a famed Paris salon for modernist artists and wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.🇺🇸American · Born February 3, 1874 · Died July 27, 1946View profile
  35. 335Sholem AleichemSholem AleichemYiddish writer whose Tevye the Dairyman stories later inspired the musical Fiddler on the Roof.🇺🇸American · Born February 18, 1859 · Died May 13, 1916View profile
  36. 336Joseph BrodskyJoseph BrodskyRussian-born poet who was exiled from the Soviet Union, became US Poet Laureate, and won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature.Russian-American · Born May 24, 1940 · Died January 28, 1996View profile
  37. 337Sergei YeseninSergei YeseninLyric poet of the Russian countryside, whose verse about village life and Moscow tavern nights made him hugely popular in the 1920s.🇷🇺Russian · Born October 3, 1895 · Died December 28, 1925View profile
  38. 338Sándor MáraiSándor MáraiNovelist whose Embers, rediscovered decades after publication, brought him a large international readership long after his exile from Hungary.🇭🇺Hungarian · Born April 11, 1900 · Died February 21, 1989View profile
  39. 339Georges BatailleGeorges BatailleExplored transgression and eroticism in works such as Story of the Eye, and founded the review Critique.🇫🇷French · Born September 10, 1897 · Died July 9, 1962View profile
  40. 340Fausto CercignaniFausto CercignaniItalian scholar who taught English literature and wrote studies of Shakespeare's language alongside essays and poetry.🇮🇹Italian · Born March 21, 1941View profile
  41. 341Andrzej SapkowskiAndrzej SapkowskiFantasy author who created Geralt of Rivia, hero of the Witcher saga later adapted into video games.🇵🇱Polish · Born June 21, 1948View profile
  42. 342Henri BarbusseHenri BarbusseWrote Le Feu, a harrowing novel of trench warfare in the First World War that won the Prix Goncourt.🇫🇷French · Born May 17, 1873 · Died August 30, 1935View profile
  43. 343Raymond ChandlerRaymond ChandlerCreated the private detective Philip Marlowe in novels such as The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely.🇺🇸American · Born July 23, 1888 · Died March 26, 1959View profile
  44. 344Vuk KaradžićVuk KaradžićPhilologist who reformed the Serbian alphabet and language and collected folk songs.Ottoman · Born October 26, 1787 · Died January 26, 1864View profile
  45. 345Henry JamesHenry JamesWrote The Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw, bridging literary realism and modernism.American-British · Born April 15, 1843 · Died February 28, 1916View profile
  46. 346Thomas De QuinceyThomas De QuinceyWrote Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, a pioneering and widely read account of drug addiction and dreams.🇬🇧British · Born August 15, 1785 · Died December 8, 1859View profile
  47. 347Philip RothPhilip RothNovelist whose comic and provocative Portnoy's Complaint made his name, and who later won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral.🇺🇸American · Born March 18, 1933 · Died May 22, 2018View profile
  48. 348Jo NesbøJo NesbøNorwegian crime writer who created the detective Harry Hole, hero of The Snowman and many other bestsellers.🇳🇴Norwegian · Born March 29, 1960View profile
  49. 349Carl SpittelerCarl SpittelerSwiss poet who won the 1919 Nobel Prize in Literature for the epic Olympian Spring.🇨🇭Swiss · Born April 24, 1845 · Died December 29, 1924View profile
  50. 350Marguerite YourcenarMarguerite YourcenarAuthor of Memoirs of Hadrian and the first woman elected to the Académie française.🇧🇪Belgian · Born June 7, 1903 · Died December 17, 1987View 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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