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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 8 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 #351)

  1. 351Louis AragonLouis AragonCo-founded the surrealist review Littérature, then became a prominent Communist poet and novelist, author of Paris Peasant.🇫🇷French · Born October 3, 1897 · Died December 24, 1982View profile
  2. 352Gabriela MistralGabriela MistralChilean poet and educator who in 1945 became the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.🇨🇱Chilean · Born April 7, 1889 · Died January 10, 1957View profile
  3. 353Dan BrownDan BrownThriller writer whose novel The Da Vinci Code, featuring symbologist Robert Langdon, became a worldwide bestseller and a Hollywood film.🇺🇸American · Born June 22, 1964View profile
  4. 354Samuel ButlerSamuel ButlerSatirist who wrote the utopian novel Erewhon and the posthumously published autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh.🇬🇧British · Born December 4, 1835 · Died June 18, 1902View profile
  5. 355Baldassarre CastiglioneBaldassarre CastiglioneWrote The Book of the Courtier, the Renaissance guide to ideal manners and conduct at court.milanese · Born December 6, 1478 · Died February 8, 1529View profile
  6. 356Harper LeeHarper LeeAuthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic of American literature set in Depression-era Alabama.🇺🇸American · Born April 28, 1926 · Died February 19, 2016View profile
  7. 357Alejandro JodorowskyAlejandro JodorowskyAvant-garde director of El Topo and The Holy Mountain and creator of tarot-inspired comics.🇨🇱Chilean · Born February 7, 1929View profile
  8. 358Thomas BernhardThomas BernhardWrote dark, repetitive, rhythmic novels such as Extinction and plays such as Heldenplatz, which provoked fierce controversy in Austria.🇦🇹Austrian · Born February 9, 1931 · Died February 12, 1989View profile
  9. 359Mahmoud DarwishMahmoud DarwishPoet who drafted the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence and became the voice of Palestinian national identity.Palestinian · Born March 13, 1941 · Died August 9, 2008View profile
  10. 360Eugene O'NeillEugene O'NeillPlaywright who won four Pulitzer Prizes and is remembered for the autobiographical drama Long Day's Journey into Night.🇺🇸American · Born October 16, 1888 · Died November 27, 1953View profile
  11. 361Alessandro ManzoniAlessandro ManzoniAuthor of The Betrothed, a historical novel counted among the great works of Italian literature.🇮🇹Italian · Born March 7, 1785 · Died May 22, 1873View profile
  12. 362Charles I, Duke of OrléansCharles I, Duke of OrléansCaptured at Agincourt, he spent about twenty-five years as a prisoner in England, writing celebrated French lyric poetry.🇫🇷French · Born November 24, 1394 · Died January 4, 1465View profile
  13. 363Erich von DänikenErich von DänikenArgued in Chariots of the Gods? that ancient visitors from space shaped early civilisations, a claim scholars rejected as pseudoscience.🇨🇭Swiss · Born April 14, 1935 · Died January 10, 2026View profile
  14. 364Mo YanMo YanChinese novelist who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature and wrote Red Sorghum, later adapted as a film.🇨🇳Chinese · Born February 17, 1955View profile
  15. 365Françoise SaganFrançoise SaganBecame famous as a teenager with her debut novel Bonjour Tristesse, a story of a spoilt girl on the Riviera.🇫🇷French · Born June 21, 1935 · Died September 24, 2004View profile
  16. 366André MauroisAndré MauroisWrote acclaimed biographies such as Ariel, on Shelley, and was elected to the Académie française.🇫🇷French · Born July 26, 1885 · Died October 9, 1967View profile
  17. 367Karl BarthKarl BarthSwiss theologian whose Church Dogmatics made him the leading Protestant thinker of his century.🇨🇭Swiss · Born May 10, 1886 · Died December 10, 1968View profile
  18. 368Ken FollettKen FollettThriller writer who broke through with Eye of the Needle and later wrote the medieval epic The Pillars of the Earth.🇬🇧British · Born June 5, 1949View profile
  19. 369France PrešerenFrance PrešerenWrote the poem A Toast (Zdravljica), whose seventh stanza later became the Slovenian national anthem.Habsburg monarchy · Born December 3, 1800 · Died February 8, 1849View profile
  20. 370Vladimir VysotskyVladimir VysotskyHis gravelly voice and outspoken ballads made him a beloved bard, and he also starred on stage at Moscow's Taganka Theatre.🇷🇺Russian · Born January 25, 1938 · Died July 25, 1980View profile
  21. 371Edward SaidEdward SaidLiterary scholar whose book Orientalism reshaped how the West's view of the East is studied.🇺🇸American · Born November 1, 1935 · Died September 24, 2003View profile
  22. 372Comte de LautréamontComte de LautréamontAuthor of the prose poem Les Chants de Maldoror, a dark, strange work later embraced by the Surrealists.🇺🇾Uruguayan · Born April 4, 1846 · Died November 24, 1870View profile
  23. 373José MartíJosé MartíPoet and journalist who organised the 1895 war of independence against Spain and is honoured as Cuba's national hero.🇨🇺Cuban · Born January 28, 1853 · Died May 19, 1895View profile
  24. 374René GuénonRené GuénonFrench metaphysical writer who founded the Traditionalist school of thought.🇫🇷French · Born November 15, 1886 · Died January 7, 1951View profile
  25. 375
    RG
    Romain GaryWriter who won the Prix Goncourt twice, once as himself for The Roots of Heaven and once as Émile Ajar.🇫🇷French · Born May 8, 1914 · Died December 2, 1980View profile
  26. 376Ivan BuninIvan BuninBecame the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, partly for his story "The Gentleman from San Francisco".🇷🇺Russian · Born October 22, 1870 · Died November 8, 1953View profile
  27. 377Filippo Tommaso MarinettiFilippo Tommaso MarinettiLaunched Futurism by publishing the Futurist Manifesto on the front page of a Paris newspaper in 1909.🇮🇹Italian · Born December 22, 1876 · Died December 2, 1944View profile
  28. 378Joris-Karl HuysmansJoris-Karl HuysmansWrote À rebours, the 1884 novel of a reclusive aesthete that became a landmark of the Decadent movement.🇫🇷French · Born February 5, 1848 · Died May 12, 1907View profile
  29. 379Louise GlückLouise GlückWon the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature for spare, searching poetry, including the collection The Wild Iris.🇺🇸American · Born April 22, 1943 · Died October 13, 2023View profile
  30. 380Alfred DöblinAlfred DöblinDoctor turned novelist who wrote Berlin Alexanderplatz, a landmark of German modernist fiction.🇵🇱Polish · Born August 10, 1878 · Died June 24, 1957View profile
  31. 381Yevgeny ZamyatinYevgeny ZamyatinAuthor of the dystopian novel We, which influenced Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxley's Brave New World.🇷🇺Soviet · Born January 20, 1884 · Died March 10, 1937View profile
  32. 382Arnold BennettArnold BennettProlific novelist best known for The Old Wives' Tale and the Clayhanger series, set in the Staffordshire Potteries.🇬🇧British · Born May 27, 1867 · Died March 27, 1931View profile
  33. 383Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodNovelist whose dystopian The Handmaid's Tale and Booker-winning The Blind Assassin made her one of Canada's best-known writers.🇨🇦Canadian · Born November 18, 1939View profile
  34. 384Natsume SōsekiNatsume SōsekiWrote Kokoro and I Am a Cat, becoming a defining novelist of modern Japan.🇯🇵Japanese · Born February 9, 1867 · Died December 9, 1916View profile
  35. 385Saul BellowSaul BellowNovelist who wrote The Adventures of Augie March and Herzog, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976.🇺🇸American · Born June 10, 1915 · Died April 5, 2005View profile
  36. 386Władysław ReymontWładysław ReymontWon the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924 for Chłopi, his four-volume novel of Polish peasant life through a year.🇵🇱Polish · Born May 7, 1867 · Died December 5, 1925View profile
  37. 387Lesya UkrainkaLesya UkrainkaWrote the dramatic poem Forest Song, a landmark of Ukrainian literature, and became a national literary symbol.🇷🇺Russian · Born February 13, 1871 · Died July 19, 1913View profile
  38. 388Paul ClaudelPaul ClaudelPoet, playwright and diplomat whose Catholic verse drama The Satin Slipper is regarded as his greatest stage work.🇫🇷French · Born August 5, 1868 · Died February 23, 1955View profile
  39. 389Dante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel RossettiPainter and poet who co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and made the portrait Beata Beatrix.🇬🇧British · Born May 12, 1828 · Died April 9, 1882View profile
  40. 390Edmondo de AmicisEdmondo de AmicisAuthor of Heart, a children's novel of school life that became hugely popular in newly unified Italy.🇮🇹Italian · Born October 21, 1846 · Died March 11, 1908View profile
  41. 391Thomas PaineThomas PainePamphleteer whose Common Sense rallied Americans to independence.British-American · Born February 9, 1737 · Died June 8, 1809View profile
  42. 392Erich KästnerErich KästnerWrote the children's classic Emil and the Detectives, alongside witty satirical verse aimed at the follies of Weimar Germany.🇩🇪German · Born February 23, 1899 · Died July 29, 1974View profile
  43. 393Heinrich MannHeinrich MannGerman novelist whose satirical Man of Straw, later followed by Professor Unrat, inspired the film The Blue Angel.🇩🇪German · Born March 27, 1871 · Died March 11, 1950View profile
  44. 394Isaak BabelIsaak BabelAuthor of the story collections "Red Cavalry" and "Odessa Stories", he was executed during Stalin's purges.🇷🇺Russian · Born June 30, 1894 · Died January 27, 1940View profile
  45. 395August Wilhelm von SchlegelAugust Wilhelm von SchlegelTranslated seventeen of Shakespeare's plays into German, a landmark achievement of the Romantic movement.Kingdom of Hanover · Born September 8, 1767 · Died May 12, 1845View profile
  46. 396Mika WaltariMika WaltariFinnish writer whose historical novel The Egyptian, following the physician Sinuhe, became an international bestseller.🇫🇮Finnish · Born September 19, 1908 · Died August 26, 1979View profile
  47. 397Jostein GaarderJostein GaarderWrote Sophie's World, a bestselling novel that introduces the history of philosophy to young readers.🇳🇴Norwegian · Born August 8, 1952View profile
  48. 398Ivan FrankoIvan FrankoUkrainian writer and critic who produced the poetry collection "From the Heights and Depths" and the novel "Zakhar Berkut".🇦🇹Austrian · Born August 27, 1856 · Died May 28, 1916View profile
  49. 399Ivan GoncharovIvan GoncharovRussian novelist who wrote "Oblomov", whose idle hero gave rise to the term "Oblomovism".🇷🇺Russian · Born June 6, 1812 · Died September 15, 1891View profile
  50. 400Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel HawthorneAuthor of The Scarlet Letter, the 1850 novel of sin and guilt in Puritan New England.🇺🇸American · Born July 4, 1804 · Died May 19, 1864View 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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