famous writers

Famous writers

A list of famous writers / authors / poets throughout

history.

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English poet and

playwright. Famous plays include Macbeth, Romeo and

Juliet, Merchant of Venice and Hamlet.Shakespeare is

widely considered the seminal writer of the English

language.

Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Anglo-Irish writer born in

Dublin. Swift was a prominent satirist, essayist and author.

Notable works include Gulliver’s Travels (1726), A Modest

Proposal and A Tale of a Tub.

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British author best known

for his compilation of the English dictionary. Although not

the first attempt at a dictionary, it was widely considered to

be the most comprehensive – setting the standard for later

dictionaries.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German poet,

playwright, and author. Notable works of Goethe

include: Faust, Wilhelm Meister’s

Apprenticeship and Elective Affinities.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote

romantic fiction combined with social realism. Her novels

include: Sense and Sensibility (1811),Pride and

Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816).

Honore de Balzac (1799 – 1850) French novelist and short

story writer. Balzac was an influential realist writer who

created characters of moral ambiguity – often based on his

own real life examples. His greatest work was the collection

of short stories La Comédie humaine.

Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) French author of historical

dramas, including – The Count of Monte Cristo (1844),

and The Three Musketeers (1844). Also prolific author of

magazine articles, pamphlets and travel books.

Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) French author and poet. Hugo’s

novels include Les Misérables, (1862) and Notre-Dame de

Paris (1831).

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) – English writer and social

critic. His best known works include novels such as Oliver

Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol.

Charlotte Bronte (1816 – 1855) English novelist and poet,

from Haworth. Best known novel ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847).

Emily Bronte (1818 – 1848) English novelist. Emily Bronte is

best known for her novel Wuthering Heights (1847), and her

poetry.

George Eliot (1819 – 1880) Pen name of Mary Ann Evans.

Wrote novels, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas

Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), andDaniel

Deronda (1876)

Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) Russian novelist and moral

philosopher. Famous works include the epic novels – War

and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina(1877). Tolstoy also

became an influential philosopher with his brand of

Christian pacificism.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist, journalist

and philosopher. Notable works include Notes from

Underground, Crime and Punishment andThe Idiot

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Oxford mathematician and

author. Famous forAlice in Wonderland, Through the

Looking Glass, and poems like The Snark.

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) American writer and humorist,

considered the ‘father of American literature’. Famous

works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist and poet. Hardy

was a Victorian realist who was influenced by Romanticism.

He wrote about problems of Victorian society – in

particular, declining rural life. Notable works include: Far

from the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the

d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895).

Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) – Irish writer and poet. Wilde

wrote humorous satirical plays, such as ‘The Importance of

Being Earnest‘ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’.

Kenneth Graham (1859 – 1932) Author of the Wind in the

Willows (1908), a classic of children’s literature.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) Irish playwright and

wit. Famous works include: Pygmalion (1912), Man and

Superman (1903) and Back to Methuselah(1921)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) British author of

historical novels and plays. Most famous for his short stories

about the detective – Sherlock Holmes, such as The Hound

of the Baskervilles (1902) and Sign of Four (1890).

Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) English conservationist and

author of the imaginative children’s books, such as the Tales

of Peter Rabbit (1902).

Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) French author. Best known for

epic novel l À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost

Time) published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.

William Somerset Maugham 1874 – 1965) British novelist

and writer. One of most popular authors of 1930s. Notable

works included The Moon and Sixpence (1916), The Razor’s

Edge (1944), and Of Human Bondage (1915)

P.G.Wodehouse (1881 – 1975) English comic writer. Best

known for his humorous and satirical stories about the

English upper classes, such as Jeeves and

Wooster and Blandings Castle.

Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) English modernist writer,

member of the Bloomsbury group. Famous novels

include: Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927)

and Orlando (1928).

James Joyce (1882 – 1941) Irish writer from Dublin. Joyce

was one of most influential modernist avant-garde writers

of the Twentieth Century. His novelUlysses (1922), was

ground-breaking for its stream of consciousness style. Other

works include Dubliners (1914) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

D H Lawrence (1885 – 1930) English poet, novelist and

writer. Best known works include: Sons and Lovers, The

Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)

– which was banned for many years.

Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) British fictional crime writer.

Many of her books focused on series featuring her

detectives ‘Poirot’ and Mrs Marple.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) – Professor of Anglo-Saxon and

English at Oxford University. Tolkien wrote the best selling

mythical trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Other works include,

The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, and a translation

of Beowulf.

Vera Brittain (1893 – 1970) British writer best known for her

autobiography –Testament of Youth (1933) – sharing her

traumatic experiences of the First World War.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) American author. Iconic

writer of the ‘jazz age’. Notable works include The Great

Gatsby (1925), and Tender Is the Night (1934) – cautionary

tales about the ‘Jazz decade’ and the American Dream

based on pleasure and materialism.

Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) British children’s writer, known

for her series of children’s books – The Famous Five and The

Secret Seven. Blyton wrote an estimated 800 books over 40

years.

C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) Irish / English author and professor

at Oxford University. Lewis is best known for The Chronicles

of Narnia, a children’s fantasy series. Also well known as a

Christian apologist.

Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) Ground breaking

modernist American writer. Famous works included For

Whom The Bell Tolls (1940) and A Farewell to Arms (1929).

Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977) Russian author

of Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962)

Barbara Cartland (1901 – 2000) One of most prolific and

best selling authors of the romantic fiction genre. Some

suggest she has sold over 2 billion copies worldwide.

John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) American writer who

captured the social change experienced in the US around

the time of the Great Depression. Famous works include –

Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath

(1939) and East of Eden (1952).

George Orwell (1903 – 1950) – English author. Famous

works include Animal Farm, and 1984. – Both stark

warnings about the dangers of totalitarian states, Orwell

was also a democratic socialist who fought in the Spanish

Civil War, documenting his experiences in “Homage to

Catalonia” (1938).

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish avant garde, modernist

writer. Beckett wrote minimalist and thought provoking

plays, such as ‘Waiting for Godot’(1953) and ‘Endgame‘

(1957). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in

1969.

Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) – French author, journalist, and

philosopher. Associated with existentialism and absurdism.

Famous works included The Myth of Sisyphus, The

Stranger and The Plague.

Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) English author, best known for his

children’s books, such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate

Factory, James and The Giant Peachand The BFG.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008) Russian author,

historian and political critic. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the

Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 for his work in exposing

the nature of Soviet totalitarianism. e.g, The Gulag

Archipelago (1965-67).

J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010) American author. Most

influential novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Wrote many

short stories for New Yorker magazine, such as “A Perfect

Day for Bananafish”

Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) American novelist, who wrote

satirical and black comedy. His most famous work is ‘Catch

22′ (1961) – a satire on the futility of war.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927 – 2014) Colombian author.

Wrote: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn

of the Patriarch (1975) andLove in the Time of

Cholera (1985). Nobel Prize in Literature (1982).

Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) Dutch-Jewish diarist. Known for

her diary ‘Anne Frank‘ Published posthumously by her

father – recalling her life hiding from Gestapo in occupied

Holland.

Salman Rushdie (1947 – ) Anglo-Indian author. His works

combine elements of magic realism, satire and historical

fiction – often based on Indian sub-continent. Notable

works include Midnight’s Children (1981), Shame (1983) and

Satanic Verses (1988).

Stephen King (1947 – ) American author of contemporary

horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and

fantasy. One of the best selling authors of modern times.

George R.R Martin (1948 – ) American author of epic

fantasy series – A Song of Ice and Fire, – his international

best-selling series of fantasy, adapted for the screen as a

Game of Thrones.

Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) British writer of humorous

and absure science fiction. Adams wrote a best selling

trilogy (of five books) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy –

which began as a BBC play.

J.K.Rowling (1965 – ) British author of the Harry Potter

Series – which has become the best selling book series of all

time. Her first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s

Stone (1997). Rowling has also published adult fiction, such

as The Casual Vacancy (2012) and The Cuckoo’s

Calling (2013)

Khaled Hosseini (1965 – ) Afghan born American writer.

Notable works include: The Kite Runner (2003) A Thousand

Splendid Suns (2007) And the Mountains Echoed (2013

Poets

Homer (c. 8th Century B.C. ) Considered the greatest of the

ancient Greek poets. Homer was the author of the two epic

poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Sappho ( c 570 BC) One of the first published female writers.

Much of her poetry has been lost but her immense

reputation has remained. Plato referred to Sappho as one of

the great ten poets.

Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC) Roman poet. Wrote three

epics Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the Aeneid.

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet of the Middle Ages.

His Divine Comedy, is one of most influential European

works of literature. Dante is also called the “Father of the

Italian language”.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) Considered the Father of

English Literature. Best known for Canterbury Tales (1475).

John Milton (1608 – 1674) English poet. Best known for his

epic poemParadise Lost (1667), written in blank verse –

telling the Biblical story of man’s fall. Also

wrote Areopagitica (1644) in defence of free speech.

William Blake (1757 –1827) English mystic and romantic

poet, wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

Also hand-painted many of his works.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) English romantic poet

from Lake District, many poems related to natures, such as

his Lyrical Ballads.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) English romantic

poet. Author ofThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai

Khan.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) English romantic poet.

Famous works include Queen Mab and Prometheus

Unbound

John Keats (1795 –

1821) English Romantic Poet, best known for his Odes, such

as Ode to a Nightingale, Endymion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) American

Transcendentalist poet and writer.

Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Popular Victorian poet,

wrote Charge of the Light Brigade, Ulysses, although In

Memoriam A.H.H.

Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) American poet. Wrote Leaves

of Grass, a ground breaking new style of poetry.

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) American female poet. Led

secluded lifestyle, and left legacy of many short vivid

poems, often on themes of death and immortality.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) Indian poet. Awarded

Nobel Prize for Literature for his work – Gitanjali.

Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) – Influential American poet, one

of most highly regarded of the Twentieth Century. Most

famous work ‘The Road Not Taken’ (1916)

Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014 ) – Modern American poet and

writer.

Other categories of writers:

More Famous Poets – Other poets, including W.B. Yeats,

Wilfred Owen, Rumi, Czeslaw Milosz

Famous philosophers – including Aristotle, Immanuel Kant,

Baruch Spinoza, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, Thomas

Paine and David Hume.

Famous Economist writers – including Adam Smith, John

Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman.

Political / social activist writers – People who have written

about political and human rights. Including Olaudah

Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Nelson Mandela, William

Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Spiritual writers – including St Teresa of Avila, Sri

Aurobindo, Meister Eckhart, Desiderius Erasmus, St Therese

of Lisieux and Swami Vivekananda.

Female authors – Female authors, including the Bronte

sisters, Maya Angelou, Jane Austen and J.K. Rowling.