Famous Writers

• Abbey, Edward

  Author of The Monkey Wrench Gang

• Achebe, Chinua

   The Nigerian author of 1958's Things Fall Apart

• Adams, Douglas

  The author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

• Adamson, Joy

  Author of Born Free

• Agee, James

  The author of 'A Death in the Family'

• Alcott, Louisa May

  The author of Little Women

• Aldiss, Brian

  The author of 'Frankenstein Unbound'

• Alexie, Sherman

  The author of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'

• Alger, Horatio

  The 19th century author of "rags to riches" books

• Allen, Steve

  The original host of The Tonight Show

• Angelou, Maya

  The author of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

• Arendt, Hannah

  The author of 1951's The Origins of Totalitarianism

• Arkin, Alan

  The foul-mouthed grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine

• Armstrong, Karen

  Author of A History of God

• Asimov, Isaac

  Writer of popular science and author of I, Robot

• Atwood, Margaret

  The author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin

• Auden, W. H.

  The Anglo-American poet who wrote "The Age of Anxiety"

• Auel, Jean M.

  The author of The Clan of the Cave Bear

• Austen, Jane

  The author of Pride and Prejudice

• Avi

  The author of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

• Bainbridge, Beryl

  The author of An Awfully Big Adventure

• Baldwin, James

  Author of Go Tell It On The Mountain

• Ballard, J.G.

  The author of Empire of the Sun and Crash

• Banks, Iain

   The author of The Wasp Factory

• Banks, Russell

  Author of The Sweet Hereafter

• Banville, John

  The Irish novelist who won the Booker Prize for The Sea

• Barnes, Julian

   The author of Flaubert's Parrot and The Sense of an Ending

• Barry, Dave

  Goofy humor columnist for The Miami Herald, 1983-2005

• Beach, Sylvia

  The Paris bookstore owner who published 'Ulysses'

• Bechdel, Alison

   The cartoonist who did Fun Home

• Beckett, Samuel

  Irish-French author of Waiting for Godot

• Bellow, Saul

  Author of Henderson, The Rain King and Seize the Day

• Benchley, Robert

  1930s New Yorker theater critic and witty essayist

• Benét, Stephen Vincent

  He wrote "The Devil And Daniel Webster"

• Bergerac, Cyrano de

  Long-nosed literary hero

• Bierce, Ambrose

  Author of A Fiend's Delight

• Bird, Isabella

  The author of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

• Bloom, Harold

  The literary critic who wrote 1973’s The Anxiety of Influence

• Blume, Judy

  The author of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

• Bly, Robert

  The poet who wrote the man book Iron John

• Blyton, Enid

  The author of the Noddy and Famous Five books

• Bogdanovich, Peter

  Director of The Last Picture Show

• Bong Joon Ho

  The Oscar-winning director of Parasite

• Borges, Jorge Luis

  Author of the short story collection Ficciones

• Bourne, Randolph

  The author of Youth and Life

• Bouton, Jim

  The author of "Ball Four"

• Bowles, Paul

  Author of The Sheltering Sky

• Bradbury, Ray

  Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles

• Brautigan, Richard

  Author of Trout Fishing in America

• Broadwell, Paula

  The biographer who had an affair with Gen. David Petraeus

• Bronte, Emily

  The author of Wuthering Heights

• Brontë, Charlotte

  Author of Jane Eyre

• Brott, Armin

  The author of the parenting book The Expectant Father

• Brown, Dan

  Author of The Da Vinci Code

• Brown, Pierce

  The author of the Red Rising YA book series

• Buck, Pearl S.

  The Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote The Good Earth

• Bukowski, Charles

  The guy who wrote the movie Barfly

• Bulfinch, Thomas

  The author of Bulfinch's Mythology

• Bunyan, John

  Author of The Pilgrim's Progress

• Burroughs, William S.

  The author of Naked Lunch

• Busey, Brook

  The former blogger and stripper who wrote the movie Juno

• Butler, Octavia

  The African-American feminist science fiction author who won a MacArthur "genius" grant

• Cain, James M.

  Author of The Postman Always Rings Twice

• Camus, Albert

  Nobel-winning author of The Stranger

• Capote, Truman

  Author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's

• Carey, Peter

  The author of True History of the Kelly Gang

• Carle, Eric

  Author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Carlyle, Thomas

  Author of Heroes and Hero-Worship

• Carroll, Lewis

  The author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

• Carson, Rachel

  The author of Silent Spring

• Carter, Asa Earl

  Author of The Education of Little Tree

• Cartland, Barbara

  The very British "Queen of the Romance Novel"

• Carver, Raymond

  American short-story writer

• Cassady, Neal

  The basis for Dean Moriarity in Jack Kerouac's On the Road

• Castaneda, Carlos

  Author of The Teachings of don Juan

• Cather, Willa

  Author of O Pioneers! and My Ántonia

• Cavett, Dick

  The quick-witted TV talk show host from the late 1960s

• Cervantes, Miguel de

  Author of Don Quixote

• Chabon, Michael

  The author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

• Chandler, Raymond

  The creator of detective Philip Marlowe

• Chaucer, Geoffrey

  The author of The Canterbury Tales

• Chekhov, Anton

  Author of The Cherry Orchard

• Childress, Alice

  The author of A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich

• Chomsky, Noam

  Creator of the theory of generative grammar

• Chopin, Kate

  Author of The Awakening

• Chopra, Deepak

  Author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

• Christie, Agatha

  Author of Murder on the Orient Express

• Clancy, Tom

  The "techno-thriller" author who wrote The Hunt for Red October

• Clarke, Arthur C.

  The author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Clark, Mary Higgins

  The author of Where Are the Children? and other suspense stories

• Cleary, Beverly

  The author of the Ramona books for children

• Cleaver, Eldridge

  The Black Panther who wrote Soul on Ice

• Cleese, John

  The tall guy from Monty Python's Flying Circus

• Coates, Ta-Nehisi

  The 'Atlantic' writer who also does 'Black Panther' comics

• Colfer, Chris

  The former Glee star who writes fantasy novels for kids

• Collins, Joan

  Ageless star of TV's Dynasty

• Collins, Suzanne

   The author of The Hunger Games

• Collodi, Carol

  The creator of Pinocchio

• Comfort, Alex

  The uninhibited author of The Joy of Sex

• Conrad, Joseph

  Author of Heart of Darkness

• Cook, Robin

  The author of Coma

• Cooper, James Fenimore

  The American novelist who wrote The Last of the Mohicans

• Cornwell, Patricia

  The best-selling author of the Kay Scarpetta series

• Crichton, Michael

  The author of Jurassic Park

• Crowley, Aleister

  Author of Magick in Theory and Practice

• Cunningham, Michael

  The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours

• Curtis, Jamie Lee

  The Halloween star who won an Oscar in 2023 for Everything Everywhere All at Once

• Dahl, Roald

  The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

• Darwin, Charles

  The naturalist who came up with the theory of evolution

• Da Silveira, José

  The founder of "Formism"

• Dass, Ram

  The LSD guy from the 1960s who wrote 'Be Here Now'

• Davies, Robertson

  Author of Fifth Business

• Davis, Angela

  The black feminist/communist on the Most Wanted list in 1970

• Dean, John

  Nixon's lawyer who squealed about Watergate

• Dee, Ruby

  Veteran actress and wife of Ossie Davis

• Defoe, Daniel

  The author of Robinson Crusoe

• Delany, Samuel R.

  Author of Dhalgren and Babel-17

• DeLillo, Don

   The author of White Noise and Underworld

• De Quincey, Thomas

  Author of Confessions of an English Opium Eater

• Desai, Kiran

  The author of the novel The Inheritance of Loss

• de Saint Exupéry, Antoine

  Author of The Little Prince

• De Vere, Edward

  17th Earl of Oxford and maybe the real Shakespeare

• Dickens, Charles

  The author of A Christmas Carol

• Dick, Philip K.

  The mind-bending sci-fi author of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

• Diderot, Denis

  Enlightenment editor of Encyclopédie

• Didion, Joan

   The author of Slouching Toward Bethlehem

• Dobson, James

  The founder and host of Focus on the Family

• Doctorow, E.L.

  The author of the 1975 novel Ragtime

• Dostoevsky, Fedor

  The author of Crime and Punishment

• Doyle, Arthur Conan

  The creator of Sherlock Holmes

• Du Bois, W.E.B.

  Author of The Souls of Black Folk

• Dumas, Alexandre (the Elder)

  The author of The Three Musketeers

• Dworkin, Andrea

  Author of Woman Hating

• Dyson, Michael Eric

  The author of the 2007 book Know What I Mean: Reflections on Hip-Hop

• Díaz, Junot

   The author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 

• Eco, Umberto

  The author of The Name of the Rose

• Eddy, Mary Baker

  Founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist

• Eisner, Will

  Creator of the comic The Spirit

• Eliot, George

  The author of Middlemarch

• Ellis, Bret Easton

  The author of Less Than Zero

• Ellison, Harlan

  The author of "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" and 'A Boy and His Dog'

• Ellison, Ralph

  Author of Invisible Man

• Engels, Friedrich

  Karl Marx's collaborator and editor

• Ephron, Nora

  The writer and director of Sleepless In Seattle

• Erasmus

  The humanist scholar who wrote The Praise of Folly

• Erdrich, Louise

  The author of The Plague of Doves

• Fadiman, Anne

  Author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

• Fadiman, Clifton

  Host of the radio quiz show Information Please

• Faulkner, William

  American author of As I Lay Dying

• Fauset, Jessie Redmon

  The "midwife" of the Harlem Renaissance and editor of 'The Crisis'

• Fennell, Emerald

  The Oscar-winning writer, director and producer of Promising Young Woman

• Fey, Tina

  The star of TV's 30 Rock

• Fielding, Helen

  The author of Bridget Jones's Diary

• Fielding, Henry

   The author or Tom Jones

• Fisher, Carrie

  Princess Leia in Star Wars

• Fitzgerald, F. Scott

  The author of The Great Gatsby

• Flanagan, John

  Author of the Ranger's Apprentice series of children's books

• Flaubert, Gustave

  The author of Madame Bovary

• Fleming, Ian

  The creator of James Bond 007

• Flynn, Gillian

  The author of Gone Girl

• Ford, Richard

  The author of Independence Day and The Sportswriter

• Forester, C.S.

  The author of the Horatio Hornblower series of novels

• Fort, Charles

  Researcher and reporter of anomalous phenomena

• Fossey, Dian

  The author of Gorillas in the Mist

• Frank, Anne

  Author of The Diary of Anne Frank

• Franklin, Benjamin

  The Founding Father who wrote Poor Richard's Almanac

• Franzen, Jonathan

  Author of The Corrections

• Friedan, Betty

  The author of 'The Feminine Mystique'

• Fuentes, Carlos

  The author of 'The Old Gringo' and 'The Death of Artemio Cruz'

• Fuller, Margaret

  The feminist who wrote 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century'

• Gaiman, Neil

  Author of the Sandman comics

• Garland, Alex

  The author of The Beach and director of Ex Machina

• Gates, Henry Louis Jr.

  The Harvard professor and African-American scholar who was arrested for disorderly conduct in 2009

• Gibson, William

  The author who created "cyberpunk"

• Giovanni, Nikki

  The poet who wrote "Ego-Tripping"

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

  The German dramatist known for Faust

• Golding, William

  The Nobel-winning author of Lord of the Flies

• Goldman, Emma

  The anarchist-feminist who founded 'Mother Earth' monthly

• Goldman, William

  The writer of The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Gordimer, Nadine

  The Nobel-winning South African author who wrote July's People

• Gorey, Edward

  The macabre illustrator who did the opening for the PBS show Mystery!

• Gorky, Maxim

  Russian writer known for his socialist realism

• Grafton, Sue

  Author of the "alphabet" series of Kinsey Millhone mystery novels

• Graves, Robert

  Author of I, Claudius

• Greene, Graham

  Author of The Honorary Consul and The Third Man

• Green, John

  The author of The Fault in Our Stars

• Grey, Zane

  Author of Riders of the Purple Sage

• Grisham, John

  Author of The Client and The Firm

• Grodin, Charles

  Robert DeNiro's co-star in 'Midnight Run' and the dad in 'Beethoven'

• Groening, Matt

  Creator of The Simpsons

• Haggard, H. Rider

  Author of King Solomon's Mines

• Haley, Alex

  The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the book Roots

• Hammett, Dashiell

  The author of "The Maltese Falcon"

• Handler, Chelsea

  TV Host and author of Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

• Handler, Daniel

  Pseudonymous author of A Series of Unfortunate Events

• Hardy, Thomas

  The author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles

• Harris, Charlaine

  The author of the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood books

• Harris, Thomas

  The author of 'The Silence of the Lambs'

• Hawkins, Paula

  The author of 'The Girl on the Train'

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel

  The author of The Scarlet Letter

• Hearst, Patty

  The kidnapped heiress who turned bank robber

• Hecht, Ben

  The prolific Hollywood screenwriter who did The Front Page

• Heinlein, Robert A.

  The author of Stranger in a Strange Land

• Held Evans, Rachel

  The LGBT-friendly Christian blogger who died tragically at 37

• Heller, Joseph

  The author of Catch-22

• Hemingway, Ernest

  The famously manly author of For Whom the Bell Tolls

• Herbert, Frank

  Author of the novel Dune

• Hersh, Seymour

  The journalist who broke the story of the My Lai Massacre

• Highsmith, Patricia

  The author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Carol

• Hijuelos, Oscar

  The author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

• Hillenbrand, Laura

  Author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend

• Hill, Joe

  The author of Heart-Shaped Box and NOS4A2

• Hinton, S.E.

  Author of The Outsiders

• Hitchens, Christopher

  The author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

• Hobbes, Thomas

  English philosopher who wrote Leviathan

• Hoffman, Abbie

  The yippie who wrote Steal This Book

• Holmes, Oliver Wendell Sr.

  Author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

• Holmes, Rupert

  The guy who wrote "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"

• hooks, bell

  Black feminist critic of "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy"

• Hornby, Nick

  The author of High Fidelity

• Hotchner, A.E.

  The writer who befriended Ernest Hemingway and Paul Newman

• Hoyle, Edmond

  The originator of Hoyle's rules for playing cards

• Hubbard, L. Ron

  Sci-fi author and founder of Scientology

• Hughes, Langston

  Author of The Weary Blues (1926)

• Hughes, Ted

  The English poet who was married to Sylvia Plath

• Hugo, Victor

  The author of Les Misérables

• Hurston, Zora Neale

  Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Huxley, Aldous

  The author of Brave New World

• Imus, Don

  The host of the radio show Imus In the Morning

• Irving, Clifford

  Author of the fake Howard Hughes biography

• Irving, John

  The author of 'The World According to Garp'

• Irving, Washington

  Author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

• Isaacson, Walter

  The journalist/historian who wrote 'Steve Jobs' the bio

• Isherwood, Christopher

  The author of 'Goodbye to Berlin,' which became 'Cabaret'

• Ishiguro, Kazuo

  The Nobel-winning author of The Remains of the Day

• James, E.L.

  The author of the sensual bestseller 50 Shades of Grey

• James, Henry

  Author of The Ambassadors

• James, P.D.

  The "queen of crime" who wrote the Adam Dagliesh mystery novels

• Jelinek, Elfriede

  2004 Nobel-winning Austrian novelist

• Jenkins, Beverly

  The author of African-American romances such as 'Through the Storm'

• Jenkins, Jerry B.

  Co-author of the Left Behind book series

• Johnson, Crockett

  The author of Harold and the Purple Crayon

• Johnson, Denis

  The author of 'Tree of Smoke' and 'Jesus' Son'

• Johnson, Samuel

  Author of 1755's A Dictionary of the English Language

• Jones, Gayl

  The author of 'Eva's Man' and 'The Healing'

• Jones, Terry

  A founding member of Monty Python's Flying Circus

• Joyce, James

  Author of Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake

• Kafka, Franz

  Author of The Trial and The Metamorphosis

• Kauffmann, Stanley

  The film reviewer for The New Republic, 1958-2013

• Keillor, Garrison

  The host of radio's A Prairie Home Companion

• Kennedy, Caroline

  The oldest child of John and Jackie Kennedy

• Kerouac, Jack

  Beat-era author of On The Road

• Kesey, Ken

  Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

• Keyes, Daniel

  The author of Flowers for Algernon

• Kingsolver, Barbara

  The author of Pigs in Heaven and Prodigal Summer

• King, Stephen

  The author of scary bestsellers

• Kinney, Jeff

  The author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books

• Kipling, Rudyard

  The author of The Jungle Book

• Konigsburg, E.L.

  The author of The View From Saturday

• Koontz, Dean

  The horror novelist who wrote Watchers

• Kwan, Kevin

  The author of 'Crazy Rich Asians'

• LaDuke, Winona

  Native American activist who was a vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000

• LaHaye, Tim

  Minister and co-author of Left Behind

• L'Amour, Louis

  Author of many westerns, including Hondo

• Larsson, Stieg

  The author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

• Laurie, Hugh

  The grumpy-but-brilliant doctor in TV's House

• Lawrence, D.H.

  Author of Lady Chatterly's Lover

• Lear, Norman

  The TV producer behind 'All in the Family' and 'Sanford and Son'

• Leary, Timothy

  The drug-taking professor who said "Turn on, tune in, drop out"

• Le Carré, John

  The author of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

• Lee, Harper

  The author of To Kill a Mockingbird

• Lee, Stan

  The leader of Marvel Comics and co-creator of Spider-Man

• Le Guin, Ursula K.

  The sci-fi author of The Earthsea Trilogy

• Lem, Stanislaw

  The author of Solaris

• L'Engle, Madeleine

  The author of A Wrinkle in Time

• Leonard, Elmore

  The author of Get Shorty and other funny crime novels

• Lessing, Doris

  The author of The Golden Notebook

• Lethem, Jonathan

  Author of The Fortress of Solitude

• Levy, Dan

  The creator and star of 'Schitt's Creek'

• Lewis, C.S.

  Author of The Chronicles of Narnia

• Lewis, Sinclair

  The author of Babbitt and Elmer Gantry

• Lindgren, Astrid

  The author of Pippi Longstocking

• Lister, Anne

  The 19th century diarist who inspired TV's 'Gentleman Jack'

• Liu Cixin

  The author of 'The Three-Body Problem'

• Liu Xiaobo

  The Chinese writer who won 2010's Nobel Peace Prize

• Locke, Alain LeRoy

  The African-American editor called "the father of the Harlem Renaissance"

• London, Jack

  Author of Call of the Wild

• Lovecraft, H.P.

  The horror writer who came up with Cthulhu

• Lowry, Lois

  Author of The Giver

• Lowry, Malcolm

  The author of Under the Volcano

• Luce, Clare Boothe

  Socialite, playwright, ambassador and wife of publisher Henry Luce

• Machiavelli, Niccolo

  Author of The Prince

• Mailer, Norman

  Pugnacious author of The Naked and the Dead

• Mantel, Hilary

  The author of Wolf Hall

• Marsh, Ngaio

  New Zealand's "Queen of Crime" mystery novelist

• Martel, Yann

  The author of Life of Pi

• Martin, George R. R.

  The author of A Game of Thrones

• Martin, Steve

  Comic star of The Jerk and Saturday Night Live

• Martí, José

  The "Father of Cuban Independence"

• Matheson, Richard

  The author of I Am Legend

• Matthiessen, Peter

  The author of At Play in the Fields of the Lord

• Maugham, W. Somerset

  The author of Of Human Bondage

• McCarthy, Cormac

  Author of All the Pretty Horses

• McCullers, Carson

  Author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

• McMurtry, Larry

  The author of Lonesome Dove

• McPhee, John

  The creative non-fiction legend who wrote 'Annals of the Former World'

• Melville, Herman

  The author of Moby-Dick

• Mencken, H.L.

  Famously acerbic columnist for the Baltimore Sun

• Meyer, Stephenie

  The author of the teen vampire romance Twilight

• Michaels, Lorne

  Creator of TV's Saturday Night Live

• Miller, Arthur

  The author of Death of a Salesman

• Miller, Frank

  The comics artist who did Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

• Miller, Henry

  Author of Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn

• Miller, Joaquin

  "The Poet of the Sierras"

• Milne, A.A.

  Creator of Winnie the Pooh

• Miranda, Lin-Manuel

  The creator and star of the musical Hamilton

• Mitchell, David

  The author of Cloud Atlas

• Mitchell, Joseph

  The author of "Joe Gould's Secret"

• Mitchell, Margaret

  The author of Gone With the Wind

• Miéville, China

  The author The City & The City and Perdido Street Station

• Moore, Alan

  Writer of the graphic novel V for Vendetta

• Moore, Michael

  The director of Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine

• More, Sir Thomas

  The author of Utopia

• Morrison, Toni

  Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Beloved

• Mowat, Farley

  The author of Never Cry Wolf

• Mo Yah

  The Chinese author of Red Sorghum Clan

• Muir, John

  Naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club

• Munro, Alice

  Canadian writer of The Love of a Good Woman stories

• Murakami, Haruki

  The Japanese author of Norwegian Wood

• Murdoch, Iris

  Alzheimer's stricken author of The Sea, The Sea

• Myers, Mike

  Star of the Austin Powers movies

• Márquez, Gabriel García

  The author of One Hundred Years of Solitude

• Nabokov, Vladimir

  Author of the novel Lolita

• Naipaul, V.S.

  Nobel-winning author of A House for Mr. Biswas

• Nietzsche, Friedrich

   The 19th century German who said "God is dead" 

• Nin, Anais

  Diarist and lover of Henry Miller

• Niven, David

  Dapper British star of Around the World in 80 Days

• Oates, Joyce Carol

  The author of Bellefleur and Them

• O'Brien, Conan

  Host of The Tonight Show, 2009-2010

• O'Connor, Flannery

  Southern author of "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

• O'Donoghue, Michael

  Writer / performer on Saturday Night Live

• O'Hara, Catherine

  The mom in Home Alone

• O. Henry

  American short story writer

• Omarr, Sydney

  Syndicated horoscope columnist from Los Angeles

• Orwell, George

  The author of Nineteen eighty-four

• Oxford, Kelly

  The author of Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar

• Paglia, Camille

  The professor-author of 1990’s Sexual Personae

• Paine, Thomas

  The author of Common Sense

• Parker, Alan

  The director of 'Midnight Express' and 'Angel Heart'

• Parker, Dorothy

  The oft-quoted female wit of the Algonquin Round Table

• Patten, Gilbert

  The writer of the Frank Merriwell dime novels in the early 20th century

• Patterson, James

  The author of all those Alex Cross mysteries

• Paul, Caroline

  Author of Fighting Fire

• Paulsen, Gary

  The author of Hatchet

• Paz, Octavio

  The Mexican poet who wrote 'Piedra de sol' ('Sun Stone')

• Pepys, Samuel

  Author of Samuel Pepys' diaries

• Perelman, S.J.

  Humorist for The New Yorker and Marx Bros. writer

• Piaget, Jean

  Swiss psychologist who studied childhood cognition

• Pinter, Harold

  The Nobel-winning author of The Homecoming

• Pirandello, Luigi

  The author of Six Characters in Search of An Author

• Pirsig, Robert

  Author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

• Pitts, Leonard Jr.

  Author of "We'll Go Forward From This Moment"

• Plath, Sylvia

  Poet and author of The Bell Jar

• Pliny the Elder

  The author of Natural History

• Plutarch

  Author of Plutarch's Lives

• Poe, Edgar Allan

  The author of the poem "The Raven"

• Pohl, Frederik

  The sci-fi author of The Space Merchants and Gateway

• Poincaré, Henri

   The French mathematician who wrote Science and Hypothesis

• Porter, Katherine Anne

  Short story writer and the author of Ship of Fools

• Portis, Charles

  The author of the book True Grit

• Post, Emily

  Mid-20th century American expert on etiquette

• Potter, Beatrix

  Creator of the Peter Rabbit children's books

• Poundstone, Paula

  The stand-up comedian who was accused of child endangerment

• Price, Roger

  The creator of Droodles and Mad Libs

• Proulx, Annie

  The author of The Shipping News

• Proust, Marcel

  Author of Remembrance of Things Past

• Puig, Manuel

  The author of Kiss of the Spider Woman

• Pullman, Philip

  The author of the His Dark Materials trilogy

• Pushkin, Alexander

  The author of the verse novel 'Eugene Onegin'

• Pynchon, Thomas

  Reclusive author of Gravity's Rainbow

• Rand, Ayn

  The author of The Fountainhead and leader of Objectivism movement

• Raven, Simon

  The author of the Alms for Oblivion novels

• Rebeck, Theresa

  The playwright who created the TV show Smash

• Reed, Nikki

  Co-writer of Thirteen and co-star of Twilight

• Remarque, Erich Maria

  Author of All Quiet on the Western Front

• Rice, Anne

  Author of Interview With The Vampire

• Robbe-Grillet, Alain

  The "anti-novel" guy who wrote the film Last Year at Marienbad

• Robbins, Harold

  The author of The Betsy

• Roberts, Nora

  Author of the romantic MacGregor series

• Rooney, Sally

  The Irish author of 'Normal People'

• Roth, Philip

  The author of Portnoy's Complaint

• Rowlandson, Mary

  Early American colonist and captive whose memoir was a 17th century hit

• Rowling, J.K.

  The creator of the fictional wizard Harry Potter

• Roy, Arundhati

  The author of the 1997 novel The God of Small Things

• Rushdie, Salman

  Author of The Satanic Verses

• Sacks, Oliver

  The author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

• Salinger, J.D.

  The author of The Catcher In the Rye

• Sandburg, Carl

  Author of the poem Chicago

• Sand, George

   The unconventional 19th century French author of 1 July 1804

• Sanmao

  The Chinese author of 'Stories of the Sahara'

• Sarte, Jean-Paul

  The existentialist author of Being and Nothingness

• Say, Allen

  Illustrator of The Boy of the Three-Year Nap

• Sayers, Dorothy

  The creator of Lord Peter Wimsey

• Schwartz, Sherwood

  The creator of Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch

• Scott, Sir Walter

  The author of Ivanhoe

• Sebald, W.G.

  Author of the memoir Austerlitz

• See, Lisa

  Author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

• Sendak, Maurice

  The illustrator who created Where the Wild Things Are

• Seuss, Dr.

  Author of The Cat In the Hat

• Shakespeare, William

  The famed author of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet

• Shatner, William

  Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise

• Shaw, George Bernard

  The author of Pygmalion

• Sheldon, Sidney

  The author of The Other Side of Midnight

• Shelley, Mary

  The author of Frankenstein

• Shriver, Lionel

  The author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'

• Simenon, Georges

  Prolific author of the Detective Maigret novels

• Sinclair, Upton

  Socialist author of 1906's The Jungle

• Singleton, John

  The writer and director of Boyz N the Hood

• Sitwell, Edith

  The eccentric poet who wrote 1941's "Still Falls the Rain"

• Slocum, Joshua

  The first person to sail around the world alone

• Smiley, Tavis

  Host of The Tavis Smiley Show on TV and radio

• Smith, Dodie

  The author of The Hundred and One Dalmations

• Smith, Patti

  The poet-rocker who wrote the memoir 'Just Kids'

• Smith, Zadie

  The author of White Teeth

• Solnit, Rebecca

  The author of 'The Faraway Nearby' and 'Men Explain Things to Me'

• Spock, Dr.

  The author of Baby and Child Care

• Steel, Danielle

  Author of the romance novels Jewels and Crossings

• Steinbeck, John

  The author of The Grapes of Wrath

• Steinem, Gloria

  The feminist who co-founded Ms. magazine

• Stein, Gertrude

  Ex-patriate author of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

• Stevenson, Robert Louis

  The author of Treasure Island

• Stine, R.L.

  Author of the Goosebumps series of books

• St. Jerome

  The medieval scholar behind the Latin translation of the Bible

• Stoker, Bram

  The author who wrote Dracula

• Stopes, Marie

  The UK birth control pioneer who wrote 'Married Love'

• Stowe, Harriet Beecher

  Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Straub, Peter

  The author of Ghost Story

• Strayed, Cheryl

  The author of the memoir Wild

• Strieber, Whitley

  The alien-abductee novelist who wrote Communion

• Strout, Elizabeth

  The author of 'Olive Kitteredge'

• Sturgeon, Theodore

  The science fiction author of 'More Than Human'

• Styron, William

  Author of Sophie's Choice

• Swift, Jonathan

  The satirical Irish author of Gulliver's Travels

• Tan, Amy

  Author of The Joy Luck Club

• Tartt, Donna

  Author of The Goldfinch

• Thompson, Emma

  The writer and star of 1995's Sense and Sensibility

• Thompson, Hunter S.

  Author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

• Thompson, Jim

  The author of The Killer Inside Me

• Thoreau, Henry David

  Author of Walden

• Thurber, James

  Author of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

• Tolkien, J.R.R.

  The author of The Lord of the Rings

• Tolstoy, Leo

  Author of War and Peace

• Travers, P.L.

  The author of the Mary Poppins novels

• Trumbo, Dalton

  The blacklisted screenwriter who wrote Johnny Got His Gun

• Twain, Mark

  The author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

• Updike, John

  The author of the 1960 novel Rabbit, Run

• Uris, Leon

  The author of Exodus

• Van Allsburg, Chris

  The author of The Polar Express

• Vance, J.D.

  The author of 'Hillbilly Elegy' who became a U.S. senator

• VanderMeer, Jeff

  The author of the 'Southern Reach' trilogy

• Van Sant, Gus

  Director of Good Will Hunting

• Vardalos, Nia

  Star and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding

• Verne, Jules

  Author of Around the World in Eighty Days

• Vidal, Gore

  The smart and sassy author of Burr and Myra Breckinridge

• Vinge, Vernor

  Hugo-winning author of A Fire Upon the Deep

• Voltaire

  Witty playwright and author of Candide

• Vonnegut, Kurt Jr.

  The author of Slaughterhouse-Five

• Wagner, Richard

  German composer of Der Ring des Nibelungen

• Walker, Alice

  The author of The Color Purple

• Wallace, David Foster

  The author of the novel Infinite Jest

• Watts, Alan

  The author of 'The Way of Zen'

• Webb, Jim

  The Marine and Senate veteran who wrote Fields of Fire

• Webster, Noah

  The man behind 1828's An American Dictionary of the English Language

• Wells, H. G.

  Author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds

• Welty, Eudora

  Author of Delta Wedding

• Werber, Bernard

  Author of Empire of the Ants

• West, Mae

  Early Hollywood sex symbol

• West, Rebecca

  Critic, journalist, novelist and literary celebrity

• Wharton, Edith

  Author of Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence

• Wheaton, Wil

  Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation

• Whitehead, Colson

  The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Underground Railroad'

• Whitman, Walt

  The poet who wrote Leaves of Grass

• Wiesel, Elie

  Author of the Holocaust classic Night

• Wiesenthal, Simon

  The Nazi hunter who nabbed Adolf Eichmann

• Wilde, Oscar

  The author of The Importance of Being Earnest

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls

  Author of the Little House on the Prairie books

• Williams, Stanley Tookie

  Co-founder of the Crips street gang

• Willis, Connie

  Sci-fi author of The Doomsday Book

• Wilson, E.O.

  The ant expert who wrote 1978's On Human Nature

• Wilson, Robert Anton

  Co-author of the Illuminatus! Trilogy

• Wolfe, Thomas

  The author of Look Homeward, Angel

• Wolfe, Tom

  The author of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' and 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'

• Wolff, Tobias

  Author of the memoir This Boy's Life

• Wollstonecraft, Mary

  The author of 'A Vindication for the Rights of Woman'

• Woolf, Virginia

  Author of A Room Of One's Own

• Wright, Richard

  Author of Native Son

• Yanagihara, Hanya

  The author of A Little Life

• Yep, Laurence

  Author of the 1975 book Dragonwings

• Yukio, Mishima

  Seppuku-committing Japanese author

• Zola, Emile

  The author of "J'Accuse"

See: Index by Occupation