Most Famous Writers in the World

100 Writers in view out of 18,127

William Shakespeare British Playwright 1564 – 1616

#8 Wiki

Martin Luther Holy Roman Linguist 1483 – 1546

#22 Wiki

Plato Greek Philosopher -427 – -347

#36 Wiki

Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher 1844 – 1900

#37 Wiki

Victor Hugo French Poet 1802 – 1885

#47 Wiki

Edgar Allan Poe American Poet 1809 – 1849

#48 Wiki

Voltaire French Writer 1694 – 1778

#51 Wiki

Franz Kafka Austrian Novelist 1883 – 1924

#53 Wiki

Charles Dickens British Writer 1812 – 1870

#54 Wiki

Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Writer 1712 – 1778

#55 Wiki

Immanuel Kant German Philosopher 1724 – 1804

#60 Wiki

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German Poet 1749 – 1832

#64 Wiki

René Descartes French Philosopher 1596 – 1650

#67 Wiki

J. R. R. Tolkien British Writer 1892 – 1973

#74 Wiki

Agatha Christie British Playwright 1890 – 1976

#81 Wiki

Augustine of Hippo Roman Philosopher 354 – 430

#84 Wiki

Fyodor Dostoevsky Russian Novelist 1821 – 1881

#85 Wiki

Oscar Wilde British Poet 1854 – 1900

#89 Wiki

Stephen King American Writer Born 1947

#90 Wiki

Leo Tolstoy Russian Writer 1828 – 1910

#92 Wiki

Dante Alighieri Italian Poet 1265 – 1321

#96 Wiki

Gabriel García Márquez Colombian Novelist 1927 – 2014

#104 Wiki

Noam Chomsky American Philosopher Born 1928

#105 Wiki

Mark Twain American Writer 1835 – 1910

#110 Wiki

Jules Verne French Novelist 1828 – 1905

#120 Wiki

Jane Austen British Writer 1775 – 1817

#121 Wiki

Virginia Woolf British Novelist 1882 – 1941

#125 Wiki

Albert Camus French Writer 1913 – 1960

#129 Wiki

Anton Chekhov Russian Playwright 1860 – 1904

#130 Wiki

Hans Christian Andersen Danish Writer 1805 – 1875

#132 Wiki

SL

Stan Lee American Comic 1922 – 2018

#134 Wiki

Thomas Aquinas Italian Philosopher 1225 – 1274

#141 Wiki

George Orwell British Novelist 1903 – 1950

#142 Wiki

John Locke British Philosopher 1632 – 1704

#145 Wiki

Miguel de Cervantes Spanish Novelist 1547 – 1616

#151 Wiki

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel German Philosopher 1770 – 1831

#175 Wiki

Jorge Luis Borges Argentine Writer 1899 – 1986

#205 Wiki

Isaac Asimov American Writer 1920 – 1992

#206 Wiki

Homer Greek Poet

#209 Wiki

Michel Foucault French Philosopher 1926 – 1984

#233 Wiki

Honoré de Balzac French Novelist 1799 – 1850

#234 Wiki

Socrates Greek Philosopher -470 – -399

#240 Wiki

James Joyce Irish Poet 1882 – 1941

#246 Wiki

Pablo Neruda Chilean Poet 1904 – 1973

#251 Wiki

Mary Shelley British Writer 1797 – 1851

#253 Wiki

Émile Zola French Novelist 1840 – 1902

#254 Wiki

BS

Baruch Spinoza Dutch Philosopher 1632 – 1677

#263 Wiki

H. P. Lovecraft American Novelist 1890 – 1937

#266 Wiki

Alexander Pushkin Russian Poet 1799 – 1837

#275 Wiki

Bertolt Brecht German Playwright 1898 – 1956

#290 Wiki

Julian Assange Australian Journalist Born 1971

#298 Wiki

Søren Kierkegaard Danish Philosopher 1813 – 1855

#301 Wiki

Bette Davis American Biographer 1908 – 1989

#315 Wiki

H. G. Wells British Writer 1866 – 1946

#318 Wiki

Martin Heidegger German Philosopher 1889 – 1976

#318 Wiki

Avicenna Iranian Philosopher 980 – 1037

#320 Wiki

Ingrid Bergman Swedish Biographer 1915 – 1982

#328 Wiki

Lewis Carroll British Writer 1833 – 1898

#332 Wiki

Arthur Rimbaud French Poet 1854 – 1891

#340 Wiki

Mario Vargas Llosa Spanish Novelist Born 1936

#344 Wiki

Hannah Arendt German Philosopher 1906 – 1975

#351 Wiki

Francis Bacon British Philosopher 1561 – 1626

#362 Wiki

Alexandre Dumas French Novelist 1802 – 1870

#363 Wiki

Thomas Hobbes British Philosopher 1588 – 1679

#370 Wiki

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry French Writer 1900 – 1944

#376 Wiki

Hermann Hesse German Novelist 1877 – 1962

#378 Wiki

Simone de Beauvoir French Writer 1908 – 1986

#382 Wiki

Confucius Chinese Philosopher -551 – -479

#383 Wiki

Thomas Mann German Novelist 1875 – 1955

#389 Wiki

Federico García Lorca Spanish Playwright 1898 – 1936

#409 Wiki

Montesquieu French Philosopher 1689 – 1755

#411 Wiki

Umberto Eco Italian Novelist 1932 – 2016

#413 Wiki

Rumi Iranian Poet 1207 – 1273

#423 Wiki

John Steinbeck American Writer 1902 – 1968

#438 Wiki

Petrarch Italian Poet 1304 – 1374

#440 Wiki

C. S. Lewis British Writer 1898 – 1963

#452 Wiki

Denis Diderot French Novelist 1713 – 1784

#456 Wiki

F. Scott Fitzgerald American Writer 1896 – 1940

#465 Wiki

Henry David Thoreau American Poet 1817 – 1862

#475 Wiki

Rosa Luxemburg Russian Philosopher 1871 – 1919

#479 Wiki

Friedrich Schiller German Poet 1759 – 1805

#483 Wiki

Seneca the Younger Roman Playwright -4 – 65

#500 Wiki

Roald Dahl British Novelist 1916 – 1990

#509 Wiki

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Russian Writer 1918 – 2008

#517 Wiki

John Stuart Mill British Philosopher 1806 – 1873

#522 Wiki

Amelia Earhart American Author 1897 – 1937

#531 Wiki

Robert Hooke British Philosopher 1635 – 1703

#552 Wiki

PC

Paulo Coelho Brazilian Writer Born 1947

#557 Wiki

Virgil Roman Poet -70 – -19

#567 Wiki

Haruki Murakami Japanese Writer Born 1949

#569 Wiki

Aldous Huxley British Poet 1894 – 1963

#597 Wiki

SR

Salman Rushdie British Writer Born 1947

#603 Wiki

John Keats British Poet 1795 – 1821

#605 Wiki

Auguste Comte French Philosopher 1798 – 1857

#621 Wiki

Antonio Gramsci Italian Philosopher 1891 – 1937

#625 Wiki

Guy de Maupassant French Writer 1850 – 1893

#627 Wiki

E

Epicurus Greek Philosopher -341 – -269

#628 Wiki

Emily Dickinson American Writer 1830 – 1886

#637 Wiki

Henrik Ibsen Norwegian Playwright 1828 – 1906

#643 Wiki

T. E. Lawrence British Biographer 1888 – 1935

#672 Wiki

By the numbers

Inside Writers

18,127 notable people in this slice of the dataset.

Through the Centuries

One face per century — the leading figure from Writers born in each.

Notable Births by Decade

Notable births among Writers peaked in the 1940s with 1,555 people.

What Writers Are Known For

Disciplines inside this family, plus countries that over- and under-produce them.

Biggest Most distinctive Under-indexed

Writer is the largest group within Writers — 6,323 people, 35% of the family.

Writers over-index on greece — 1.7× the global rate.

Writers under-produce us — only 0.6× the global rate.

Writer6,32335%
Poet2,98917%
Historian1,81810%
Journalist1,4638.1%
Author1,4407.9%
Philosopher9315.1%
Linguist5713.1%
Novelist5633.1%

City Hot Spots

Cities that over-produce Writers compared to the world average — multiplier shows how much more.