Literature · Curated list
William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and 37 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the writer's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
English playwright and poet (1564–1616)
An English poet, playwright and actor, widely seen as the greatest writer in English and the foremost dramatist in the world.
Wikidata · Photo: Attributed to John Taylor, Public domain
2
Russian writer (1828–1910)
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually called Leo Tolstoy in English: a Russian writer ranked among the most influential, and the finest, authors who ever lived.
Wikidata · Photo: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, Public domain
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3
German writer and polymath (1749–1832)
A German polymath, widely seen as the most influential writer ever to write in German. From the late 18th century to today his work has shaped literary, political, philosophical and Christian thought across the Western world.
Wikidata · Photo: Joseph Karl Stieler, Public domain
4
Italian writer and philosopher (1265–1321)
Dante Alighieri, widely known simply as Dante, an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, first called Comedìa, to which Giovanni Boccaccio later added Divina, is widely counted among the most important poems of the Middle Ages, and as the finest work of literature in Italian.
Wikidata · Photo: Sandro Botticelli, Public domain
5
French writer and politician (1802–1885)
A French author of the Romantic movement who was also a poet, playwright, essayist and journalist, a politician and a campaigner for human rights; he held the title vicomte Hugo.
Wikidata · Photo: Étienne Carjat, Public domain
6
Russian novelist and philosopher (1821–1881)
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, a Russian novelist, short-story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. He is ranked among the greatest novelists of Russia and of the world, and many of his books are regarded as highly influential masterpieces.
Wikidata · Photo: Vasily Perov, Public domain
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7
French writer and philosopher (1694–1778)
François-Marie Arouet, who wrote as Voltaire, a French writer, historian, satirist and philosopher (philosophe) of the Enlightenment. Famous for his wit and for criticising slavery and Christianity, he championed freedom of religion and of speech and the separation of church and state.
Wikidata · Photo: Nicolas de Largillière, CC0
8
American author and humorist (1835–1910)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain, an American essayist, humorist and writer. He has been hailed as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".
Wikidata · Photo: A.F. Bradley, New York, Public domain
9
English writer and journalist (1812–1870)
Charles John Huffam Dickens, an English journalist and writer who created some of the best-known characters in literature, and whom many regard as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
Wikidata · Photo: Jeremiah Gurney, Public domain
10
Spanish writer (1547–1616)
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, a Spanish writer widely seen as the greatest writer in Spanish and one of the world's leading novelists. He is best known for his novel in two parts, Don Quixote, regarded as the first modern novel.
Wikidata · Photo: Attributed to Juan de Jáuregui, Public domain
11
Indian polymath (1861–1941)
A Bengali poet, author, playwright, composer, musician, painter, philosopher and social reformer, and one of the leading figures of the Bengal Renaissance. In 1913 he became the first Indian, and the first non-European, to win a Nobel Prize of any kind, and the first writer of lyrics to receive the one for Literature.
Wikidata · Photo: Generalstabens litografiska anstalt, Public domain
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12
1st-century-BC Roman poet
An ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period, Publius Vergilius Maro, known in English as Virgil or Vergil. Three of the best-known Latin poems are his: the Eclogues, the Georgics and his epic, the Aeneid.
Wikidata · Photo: Armando Mancini, Public domain
13
Russian writer (1799–1837)
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, a Russian novelist, playwright and poet of the Romantic era. Many consider him Russia's greatest poet, and the founder of modern Russian literature.
Wikidata · Photo: Orest Kiprensky, Public domain
14
Danish writer (1805–1875)
A Danish writer of many poems, novels, travel books and plays, remembered above all for his literary fairy tales.
Wikidata · Photo: Thora Hallager, Public domain
15
Austrian and Czech writer (1883–1924)
A Jewish Czech novelist and writer who wrote in German, born in Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Widely seen as a major figure of 20th-century literature, he blended realism with the fantastique, typically showing isolated heroes caught in bizarre or surreal situations and facing bureaucratic powers beyond understanding.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown photographer, Public domain
16
Russian dramatist and author (1860–1904)
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a Russian short story writer and playwright, widely seen as one of the greatest writers ever. As a playwright he produced four classics, and writers and critics hold his best short stories in high regard.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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17
French playwright and actor (1622–1673)
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name, Molière, a French poet, actor and playwright, widely counted among the great writers of French and of world literature. His surviving works include farces, comedies, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets and more.
Wikidata · Photo: Pierre Mignard I, Public domain
18
American writer and critic (1809–1849)
An American poet, writer, editor and literary critic, best known for his short stories and poems, above all his tales of the macabre and of mystery. He is widely seen as central to early American literature and to Gothic fiction and Romanticism in the United States.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author Unknown author ; Restored by Yann Forget and Adam Cuerden, Public domain
19
Irish writer (1854–1900)
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde, an Irish playwright, poet and author. After writing in various styles through the 1880s, he became, early in the 1890s, one of London's most popular and influential dramatists.
Wikidata · Photo: Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden, Public domain
20
British poet (1788–1824)
George Noel Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, a British poet, a major figure of the Romantic movement, and counted among the finest poets Britain has produced.
Wikidata · Photo: Thomas Phillips, Public domain
21
5th-century BC Athenian tragic playwright
An ancient Greek writer of tragedies, one of three whose plays survive complete, at least two each. He began writing plays later than Aeschylus, or while Aeschylus was still writing, and earlier than Euripides, or alongside him.
Wikidata · Photo: Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0
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22
English author and journalist (1903–1950)
Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote as George Orwell: an English novelist, essayist, journalist, critic and poet. His work is known for its clear prose, its social criticism, its opposition to every kind of totalitarianism and its support for democratic socialism.
Wikidata · Photo: Cassowary Colorizations, CC BY 2.0
23
American author and journalist (1899–1961)
Ernest Miller Hemingway, an American journalist, short-story writer and novelist. Known for a spare, understated style that shaped later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticised for his adventurous life and his blunt, outspoken public image.
Wikidata · Photo: Lloyd Arnold, Public domain
24
Colombian writer and Nobel laureate (1927–2014)
Gabriel José García Márquez, a Colombian journalist and writer, affectionately called Gabo or Gabito across Latin America. Regarded as one of the most important authors of the 20th century, especially in Spanish, he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1972 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.
25
Irish novelist and poet (1882–1941)
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, an Irish literary critic, poet and novelist. A contributor to the modernist movement, he is counted among the 20th century's most important and influential writers.
Wikidata · Photo: James_Joyce_by_Alex_Ehrenzweig,_1915_restored.jpg : * James_Joyce_by_Alex_Ehrenzweig,_1915.jpg : Alex Ehrenzweig…, Public domain
26
English writer and philologist (1892–1973)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, an English academic philologist and writer, author of the high fantasy works The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955) and The Hobbit (1937).
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown photo studio commissioned by Tolkien's students 1925/6…, Public domain
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27
English novelist (1775–1817)
An English writer known mainly for her six novels, which comment on, criticise and implicitly interpret the English landed gentry at the close of the 18th century.
Wikidata · Photo: Cassandra Austen, Public domain
28
Japanese poet (1644–1694)
Born Matsuo Kinsaku and later called Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. In his lifetime he was known for works in the collaborative form haikai no renga; today, after centuries of commentary, he is seen as the supreme master of haiku.
29
30
Chinese poet (701–762)
Also known by his courtesy name, Taibai, a Chinese poet hailed as one of the finest and most important of the Tang dynasty, and indeed of all Chinese poetry. He and friends such as Du Fu (712–770) were leading figures in the flowering of Tang poetry, often called the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry".
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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31
English mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, Lady Mallowan, usually called by her first married name, Agatha Christie: an English author known for 66 detective novels and 14 collections of short stories, especially those about her fictional detectives Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Tommy and Tuppence. She is widely counted among the greatest writers, above all of mystery.
Wikidata · Photo: Joop van Bilsen for Anefo, CC0
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32
Argentine writer (1899–1986)
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges, an Argentine writer of short stories, essays and poems, and a translator, regarded as a key figure of literature in Spanish and worldwide. His best-known works, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph, both from the 1940s, are short-story collections exploring themes such as mythology, invented writers, mirrors, archives, infinity, chance, labyrinths and dreams.
Wikidata · Photo: Grete Stern, Public domain
33
French novelist, literary critic, and essayist (1871–1922)
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, a French essayist, literary critic and novelist, best known for À la recherche du temps perdu, published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, some 1.25 million words long. Critics and writers see him as one of the twentieth century's most influential authors.
Wikidata · Photo: Otto Wegener, Public domain
34
35
English writer and poet (1865–1936)
Joseph Rudyard Kipling, an English poet, novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Born in British India, he drew on it for much of his work.
Wikidata · Photo: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain
36
Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist (1856–1950)
A playwright from Ireland who was also a critic, a polemicist and a political activist. From the 1880s until his death and afterwards, he influenced Western politics, culture and theatre.
Wikidata · Photo: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain
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37
38
German playwright (1759–1805)
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, a German historian, philosopher, poet and playwright, regarded as one of the most important classical playwrights of Germany.
Wikidata · Photo: Ludovike Simanowiz, Public domain
39
British writer and physician (1859–1930)
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, a British physician and writer. He is best known for his fifty-six short stories and four novels about Sherlock Holmes, the fictional consulting detective, and Dr. Watson, who assists him, landmarks of crime fiction, and for The Lost World (1912), his first work with Professor Challenger, which named a subgenre of speculative fiction.
Wikidata · Photo: Walter Benington, Public domain
40
Russian and Soviet writer (1868–1936)
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, known to the public as Maxim Gorky, a Russian and Soviet journalist and writer and an advocate of socialism, five times nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Wikidata · Photo: Herman Mishkin, Public domain
Every Wikidata item that is a person whose occupation is writer, or a kind of writer, and whose one-line description on Wikidata names writing first — as a writer, novelist, poet, playwright, dramatist, author or essayist, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 40 are shown.
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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