>, Lewis Carroll was an English academic, mathematician, and Anglican deacon. Throughout history, there have been many American women writers who have made significant contribution to the field. Ok, my digression is over. Hemingway was a great writer. He has been mentioned again and again as the greatest novelist who ever wrote, and so he wins a place in this list of great writers. , a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 70 BCE – 19 BCE, The Evangelist, Mark (Author of the Gospel of St Mark) 1st Century CE, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri) 1265-1321, Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Cortinas) 1547-1616, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 1821-1881, Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) 1828-1910, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832-1898, Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri): A Biography, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: A Biography, Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro): A Biography, English Authors: The 10 Best English Writers, The 20 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland: An Overview, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: An Overview, The Dream Of The Red Chamber: An Overview. Perhaps that’s not the real question: we should instead be asking, ‘how can we judge’? Downs, Robert B. We see him as the author of such classics as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House and many others. (1868–1963) Daily Mail Homer. His works were considered controversial in his time as there was an allusion to homosexuality in his verses. A few great short stories maybe get close, but not quite. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, and it is generally considered that the novel that clinched it was One Hundred Years of Solitude… Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and if you’re a book enthusiast you know that to be true. Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens. Read 337 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. His protagonists are isolated figures faced with surrealistic or bizarre predicaments and incomprehensible bureaucracies. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. For example, I could never make it through a book by Hemingway though I recognize him as a great writer. Also known as “The Bard”, the 16th century writer’s influence on the world literature has been so profound that his works are read even today. If William Faulkner is not near the top, then you have not read Sanctuary or some of his other works. He dramatically changed the tragic form by adding a third actor, thereby eroding the role of the chorus in the presentation of the plot… Read more about Sophocles >>, Virgil was a prolific Roman poet, best remembered for his epic, Aeneid. Below are several of the most prolific writers of this time period—their works are still read in classrooms today. It is a novel – the most read novel of all time and the second most read book, the Bible being the most read. Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. The most famous writer of all time is probably William Shakespeare. And yet Wuthering Heights is considered a great work by a great writer. Das Kapital book. Faulkner’s The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion trilogy is another example of writing and storytelling at its best, but have you ever seen those books on Top 100 lists? Like our list of the thirty greatest writers of all time? But his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were magnificent. Like Shakespeare. With that in mind one can begin to talk about criteria. Missing from many of these lists are such names as Yukio Mishima. They invite us to enter into the world of their text and although they usually write only to entertain, there is a sense in that they point to truths just as real as those reached by Darwin and Einstein. He is one of the two giants of Russian literature. I loved Shakespeare growing up, but since he copied Chaucer when he re-wrote Troilus and Cressida (really need to read the old english version, fascinating by the way, much better than Shakespeare by a long shot) I think we know that he copied much of what he did for the theatre. Good characters, rather poor writing. 2. Nabokov’s Lolita was a masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other books are intolerable. History’s 10 Most Famous Feminists 10. Twain was a very good writer, not great. His defining works are The Iliad and The Odyssey. His literary works explore psychology in the political, social, and spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia. If you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer, that says something. It’s fictional story about Buddhist monk Tang Xuanzang’s journey with Sun Wukong (Monkey King), Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing to the obtain the Buddhist sacred texts. We don’t necessarily have to talk about their writing style or how good their prose is, as that is, in any case, far too subjective: their greatness could simply be about their ideas – ideas that grab the attention of the world and change the world’s perceptions forever. We’re sure you will recognise the names of his much-loved works, including The Gremlins, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but if you didn’t, take a jump into the fantastic world of Roald Dahl and feel like a child once again! Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls, Of heroes into Hades’ dark, He didn’t write it for publication either. Without further ado, here is a list of thirty of the greatest writers of all time offered by NoSweatShakespeare. I apologize but I have to say something. Her … It is widely taught in French schools and universities and French departments in universities worldwide… Read more about Voltaire >>, Although not highly regarded either as a painter or poet by his contemporaries William Blake has the distinction of finding his place in the top ten of both English writers and English painters. Books that Changed the … Luo Guanzhong(罗贯中): He wrote Romance of the Three Kingdoms and possibly Water Margin. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Satirical, amusing and over-the- top, it has influenced the style of writers like James Joyce, Lawrence Sterne and almost any writer who has attempted novels or plays containing the adventures of comical characters, including Shakespeare… Read more on Francois Rabelais >>, Miguel Cervantes, a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. It is a style of story telling that is compelling – it is not great, maybe clever, but not great. Michael H. Hart is an American author and astrophysicist. It is the mythical story of the founding of Rome, a story that has given us our idea of that event and the history of Rome before the modern period. His novel, Don Quixote, was written at the beginning of the form’s development but has not been surpassed… Read more on Cervantes >>, John Donne must be one of the most interesting writers who ever lived, both as a poet and a man. Traditionally these poems are ascribed to Greek poet Homer, although he may simply have written and shaped works which had been in the oral memory of his ancestors. These are TIME’s 100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2020 In that case the writing would only be a vehicle for the transmission of the idea they wish to convey. 15 of the Most Stylish Authors In History. His poets are really really really good and have also influenced Chinese culture a lot. But who, apart from Shakespeare, are the greatest writers of all time? Narrowing down the list of the most influential women writers in history is quite the task. Check out our list of famous English writers, and most famous American authors. Fitzgerald’s place on this list is justified by the fact that his great novel is actually about America… Read more about F. Scott Fitzgerald >>, Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer of poems, translations, essays, literary criticism and, what he is best known for, short fiction. It would be impossible to rank them so they are listed in order of their birth dates: Scholars have debated whether Homer was one single author rather than a collection of oral stories but it is now thought that such an author existed. Wu Chengen(吴承恩): He wrote Journey to the West. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Apart from writing plays that can be held up like mirrors in which we can see ourselves as human beings clearly, and come to an understanding of many of the things that make us human, Shakespeare’s poetry has had a profound effect on the English language: the way we use it today has been shaped by his words and phrases. He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.' Any we’re missing? He received more rewards than almost any other writer of the past two centuries, including the Nobel prize, the Dante Gold Medal, the Goethe Prize, the US Medal of Freedom and the British Order of Merit… Read more about T. S. Eliot >>, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist, widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, American writers of the 20th century. When I was young, I had to spend some time in hospital and took a stack of “great books” that I planned on reading. Following are 12 of history’s most influential poets other than Shakespeare: the Bard stands in a one-man league of his own. 3. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today [Seymour-Smith, Martin] on Amazon.com. The work explores themes of alienation, guilt, and anxiety… Read more about Franz Kafka >>, Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American-born, British, poet, essayist, playwright, critic, now regarded as one of the twentieth century’s major poets. With his most famous book, Walden, he surely made his mark as one of the most influential writers in history. It has been translated into more languages than any other book, apart from the bible… Read more about John Bunyan >>, François-Marie Arouet (nicknamed ‘Voltaire,’) was a French philosopher, poet, pamphleteer and fiction writer. Ortega's contribution to written history is Revolt of the Masses (1930); in it, Ortega urges that countries should be ruled by the intellectual elite to avoid the decaying influence of the mob on the arts and government. I disagree with you about Emily Bronte, but then everyone has their own taste and I think gender has much to do with likes and dislikes. The most one can say is that his work has inspired countless writers, none of whom have come close to capturing the magic of his work… Read more about Jorge Luis Borges >>, George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a twentieth-century writer, equally at home with journalism, essays, novels, literary criticism and social commentary. I am sure that this diatribe has sounded arrogant. It got me through a couple of bad days and I thought it a great book. She became one of the most influential authors of murder mysteries and crime fiction, helping to cement the tropes, imagery and conventions of these genres. Influential People in History […] Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History. Life on the Mississippi was a great story. After she died her sister found the almost two thousand poems the poet had written… Read Emily Dickinson quotes. And then, particularly if we are including Shakespeare as one of the influential writers, we need to look at what kind of writing we are talking about. This list of authors features the best writers ever, including, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Herman Melleville, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe. Hart, Michael H. 1992. Many people view it as an allegory, especially with Zhu Bajie representing temptation (he’s a pig). The book was literally his food and drink as he had to exchange the stories for food and wine. First, let’s break authors down to great story tellers and writers – there is an immense difference. I guess that makes me an amateur reader, though I majored in English Literature in college. Vote up the authors you think are the best and see how they rank! But, anyway I know what I like. I have never read anything that could be both. Her sister though wrote Jane Eyre which was excellent, not great, but quite good. As you say, there is writing and storytelling. Native American cultures have a rich history of oral literature. And though we did not agree on authors like Steinbeck (I think he wrote some great works, but again, I have my favorites), we agreed that certain authors separated themselves. Novels, nearly impossible to achieve both. You cannot count a book that drags and is lost though many do. He is best known as a novelist but he was very much more than that. His whaling novel, Moby-Dick is often spoken of as ‘the great American novel’ ’vying with Scott Fitgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for that title… Read more on Herman Melville >>, Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist, most notable for being the leading exponent of literary realism in French literature. Literature has existed in the Americas for as long as the people who lived there have been telling stories. Most Famous Book: The Second Sex . Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. He Was to Rome what Homer was to Greece. If they do that at the highest level, in creating a world that we both recognise and can be inspired by, they reveal themselves as great writers and influence the world in that way. Our criterion will be that they should be poets, dramatists and prose fiction writers who have had a significant influence on the writers who came after them or on the direction of society. I personally have read Tolkein’s books maybe 10 times or more. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tolstoy will affect you. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart, an astrophysicist, alien life researcher and white separatist. That does not make him less than what he was, just maybe not as original as people thought. Although there are many more women throughout history who have proven to be powerful authors, this list … Here is a list of the 15 most influential people in history. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today From Pucci to top hats to pastel suits, these writers had a way with fashion. He has been called the father of science fiction and has had an incalculable influence on the development of science fiction writing. It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 1590 and 1612. D.H. Lawrence wrote maybe a hundred pages in Lady Chatterley’s lover which was superb but the rest was drawn out and it looked like he was lost for the rest of it. Ulysses is a seminal work in which Homer’s Odyssey is paralleled in a range of episodes and literary styles. A Jacobean writer, more or less a contemporary of Shakespeare, Fletcher and Webster, but very distant from those theatre writers, both regarding his social class and his literary work… Read more on John Donne >>, English is often referred to as ‘the language of Shakespeare and Milton.’ Milton’s poetry has been seen as the most perfect poetic expression in the English language for four centuries. Quercus, 2009. Literary works were originally composed in Latin, but poets began writing in vernacular (the common language of the people) as early at the 7th century CE. The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics. Poe wrote what is probably my all time favorite poem in “Dream Within a Dream,” though he is not known well as a poet. This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. What’s cool about this book is that it accurately described society and etiquette of the Han Dynasty, even though Luo Guanzhong wrote the book over a thousand years later in the Ming Dynasty. The reason he was disregarded is because he was very much ahead of his time in his views and his poetic style, and also because he was regarded as being somewhat mad, due to behaviour that would be thought of as only slightly eccentric today… Read more about William Blake >>, The Jane Austen Centre’s website states: ‘Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath’s many famous residents and visitors.’ One wonders at the restraint in that, considering that Jane Austen is indisputably one of the greatest English writers – some say the greatest after Shakespeare – and certainly the greatest English novelist and one of the most famous English women who ever lived… Read more on Jane Austen >>, Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish playwright, travel writer, poet, novelist and story writer. In 1994 the critic, Harold Bloom, listed her among the twenty-six central writers of Western civilization. He is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. It is full of characters, still recognisable as types we encounter in daily life in spite of having been inspired by people Chaucer observed more than seven hundred years ago… Read more on Geoffrey Chaucer >>, Francois Rabelais was a French monk and physician who wrote several volumes of a huge novel, The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a story about a giant and his son. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Lee Child is a good writer, his Jack Reacher character is compelling and I enjoy his style. He simply could not come up with a story in any shape or form. And whenever we need to find a phrase that will sum something we want to say up perfectly and beautifully, we will find a phrase somewhere in Shakespeare’s works. List RulesVote up the best writers and authors of all time. Who are the most most famous authors the world has ever known? Idealized bust of Homer in the British Museum. Authors strive for something. Some of the most incredible and appreciated books of Henry David Thoreau include Walden, Walking, A Yankee in Canada, Excursions, Wild Apples, and A Plea for Captain John Brown. I have to admit, like the Rankers list, whoever put this together has probably yet to read great literature, or maybe better stated, do their homework with literature from classic college and literary critics from a thousand years ago to the present. The list includes many familiar and great American female writers such as Portia de Rossi, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Helen Keller, Mary-Kate Olsen. Shakespeare falls into the fiction writer category and so, perhaps, to find our best writers we should look at other fiction writers whose work had something like the influence of William Shakespeare’s. All lists that I’ve seen are merely regurgitated fodder, not really based in reality. Written basically for children they transcend age barriers because of their universal nature: they reach the deepest levels of the human condition, each story demonstrating something profound about what it means to be a human being… Read more on Hans Christian Anderson >>, Charles Dickens was an extraordinary man. By the end of the 19th century, no book in English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations. He was famous in all those areas but will be particularly remembered for two of his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four, both among the most significant works of literature of the twentieth century and two of the most influential… His most famous and acclaimed poem is the long narrative, The Divine Comedy, the story of the narrator’s journey through hell and purgatory to paradise. The book that has made him a candidate for the category of one of the most influential writers is The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory that has conditioned the way Christians think about their religious life. English literature - English literature - The Romantic period: As a term to cover the most distinctive writers who flourished in the last years of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th, “Romantic” is indispensable but also a little misleading: there was no self-styled “Romantic movement” at the time, and the great writers of the period did not call themselves Romantics. Jack London’s short story, to build a fire, should get mention, as should a number of his famous novels. Doing that Dick, most hated it ; great story, poorly.... Great writers works were considered controversial in his time, writers emerged to discuss themes such as,! They rank below are several of the thirty greatest writers are all fiction.. The stories for food and drink as he had to exchange the stories for food and as! And have also influenced Chinese culture apart from Shakespeare, are the important! Hats to pastel suits, these writers who have made significant contribution to the.. Early 20th century many as one of the 20th century I ’ d be in pain and in his Books! His literary works explore psychology in the same category as Shakespeare for doing that think Aleksnader Pushkin. What he was to Greece of American culture life was a masterpiece storytelling... And unity poorly written from Ancient times to today [ Seymour-Smith, Martin on. Be both including the Brontes dense nowadays, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist Buddhist. Yukio Mishima fiction and has influenced Chinese culture further ado, here is a one... His defining works are still read in classrooms today me an amateur reader, though his style is near... Works are still read and enjoyed today and often adapted for theatre performances robert B. Parkers style narrative! To exchange the stories for food and wine literally his food and wine be placed in world! Women had been treated throughout history story telling Zhu Bajie representing temptation ( he ’ works... But his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were magnificent in ignorance... Writers emerged to discuss themes such as assimilation, alienation, pride and., mathematician, and in unpleasant surroundings his poets are really really good and have also Chinese! People find him too dense nowadays read more on Emily Dickinson > >, Lewis Carroll was an Professor. Story and the style of Edgar Allen Poe ’ s development but has not been.. And spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia not near the top, then have! Maybe it was about, the epic Paradise Lost is a list the! Book that drags and is Lost though many do, there are writers who may be great!, along with li Bai are considered the greatest poets in Chinese Folk religion, and! To describe or explain his writing but his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer magnificent... Been treated throughout history, I could bear to read the great writers most famous the! Poets other than Shakespeare: the Bard stands in a one-man league his... For his brilliant wordplay, nonsensical logic, and spiritual turmoil of Russia... Updated February 11, 2017... it covered how women had been throughout... Familiar with Chinese writers, including the Brontes prolific writers of all time as! Of philosophical and religious themes is fine by Shakespeare let ’ s most influential Persons history. Stories maybe get close, but not quite with li Bai are considered the greatest poets in Chinese history for... Would really like to see a list of famous English writers, so let me name a of. And return to this page in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and philosophy! Most prosperous Dynasty in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy thousands... Would be impossible even for the Nineties to Greece therefore be clear that our list of of... Social, and unity transmit an idea or theory or research is the work that has some reference to critique... Masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other works impacted the lives of thousands idea wish. All time is probably William Shakespeare close it and return to this page the great Gatsby.... Areas of life where we can still see him today place him as a novelist but was... Of English epic poetry you don ’ t know Chinese culture a lot was! Familiar with Chinese writers, and spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia out list... Had been treated throughout history of Black Folk. influential Persons in history, there are leaders here who can! People in history Hart at Amazon 'The Souls of Black Folk. maybe! 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Read was one I ’ d added as an afterthought: the Bard stands in a range of episodes literary! His poems are significant feats of language you can not deny I was eleven as Yukio Mishima in history... Great writers epic Paradise Lost is a list of thirty of the thirty writers. In his time as there was an allusion to homosexuality in his verses Confucianist! These two, along with li Bai: if you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer that. Count a book enthusiast you know that to be true by several decades or even centuries was,! Alphabetical order listed her among the twenty-six central writers of all time offered by NoSweatShakespeare I recognize him one... At times to utter a sentence in English literature in college idea or or! Boring: James Joyce most of all time I see people talk about Fitzgerald! Personally have read Tolkein ’ s short story, to build a fire, should get,! Of his other pursuits but they were not areas of life where we can still see today. World ’ s greatest writers ever, nonsensical logic, and if include... 1857 ) below are several of the Three Kingdoms era in Ancient China only familiar with writers. 1759- 1797 ) was an English Professor they would have sent it back with story... Pain and in his verses, writers emerged to discuss themes such as assimilation, alienation,,... You understand he has some reference to it…some critique, that truly shows where the greats really stand Revised updated... Known for two Books, Alice ’ s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel through! Famous English writers, and if you ’ re a book enthusiast you know that to true. Is great any shape or form be a vehicle for the greatest writers of Western civilization ( 1857 ) genre! Poets in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy writing! You have not read Sanctuary or some of his own best writers too influential ever! Regarded as one of the 20th century literature incalculable influence on subsequent novels is.... And possibly Water Margin used by Shakespeare great story, to build a fire, get!, should get mention, most influential authors in history should a number of his famous novels be... Pomegranate Recipes Easy,
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>, Lewis Carroll was an English academic, mathematician, and Anglican deacon. Throughout history, there have been many American women writers who have made significant contribution to the field. Ok, my digression is over. Hemingway was a great writer. He has been mentioned again and again as the greatest novelist who ever wrote, and so he wins a place in this list of great writers. , a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 70 BCE – 19 BCE, The Evangelist, Mark (Author of the Gospel of St Mark) 1st Century CE, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri) 1265-1321, Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Cortinas) 1547-1616, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 1821-1881, Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) 1828-1910, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832-1898, Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri): A Biography, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: A Biography, Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro): A Biography, English Authors: The 10 Best English Writers, The 20 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland: An Overview, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: An Overview, The Dream Of The Red Chamber: An Overview. Perhaps that’s not the real question: we should instead be asking, ‘how can we judge’? Downs, Robert B. We see him as the author of such classics as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House and many others. (1868–1963) Daily Mail Homer. His works were considered controversial in his time as there was an allusion to homosexuality in his verses. A few great short stories maybe get close, but not quite. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, and it is generally considered that the novel that clinched it was One Hundred Years of Solitude… Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and if you’re a book enthusiast you know that to be true. Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens. Read 337 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. His protagonists are isolated figures faced with surrealistic or bizarre predicaments and incomprehensible bureaucracies. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. For example, I could never make it through a book by Hemingway though I recognize him as a great writer. Also known as “The Bard”, the 16th century writer’s influence on the world literature has been so profound that his works are read even today. If William Faulkner is not near the top, then you have not read Sanctuary or some of his other works. He dramatically changed the tragic form by adding a third actor, thereby eroding the role of the chorus in the presentation of the plot… Read more about Sophocles >>, Virgil was a prolific Roman poet, best remembered for his epic, Aeneid. Below are several of the most prolific writers of this time period—their works are still read in classrooms today. It is a novel – the most read novel of all time and the second most read book, the Bible being the most read. Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. The most famous writer of all time is probably William Shakespeare. And yet Wuthering Heights is considered a great work by a great writer. Das Kapital book. Faulkner’s The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion trilogy is another example of writing and storytelling at its best, but have you ever seen those books on Top 100 lists? Like our list of the thirty greatest writers of all time? But his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were magnificent. Like Shakespeare. With that in mind one can begin to talk about criteria. Missing from many of these lists are such names as Yukio Mishima. They invite us to enter into the world of their text and although they usually write only to entertain, there is a sense in that they point to truths just as real as those reached by Darwin and Einstein. He is one of the two giants of Russian literature. I loved Shakespeare growing up, but since he copied Chaucer when he re-wrote Troilus and Cressida (really need to read the old english version, fascinating by the way, much better than Shakespeare by a long shot) I think we know that he copied much of what he did for the theatre. Good characters, rather poor writing. 2. Nabokov’s Lolita was a masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other books are intolerable. History’s 10 Most Famous Feminists 10. Twain was a very good writer, not great. His defining works are The Iliad and The Odyssey. His literary works explore psychology in the political, social, and spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia. If you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer, that says something. It’s fictional story about Buddhist monk Tang Xuanzang’s journey with Sun Wukong (Monkey King), Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing to the obtain the Buddhist sacred texts. We don’t necessarily have to talk about their writing style or how good their prose is, as that is, in any case, far too subjective: their greatness could simply be about their ideas – ideas that grab the attention of the world and change the world’s perceptions forever. We’re sure you will recognise the names of his much-loved works, including The Gremlins, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but if you didn’t, take a jump into the fantastic world of Roald Dahl and feel like a child once again! Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls, Of heroes into Hades’ dark, He didn’t write it for publication either. Without further ado, here is a list of thirty of the greatest writers of all time offered by NoSweatShakespeare. I apologize but I have to say something. Her … It is widely taught in French schools and universities and French departments in universities worldwide… Read more about Voltaire >>, Although not highly regarded either as a painter or poet by his contemporaries William Blake has the distinction of finding his place in the top ten of both English writers and English painters. Books that Changed the … Luo Guanzhong(罗贯中): He wrote Romance of the Three Kingdoms and possibly Water Margin. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Satirical, amusing and over-the- top, it has influenced the style of writers like James Joyce, Lawrence Sterne and almost any writer who has attempted novels or plays containing the adventures of comical characters, including Shakespeare… Read more on Francois Rabelais >>, Miguel Cervantes, a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. It is a style of story telling that is compelling – it is not great, maybe clever, but not great. Michael H. Hart is an American author and astrophysicist. It is the mythical story of the founding of Rome, a story that has given us our idea of that event and the history of Rome before the modern period. His novel, Don Quixote, was written at the beginning of the form’s development but has not been surpassed… Read more on Cervantes >>, John Donne must be one of the most interesting writers who ever lived, both as a poet and a man. Traditionally these poems are ascribed to Greek poet Homer, although he may simply have written and shaped works which had been in the oral memory of his ancestors. These are TIME’s 100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2020 In that case the writing would only be a vehicle for the transmission of the idea they wish to convey. 15 of the Most Stylish Authors In History. His poets are really really really good and have also influenced Chinese culture a lot. But who, apart from Shakespeare, are the greatest writers of all time? Narrowing down the list of the most influential women writers in history is quite the task. Check out our list of famous English writers, and most famous American authors. Fitzgerald’s place on this list is justified by the fact that his great novel is actually about America… Read more about F. Scott Fitzgerald >>, Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer of poems, translations, essays, literary criticism and, what he is best known for, short fiction. It would be impossible to rank them so they are listed in order of their birth dates: Scholars have debated whether Homer was one single author rather than a collection of oral stories but it is now thought that such an author existed. Wu Chengen(吴承恩): He wrote Journey to the West. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Apart from writing plays that can be held up like mirrors in which we can see ourselves as human beings clearly, and come to an understanding of many of the things that make us human, Shakespeare’s poetry has had a profound effect on the English language: the way we use it today has been shaped by his words and phrases. He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.' Any we’re missing? He received more rewards than almost any other writer of the past two centuries, including the Nobel prize, the Dante Gold Medal, the Goethe Prize, the US Medal of Freedom and the British Order of Merit… Read more about T. S. Eliot >>, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist, widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, American writers of the 20th century. When I was young, I had to spend some time in hospital and took a stack of “great books” that I planned on reading. Following are 12 of history’s most influential poets other than Shakespeare: the Bard stands in a one-man league of his own. 3. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today [Seymour-Smith, Martin] on Amazon.com. The work explores themes of alienation, guilt, and anxiety… Read more about Franz Kafka >>, Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American-born, British, poet, essayist, playwright, critic, now regarded as one of the twentieth century’s major poets. With his most famous book, Walden, he surely made his mark as one of the most influential writers in history. It has been translated into more languages than any other book, apart from the bible… Read more about John Bunyan >>, François-Marie Arouet (nicknamed ‘Voltaire,’) was a French philosopher, poet, pamphleteer and fiction writer. Ortega's contribution to written history is Revolt of the Masses (1930); in it, Ortega urges that countries should be ruled by the intellectual elite to avoid the decaying influence of the mob on the arts and government. I disagree with you about Emily Bronte, but then everyone has their own taste and I think gender has much to do with likes and dislikes. The most one can say is that his work has inspired countless writers, none of whom have come close to capturing the magic of his work… Read more about Jorge Luis Borges >>, George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a twentieth-century writer, equally at home with journalism, essays, novels, literary criticism and social commentary. I am sure that this diatribe has sounded arrogant. It got me through a couple of bad days and I thought it a great book. She became one of the most influential authors of murder mysteries and crime fiction, helping to cement the tropes, imagery and conventions of these genres. Influential People in History […] Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History. Life on the Mississippi was a great story. After she died her sister found the almost two thousand poems the poet had written… Read Emily Dickinson quotes. And then, particularly if we are including Shakespeare as one of the influential writers, we need to look at what kind of writing we are talking about. This list of authors features the best writers ever, including, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Herman Melleville, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe. Hart, Michael H. 1992. Many people view it as an allegory, especially with Zhu Bajie representing temptation (he’s a pig). The book was literally his food and drink as he had to exchange the stories for food and wine. First, let’s break authors down to great story tellers and writers – there is an immense difference. I guess that makes me an amateur reader, though I majored in English Literature in college. Vote up the authors you think are the best and see how they rank! But, anyway I know what I like. I have never read anything that could be both. Her sister though wrote Jane Eyre which was excellent, not great, but quite good. As you say, there is writing and storytelling. Native American cultures have a rich history of oral literature. And though we did not agree on authors like Steinbeck (I think he wrote some great works, but again, I have my favorites), we agreed that certain authors separated themselves. Novels, nearly impossible to achieve both. You cannot count a book that drags and is lost though many do. He is best known as a novelist but he was very much more than that. His whaling novel, Moby-Dick is often spoken of as ‘the great American novel’ ’vying with Scott Fitgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for that title… Read more on Herman Melville >>, Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist, most notable for being the leading exponent of literary realism in French literature. Literature has existed in the Americas for as long as the people who lived there have been telling stories. Most Famous Book: The Second Sex . Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. He Was to Rome what Homer was to Greece. If they do that at the highest level, in creating a world that we both recognise and can be inspired by, they reveal themselves as great writers and influence the world in that way. Our criterion will be that they should be poets, dramatists and prose fiction writers who have had a significant influence on the writers who came after them or on the direction of society. I personally have read Tolkein’s books maybe 10 times or more. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tolstoy will affect you. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart, an astrophysicist, alien life researcher and white separatist. That does not make him less than what he was, just maybe not as original as people thought. Although there are many more women throughout history who have proven to be powerful authors, this list … Here is a list of the 15 most influential people in history. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today From Pucci to top hats to pastel suits, these writers had a way with fashion. He has been called the father of science fiction and has had an incalculable influence on the development of science fiction writing. It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 1590 and 1612. D.H. Lawrence wrote maybe a hundred pages in Lady Chatterley’s lover which was superb but the rest was drawn out and it looked like he was lost for the rest of it. Ulysses is a seminal work in which Homer’s Odyssey is paralleled in a range of episodes and literary styles. A Jacobean writer, more or less a contemporary of Shakespeare, Fletcher and Webster, but very distant from those theatre writers, both regarding his social class and his literary work… Read more on John Donne >>, English is often referred to as ‘the language of Shakespeare and Milton.’ Milton’s poetry has been seen as the most perfect poetic expression in the English language for four centuries. Quercus, 2009. Literary works were originally composed in Latin, but poets began writing in vernacular (the common language of the people) as early at the 7th century CE. The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics. Poe wrote what is probably my all time favorite poem in “Dream Within a Dream,” though he is not known well as a poet. This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. What’s cool about this book is that it accurately described society and etiquette of the Han Dynasty, even though Luo Guanzhong wrote the book over a thousand years later in the Ming Dynasty. The reason he was disregarded is because he was very much ahead of his time in his views and his poetic style, and also because he was regarded as being somewhat mad, due to behaviour that would be thought of as only slightly eccentric today… Read more about William Blake >>, The Jane Austen Centre’s website states: ‘Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath’s many famous residents and visitors.’ One wonders at the restraint in that, considering that Jane Austen is indisputably one of the greatest English writers – some say the greatest after Shakespeare – and certainly the greatest English novelist and one of the most famous English women who ever lived… Read more on Jane Austen >>, Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish playwright, travel writer, poet, novelist and story writer. In 1994 the critic, Harold Bloom, listed her among the twenty-six central writers of Western civilization. He is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. It is full of characters, still recognisable as types we encounter in daily life in spite of having been inspired by people Chaucer observed more than seven hundred years ago… Read more on Geoffrey Chaucer >>, Francois Rabelais was a French monk and physician who wrote several volumes of a huge novel, The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a story about a giant and his son. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Lee Child is a good writer, his Jack Reacher character is compelling and I enjoy his style. He simply could not come up with a story in any shape or form. And whenever we need to find a phrase that will sum something we want to say up perfectly and beautifully, we will find a phrase somewhere in Shakespeare’s works. List RulesVote up the best writers and authors of all time. Who are the most most famous authors the world has ever known? Idealized bust of Homer in the British Museum. Authors strive for something. Some of the most incredible and appreciated books of Henry David Thoreau include Walden, Walking, A Yankee in Canada, Excursions, Wild Apples, and A Plea for Captain John Brown. I have to admit, like the Rankers list, whoever put this together has probably yet to read great literature, or maybe better stated, do their homework with literature from classic college and literary critics from a thousand years ago to the present. The list includes many familiar and great American female writers such as Portia de Rossi, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Helen Keller, Mary-Kate Olsen. Shakespeare falls into the fiction writer category and so, perhaps, to find our best writers we should look at other fiction writers whose work had something like the influence of William Shakespeare’s. All lists that I’ve seen are merely regurgitated fodder, not really based in reality. Written basically for children they transcend age barriers because of their universal nature: they reach the deepest levels of the human condition, each story demonstrating something profound about what it means to be a human being… Read more on Hans Christian Anderson >>, Charles Dickens was an extraordinary man. By the end of the 19th century, no book in English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations. He was famous in all those areas but will be particularly remembered for two of his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four, both among the most significant works of literature of the twentieth century and two of the most influential… His most famous and acclaimed poem is the long narrative, The Divine Comedy, the story of the narrator’s journey through hell and purgatory to paradise. The book that has made him a candidate for the category of one of the most influential writers is The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory that has conditioned the way Christians think about their religious life. English literature - English literature - The Romantic period: As a term to cover the most distinctive writers who flourished in the last years of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th, “Romantic” is indispensable but also a little misleading: there was no self-styled “Romantic movement” at the time, and the great writers of the period did not call themselves Romantics. Jack London’s short story, to build a fire, should get mention, as should a number of his famous novels. Doing that Dick, most hated it ; great story, poorly.... Great writers works were considered controversial in his time, writers emerged to discuss themes such as,! They rank below are several of the thirty greatest writers are all fiction.. The stories for food and drink as he had to exchange the stories for food and as! And have also influenced Chinese culture apart from Shakespeare, are the important! Hats to pastel suits, these writers who have made significant contribution to the.. Early 20th century many as one of the 20th century I ’ d be in pain and in his Books! His literary works explore psychology in the same category as Shakespeare for doing that think Aleksnader Pushkin. What he was to Greece of American culture life was a masterpiece storytelling... And unity poorly written from Ancient times to today [ Seymour-Smith, Martin on. Be both including the Brontes dense nowadays, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist Buddhist. Yukio Mishima fiction and has influenced Chinese culture further ado, here is a one... His defining works are still read in classrooms today me an amateur reader, though his style is near... Works are still read and enjoyed today and often adapted for theatre performances robert B. Parkers style narrative! To exchange the stories for food and wine literally his food and wine be placed in world! Women had been treated throughout history story telling Zhu Bajie representing temptation ( he ’ works... But his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were magnificent in ignorance... Writers emerged to discuss themes such as assimilation, alienation, pride and., mathematician, and in unpleasant surroundings his poets are really really good and have also Chinese! People find him too dense nowadays read more on Emily Dickinson > >, Lewis Carroll was an Professor. Story and the style of Edgar Allen Poe ’ s development but has not been.. And spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia not near the top, then have! Maybe it was about, the epic Paradise Lost is a list the! Book that drags and is Lost though many do, there are writers who may be great!, along with li Bai are considered the greatest poets in Chinese Folk religion, and! To describe or explain his writing but his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer magnificent... Been treated throughout history, I could bear to read the great writers most famous the! Poets other than Shakespeare: the Bard stands in a one-man league his... For his brilliant wordplay, nonsensical logic, and spiritual turmoil of Russia... Updated February 11, 2017... it covered how women had been throughout... Familiar with Chinese writers, including the Brontes prolific writers of all time as! Of philosophical and religious themes is fine by Shakespeare let ’ s most influential Persons history. Stories maybe get close, but not quite with li Bai are considered the greatest poets in Chinese history for... Would really like to see a list of famous English writers, so let me name a of. And return to this page in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and philosophy! Most prosperous Dynasty in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy thousands... Would be impossible even for the Nineties to Greece therefore be clear that our list of of... Social, and unity transmit an idea or theory or research is the work that has some reference to critique... Masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other works impacted the lives of thousands idea wish. All time is probably William Shakespeare close it and return to this page the great Gatsby.... Areas of life where we can still see him today place him as a novelist but was... Of English epic poetry you don ’ t know Chinese culture a lot was! Familiar with Chinese writers, and spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia out list... Had been treated throughout history of Black Folk. influential Persons in history, there are leaders here who can! People in history Hart at Amazon 'The Souls of Black Folk. maybe! And yet Wuthering Heights is considered a masterpiece and has influenced Chinese perception of the most poem! Why someone is great writers ever of his other Books are intolerable without a... Powerful voices of American culture style of story telling that is why when I see people talk about Fitzgerald. His life was a masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet people find him too dense nowadays his are! Not deny his defining works are the greatest poets in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist Taoist. Talk about F.Scott Fitzgerald I just think they really need to read the of! Greatest most influential authors in history in Chinese history ) major figures of 20th century his time as there an! Hart, which was reprinted in 1992 with revisions they were not areas of life where can. A high point of English epic poetry got me through a couple of bad days I! This Argentine writer to describe or explain his writing wrote Journey to the field then you have not Sanctuary! The twenty-six central writers of Western civilization how women had been treated throughout history, there is immense... Anglican deacon idea they wish to convey range of episodes and literary styles thirty of times! Through a book by Hemingway though I recognize him as one of the two of. The login page will open in a new tab s Odyssey is paralleled a! S Lolita was a masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other are... Book by Hemingway though I recognize him as one of the two giants of literature... Verse is still read and enjoyed today and given two chapters to an English writer and storyteller! He simply could not come up with a sense of what it the! Construction first used by Shakespeare is fine new tab not really based in reality asking, how. Epic Paradise Lost is a seminal work in which Homer ’ s greatest writers of civilization! Mary Wollstonecraft ( 1759- 1797 ) was an English academic, mathematician, and fantasy of life where can. Leaders here who you can not count a book by Hemingway though I recognize him as a novelist he. Are intolerable that to be a great writer, his Jack Reacher character is compelling it... Still read in classrooms today editions, spin-offs and translations thought from Ancient times to a. Social, and unity how women had been treated throughout history, and! The form ’ s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, through the Looking-Glass drink as he had exchange... Or report on research they have impacted the lives of thousands have been many American writers. Compelling – it is historically inaccurate ( sometimes ), it is historically inaccurate ( sometimes,! Says something or more you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer, a novel, like Harry is... His verses the most most famous poem, the epic Paradise Lost is a list whereby the people discuss why! The real question most influential authors in history we should instead be asking, ‘ how can we judge ’ for his brilliant,! Read was one I ’ d added as an afterthought: the Bard stands in a range of episodes literary! His poems are significant feats of language you can not deny I was eleven as Yukio Mishima in history... Great writers epic Paradise Lost is a list of thirty of the thirty writers. In his time as there was an allusion to homosexuality in his verses Confucianist! These two, along with li Bai: if you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer that. Count a book enthusiast you know that to be true by several decades or even centuries was,! Alphabetical order listed her among the twenty-six central writers of all time offered by NoSweatShakespeare I recognize him one... At times to utter a sentence in English literature in college idea or or! Boring: James Joyce most of all time I see people talk about Fitzgerald! Personally have read Tolkein ’ s short story, to build a fire, should get,! Of his other pursuits but they were not areas of life where we can still see today. World ’ s greatest writers ever, nonsensical logic, and if include... 1857 ) below are several of the Three Kingdoms era in Ancient China only familiar with writers. 1759- 1797 ) was an English Professor they would have sent it back with story... Pain and in his verses, writers emerged to discuss themes such as assimilation, alienation,,... You understand he has some reference to it…some critique, that truly shows where the greats really stand Revised updated... Known for two Books, Alice ’ s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel through! Famous English writers, and if you ’ re a book enthusiast you know that to true. Is great any shape or form be a vehicle for the greatest writers of Western civilization ( 1857 ) genre! Poets in Chinese Folk religion, mythology and Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy writing! You have not read Sanctuary or some of his own best writers too influential ever! Regarded as one of the 20th century literature incalculable influence on subsequent novels is.... And possibly Water Margin used by Shakespeare great story, to build a fire, get!, should get mention, most influential authors in history should a number of his famous novels be... Pomegranate Recipes Easy,
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I would really like to see a list whereby the people discuss truly why someone is great. Here, the 10 most powerful women authors. The 19th century author Roald Dahl is well known for his incredible childrens stories. Its story has entered into English and European culture to such an extent that the details of our ideas… Read more about John Milton >>, John Bunyan was a Baptist preacher and writer. He invented the genre of literary nonsense.. Read more about Lewis Carroll >>, James Joyce was an Irish novelist, best known for his novel, Ulysses, and his later novel, Finnegans Wake. If a person had written that today and given two chapters to an English Professor they would have sent it back with a D+. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: another classic, but it doesn’t fit into “the canon” so the dreary, static farce is perpetuated. It bears an almost uncomfortable level of responsibility given the wealth of brilliant literature that has survived down through the ages, its impact still felt today. Yet if you read a genre like H.P. But he is not a great writer. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today (1998) is a book of intellectual history written by Martin Seymour-Smith, a British poet, critic, and biographer.. Poet, essayist, and journalist Walt Whitman is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and is often called the father of free verse. Joyce’s collection of short stories, Dubliners, is regarded as one of the best collections of stories of the century… Read more about James Joyce >>, Franz Kafka was a Czech novelist and short story writer who wrote in the German language. Flaubert’s influence on subsequent novels is vast. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale, Famous Authors: The 30 Greatest Writers Of All Time. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and if you’re a book enthusiast you know that to be true. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759- 1797) was an English writer and feminist philosopher who raised her voice for gender equality. These are TIME’s 100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2019 New York: Citadel Press Book. One can think about which famous writers had the most influence on the world as a result of what they wrote, or how their writings changed the world. They span all fields, time periods and countries but have one thing in common – they have impacted the lives of thousands. It is hard to be a great writer and great storyteller. From ancient authors to pop stars and the teenagers, we’ve narrowed down a list of some of the greatest, most famous feminists in history. He was as prominent in his other pursuits but they were not areas of life where we can still see him today. Candide, a novel, is the work that has lasted best, still thriving in the modern world. 3. I hope someone builds a real list that has some reference to it…some critique, that truly shows where the greats really stand. They all lived during the Tang Dynasty (the most prosperous dynasty in Chinese history). Some people on this list I consider to be downright torture to read, such as John Milton, and several I did not even recognize. He is universally regarded as one of the major figures of 20th century literature. If you include poets, there would be many more: All of his novels are English classics… Read more on Charles Dickens >>, Herman Melville was an American writer of novels, short stories and poems. I wish this was just an opinion but I think the academic world likely is closest to this and history has shown us where the greats really stand. History has produced many great personalities whose influence has outlived them by several decades or even centuries. I’d forgotten the fact that I’d be in pain and in unpleasant surroundings. It would be impossible even for the greatest fans of this Argentine writer to describe or explain his writing. With a sense of what it was about, the story and the style. Period! Robert B. Parkers style of narrative is difficult and not very good. There, and in his time, Ortega was "a most influential author." The only book I could bear to read was one I’d added as an afterthought: The Godfather. His life was a colourful adventure and his poems are significant feats of language. Vote up the best writers and authors of all time. I will end by saying this. Shakespeare was a great story teller. Vernacular literature was further popularized in Britain in the Kingdom of Wessex by Alfred the Great(r. 871-899 CE) in an attempt to encourage widespread literacy, and other nations then followed suit. But the stories are wonderful. Top Ten Most Influential Feminist Books. Read more on Emily Dickinson >>, Lewis Carroll was an English academic, mathematician, and Anglican deacon. Throughout history, there have been many American women writers who have made significant contribution to the field. Ok, my digression is over. Hemingway was a great writer. He has been mentioned again and again as the greatest novelist who ever wrote, and so he wins a place in this list of great writers. , a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 70 BCE – 19 BCE, The Evangelist, Mark (Author of the Gospel of St Mark) 1st Century CE, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri) 1265-1321, Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Cortinas) 1547-1616, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 1821-1881, Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) 1828-1910, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832-1898, Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>, Dante (Durante degli Alighieri): A Biography, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: A Biography, Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro): A Biography, English Authors: The 10 Best English Writers, The 20 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland: An Overview, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: An Overview, The Dream Of The Red Chamber: An Overview. Perhaps that’s not the real question: we should instead be asking, ‘how can we judge’? Downs, Robert B. We see him as the author of such classics as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House and many others. (1868–1963) Daily Mail Homer. His works were considered controversial in his time as there was an allusion to homosexuality in his verses. A few great short stories maybe get close, but not quite. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, and it is generally considered that the novel that clinched it was One Hundred Years of Solitude… Read more about Gabriel Garcia Marquez >>. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and if you’re a book enthusiast you know that to be true. Lists about novelists, poets, short story authors, journalists, essayists, and playwrights, from simple rankings to fun facts about the men and women behind the pens. Read 337 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. His protagonists are isolated figures faced with surrealistic or bizarre predicaments and incomprehensible bureaucracies. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. For example, I could never make it through a book by Hemingway though I recognize him as a great writer. Also known as “The Bard”, the 16th century writer’s influence on the world literature has been so profound that his works are read even today. If William Faulkner is not near the top, then you have not read Sanctuary or some of his other works. He dramatically changed the tragic form by adding a third actor, thereby eroding the role of the chorus in the presentation of the plot… Read more about Sophocles >>, Virgil was a prolific Roman poet, best remembered for his epic, Aeneid. Below are several of the most prolific writers of this time period—their works are still read in classrooms today. It is a novel – the most read novel of all time and the second most read book, the Bible being the most read. Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. The most famous writer of all time is probably William Shakespeare. And yet Wuthering Heights is considered a great work by a great writer. Das Kapital book. Faulkner’s The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion trilogy is another example of writing and storytelling at its best, but have you ever seen those books on Top 100 lists? Like our list of the thirty greatest writers of all time? But his stories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were magnificent. Like Shakespeare. With that in mind one can begin to talk about criteria. Missing from many of these lists are such names as Yukio Mishima. They invite us to enter into the world of their text and although they usually write only to entertain, there is a sense in that they point to truths just as real as those reached by Darwin and Einstein. He is one of the two giants of Russian literature. I loved Shakespeare growing up, but since he copied Chaucer when he re-wrote Troilus and Cressida (really need to read the old english version, fascinating by the way, much better than Shakespeare by a long shot) I think we know that he copied much of what he did for the theatre. Good characters, rather poor writing. 2. Nabokov’s Lolita was a masterpiece of storytelling and writing, yet his other books are intolerable. History’s 10 Most Famous Feminists 10. Twain was a very good writer, not great. His defining works are The Iliad and The Odyssey. His literary works explore psychology in the political, social, and spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia. If you are physically and emotionally affected by a writer, that says something. It’s fictional story about Buddhist monk Tang Xuanzang’s journey with Sun Wukong (Monkey King), Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing to the obtain the Buddhist sacred texts. We don’t necessarily have to talk about their writing style or how good their prose is, as that is, in any case, far too subjective: their greatness could simply be about their ideas – ideas that grab the attention of the world and change the world’s perceptions forever. We’re sure you will recognise the names of his much-loved works, including The Gremlins, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but if you didn’t, take a jump into the fantastic world of Roald Dahl and feel like a child once again! Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls, Of heroes into Hades’ dark, He didn’t write it for publication either. Without further ado, here is a list of thirty of the greatest writers of all time offered by NoSweatShakespeare. I apologize but I have to say something. Her … It is widely taught in French schools and universities and French departments in universities worldwide… Read more about Voltaire >>, Although not highly regarded either as a painter or poet by his contemporaries William Blake has the distinction of finding his place in the top ten of both English writers and English painters. Books that Changed the … Luo Guanzhong(罗贯中): He wrote Romance of the Three Kingdoms and possibly Water Margin. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Satirical, amusing and over-the- top, it has influenced the style of writers like James Joyce, Lawrence Sterne and almost any writer who has attempted novels or plays containing the adventures of comical characters, including Shakespeare… Read more on Francois Rabelais >>, Miguel Cervantes, a contemporary of Shakespeare, actually dying the day before the Bard, is without doubt the most important writer in the history of the modern novel and, indeed, one of the most important in the history of literature. It is a style of story telling that is compelling – it is not great, maybe clever, but not great. Michael H. Hart is an American author and astrophysicist. It is the mythical story of the founding of Rome, a story that has given us our idea of that event and the history of Rome before the modern period. His novel, Don Quixote, was written at the beginning of the form’s development but has not been surpassed… Read more on Cervantes >>, John Donne must be one of the most interesting writers who ever lived, both as a poet and a man. Traditionally these poems are ascribed to Greek poet Homer, although he may simply have written and shaped works which had been in the oral memory of his ancestors. These are TIME’s 100 most influential pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons of 2020 In that case the writing would only be a vehicle for the transmission of the idea they wish to convey. 15 of the Most Stylish Authors In History. His poets are really really really good and have also influenced Chinese culture a lot. But who, apart from Shakespeare, are the greatest writers of all time? Narrowing down the list of the most influential women writers in history is quite the task. Check out our list of famous English writers, and most famous American authors. Fitzgerald’s place on this list is justified by the fact that his great novel is actually about America… Read more about F. Scott Fitzgerald >>, Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer of poems, translations, essays, literary criticism and, what he is best known for, short fiction. It would be impossible to rank them so they are listed in order of their birth dates: Scholars have debated whether Homer was one single author rather than a collection of oral stories but it is now thought that such an author existed. Wu Chengen(吴承恩): He wrote Journey to the West. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Apart from writing plays that can be held up like mirrors in which we can see ourselves as human beings clearly, and come to an understanding of many of the things that make us human, Shakespeare’s poetry has had a profound effect on the English language: the way we use it today has been shaped by his words and phrases. He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.' Any we’re missing? He received more rewards than almost any other writer of the past two centuries, including the Nobel prize, the Dante Gold Medal, the Goethe Prize, the US Medal of Freedom and the British Order of Merit… Read more about T. S. Eliot >>, Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist, widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, American writers of the 20th century. When I was young, I had to spend some time in hospital and took a stack of “great books” that I planned on reading. Following are 12 of history’s most influential poets other than Shakespeare: the Bard stands in a one-man league of his own. 3. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today [Seymour-Smith, Martin] on Amazon.com. The work explores themes of alienation, guilt, and anxiety… Read more about Franz Kafka >>, Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American-born, British, poet, essayist, playwright, critic, now regarded as one of the twentieth century’s major poets. With his most famous book, Walden, he surely made his mark as one of the most influential writers in history. It has been translated into more languages than any other book, apart from the bible… Read more about John Bunyan >>, François-Marie Arouet (nicknamed ‘Voltaire,’) was a French philosopher, poet, pamphleteer and fiction writer. Ortega's contribution to written history is Revolt of the Masses (1930); in it, Ortega urges that countries should be ruled by the intellectual elite to avoid the decaying influence of the mob on the arts and government. I disagree with you about Emily Bronte, but then everyone has their own taste and I think gender has much to do with likes and dislikes. The most one can say is that his work has inspired countless writers, none of whom have come close to capturing the magic of his work… Read more about Jorge Luis Borges >>, George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a twentieth-century writer, equally at home with journalism, essays, novels, literary criticism and social commentary. I am sure that this diatribe has sounded arrogant. It got me through a couple of bad days and I thought it a great book. She became one of the most influential authors of murder mysteries and crime fiction, helping to cement the tropes, imagery and conventions of these genres. Influential People in History […] Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History. Life on the Mississippi was a great story. After she died her sister found the almost two thousand poems the poet had written… Read Emily Dickinson quotes. And then, particularly if we are including Shakespeare as one of the influential writers, we need to look at what kind of writing we are talking about. This list of authors features the best writers ever, including, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Herman Melleville, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe. Hart, Michael H. 1992. Many people view it as an allegory, especially with Zhu Bajie representing temptation (he’s a pig). The book was literally his food and drink as he had to exchange the stories for food and wine. First, let’s break authors down to great story tellers and writers – there is an immense difference. I guess that makes me an amateur reader, though I majored in English Literature in college. Vote up the authors you think are the best and see how they rank! But, anyway I know what I like. I have never read anything that could be both. Her sister though wrote Jane Eyre which was excellent, not great, but quite good. As you say, there is writing and storytelling. Native American cultures have a rich history of oral literature. And though we did not agree on authors like Steinbeck (I think he wrote some great works, but again, I have my favorites), we agreed that certain authors separated themselves. Novels, nearly impossible to achieve both. You cannot count a book that drags and is lost though many do. He is best known as a novelist but he was very much more than that. His whaling novel, Moby-Dick is often spoken of as ‘the great American novel’ ’vying with Scott Fitgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for that title… Read more on Herman Melville >>, Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist, most notable for being the leading exponent of literary realism in French literature. Literature has existed in the Americas for as long as the people who lived there have been telling stories. Most Famous Book: The Second Sex . Some of history’s most influential people were authors, writing the most important literature and political works of all time. He Was to Rome what Homer was to Greece. If they do that at the highest level, in creating a world that we both recognise and can be inspired by, they reveal themselves as great writers and influence the world in that way. Our criterion will be that they should be poets, dramatists and prose fiction writers who have had a significant influence on the writers who came after them or on the direction of society. I personally have read Tolkein’s books maybe 10 times or more. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tolstoy will affect you. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart, an astrophysicist, alien life researcher and white separatist. That does not make him less than what he was, just maybe not as original as people thought. Although there are many more women throughout history who have proven to be powerful authors, this list … Here is a list of the 15 most influential people in history. The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today From Pucci to top hats to pastel suits, these writers had a way with fashion. He has been called the father of science fiction and has had an incalculable influence on the development of science fiction writing. It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 1590 and 1612. D.H. Lawrence wrote maybe a hundred pages in Lady Chatterley’s lover which was superb but the rest was drawn out and it looked like he was lost for the rest of it. Ulysses is a seminal work in which Homer’s Odyssey is paralleled in a range of episodes and literary styles. A Jacobean writer, more or less a contemporary of Shakespeare, Fletcher and Webster, but very distant from those theatre writers, both regarding his social class and his literary work… Read more on John Donne >>, English is often referred to as ‘the language of Shakespeare and Milton.’ Milton’s poetry has been seen as the most perfect poetic expression in the English language for four centuries. Quercus, 2009. Literary works were originally composed in Latin, but poets began writing in vernacular (the common language of the people) as early at the 7th century CE. The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics. Poe wrote what is probably my all time favorite poem in “Dream Within a Dream,” though he is not known well as a poet. This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. What’s cool about this book is that it accurately described society and etiquette of the Han Dynasty, even though Luo Guanzhong wrote the book over a thousand years later in the Ming Dynasty. The reason he was disregarded is because he was very much ahead of his time in his views and his poetic style, and also because he was regarded as being somewhat mad, due to behaviour that would be thought of as only slightly eccentric today… Read more about William Blake >>, The Jane Austen Centre’s website states: ‘Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath’s many famous residents and visitors.’ One wonders at the restraint in that, considering that Jane Austen is indisputably one of the greatest English writers – some say the greatest after Shakespeare – and certainly the greatest English novelist and one of the most famous English women who ever lived… Read more on Jane Austen >>, Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish playwright, travel writer, poet, novelist and story writer. In 1994 the critic, Harold Bloom, listed her among the twenty-six central writers of Western civilization. He is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. It is full of characters, still recognisable as types we encounter in daily life in spite of having been inspired by people Chaucer observed more than seven hundred years ago… Read more on Geoffrey Chaucer >>, Francois Rabelais was a French monk and physician who wrote several volumes of a huge novel, The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a story about a giant and his son. Her poetry has inspired many other writers, including the Brontes. Lee Child is a good writer, his Jack Reacher character is compelling and I enjoy his style. He simply could not come up with a story in any shape or form. And whenever we need to find a phrase that will sum something we want to say up perfectly and beautifully, we will find a phrase somewhere in Shakespeare’s works. List RulesVote up the best writers and authors of all time. Who are the most most famous authors the world has ever known? Idealized bust of Homer in the British Museum. Authors strive for something. Some of the most incredible and appreciated books of Henry David Thoreau include Walden, Walking, A Yankee in Canada, Excursions, Wild Apples, and A Plea for Captain John Brown. I have to admit, like the Rankers list, whoever put this together has probably yet to read great literature, or maybe better stated, do their homework with literature from classic college and literary critics from a thousand years ago to the present. The list includes many familiar and great American female writers such as Portia de Rossi, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Helen Keller, Mary-Kate Olsen. Shakespeare falls into the fiction writer category and so, perhaps, to find our best writers we should look at other fiction writers whose work had something like the influence of William Shakespeare’s. All lists that I’ve seen are merely regurgitated fodder, not really based in reality. Written basically for children they transcend age barriers because of their universal nature: they reach the deepest levels of the human condition, each story demonstrating something profound about what it means to be a human being… Read more on Hans Christian Anderson >>, Charles Dickens was an extraordinary man. By the end of the 19th century, no book in English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations. He was famous in all those areas but will be particularly remembered for two of his novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four, both among the most significant works of literature of the twentieth century and two of the most influential… His most famous and acclaimed poem is the long narrative, The Divine Comedy, the story of the narrator’s journey through hell and purgatory to paradise. The book that has made him a candidate for the category of one of the most influential writers is The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory that has conditioned the way Christians think about their religious life. English literature - English literature - The Romantic period: As a term to cover the most distinctive writers who flourished in the last years of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th, “Romantic” is indispensable but also a little misleading: there was no self-styled “Romantic movement” at the time, and the great writers of the period did not call themselves Romantics. Jack London’s short story, to build a fire, should get mention, as should a number of his famous novels. Doing that Dick, most hated it ; great story, poorly.... Great writers works were considered controversial in his time, writers emerged to discuss themes such as,! They rank below are several of the thirty greatest writers are all fiction.. 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Regarded as one of the 20th century literature incalculable influence on subsequent novels is.... And possibly Water Margin used by Shakespeare great story, to build a fire, get!, should get mention, most influential authors in history should a number of his famous novels be...