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List of authors, sorted by birth date - oldest first (all time)
A list of all types of authors; novelists, poets, and writers of short stories, news articles, essays, blogs, etc. Does not include screenplay writers.
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Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci, (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, carto...
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of around 38...
Matsuo Bashō
Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – 1694), born 松尾 金作, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房), was a poet of the Edo period in Japan. Many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Bashō was introduced to poetry y...
Stephen Duck
Stephen Duck (c. 1705 – 1756) was an English poet whose career reflected both the Augustan era's interest in "naturals" (natural geniuses) and its resistance to classlessness.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
9.2
9.2
as fiction writer
from 5 votes
Discuss [multi]
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings,...
Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak (August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo Awards and by colleagues with one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him...
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, En...
Arthur C. Clarke
Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He is perhaps mo...
10
10
as non-fiction writer
from 2 votes
Discuss [multi]
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov; circa January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science bo...
8.8
8.8
as fiction writer
from 6 votes
Discuss [multi]
Frank Herbert
Frank Patrick Herbert, Jr. (October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986) was an American science fiction writer best known for the novel Dune and its five sequels. Though he became famous for science fiction, he was also a newspaper journ...
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich Karl Bukowski; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of...
8.7
8.7
as fiction writer
from 3 votes
Discuss [multi]
Stan Lee
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber, December 28, 1922) is an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In collaboration with several...
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher whose published works mainly belong to the genre of science fiction. Dick explored philosophical, socio...
6.3
6.3
as fiction writer
from 3 votes
Discuss [multi]
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator, social justice activist, and anarcho-syndicalist advocate. He has spent most of his career at t...
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American actor and novelist. In a career spanning five decades, Hackman has been nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two for best actor in The French Connection and...
William Shatner
William "Bill" Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor, singer, author, producer, director, spokesman, and comedian. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, Captain of the...
Woody Allen
(1935)Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, writer, director, comedian and playwright, whose career spans more than 50 years.
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda (born Jayne Seymour Fonda; December 21, 1937) is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She is a two-time Academy Award winner. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Amer...
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (Chinese: 李小龍; born Lee Jun-fan, Chinese: 李振藩; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong American martial artist, Hong Kong action film actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, filmmaker, and the founder of...
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić (born 5 September 1942), known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, author, actor and opera director.
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer songwriter, and poet best remembered as the lead singer of The Doors.
Jim Webb
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States Senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense, congressional staffer, and Ma...
0
0
as fiction writer
from 0 votes
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Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current President of the United States, a businessman, author, and previously a television personality. Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump received an econom...
James Patterson
James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. He is largely known for his novels about fictional psychologist Alex Cross, the protagonist of the Alex Cross series. Patterson also wrote the Michael Bennett, W...
Ken Dryden
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Dryden, (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former NHL goaltender. He is an officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dryden was a Libe...
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been ada...
8.8
8.8
as fiction writer
from 8 votes
Discuss [multi]
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Chosen as Clinton's runni...
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), often referred to as GRRM, is an American novelist and short story writer in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres, a screenwriter, and tele...
Timothy Zhan
Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known for the Thrawn series of Star Wars novels, and has published several other series of science fiction and fantasy novels, in ad...
Ben Carson
Benjamin Solomon "Ben" Carson, Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American author and retired neurosurgeon. He was the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head. In 2008 he was awarded the Presiden...
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. (born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host. As a television host, he is well known for the HBO political talk show R...
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American writer, artist, and film director best known for his dark comic book stories and graphic novels such as Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. H...
Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian American writer, actor and retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at E...
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (October 20, 1958) is a Danish American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of t...
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson (born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth...
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American film and television actor, director, writer, producer and author. As a cult film actor, Campbell is best known for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's hit Evil Dead seri...
10
10
as non-fiction writer
from 1 vote
Discuss [multi]
Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen has been writing for over 20 years. He began his writing on match books, napkins and hotel stationery in between his time working on movie sets and traveling around the world. In 2005, 13 Hands Publications compiled...
Sion Sono
Sion Sono (born December 18, 1961) is a Japanese filmmaker, author and poet.
Todd McFarlane
Todd McFarlane (born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian cartoonist, artist, writer, designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane becam...
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess Grandmaster, former undisputed World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005 (228 months), Kasparov was having the high...
Duff McKagan
Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and author. He is best known for his twelve-year tenure as the bassist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved wo...
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling (born 31 July 1965), pen names J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, is a British novelist best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series – the best-selling book series in history and the basis for a...
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translate...
8.2
8.2
as fiction writer
from 5 votes
Discuss [multi]
Nick Vujicic
Nicholas James "Nick" Vujicic (born 4 December 1982) is a Serbian-Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with Phocomelia, a rare disorder characterised by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he strugg...
Items 1-45 of 45
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non-fiction writer(article writer, biographer, business writer, columnist, epigram writer, essay writer, history writer, inspiration writer, lifestyle writer, motivation writer, political writer, research writer, satire writer, science writer, self-improvement writer, spirituality writer, sports writer)
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