Greatest Literary Artists
Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 9:13 pm
Criteria: These literary artists are ranked according to their initial and lasting acclaim, influence as well as initial and lasting popularity.
Disclaimer: This list is strongly influenced by the Western canon of literature. This means that in the broader scope of a global literature certain regions may be underrepresented, among them India, China, Africa and Latin America.
Edited by: Tim
1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
4. Geoffrey Chaucer
5. Charles Dickens
6. Leo Tolstoy
7. Miguel de Cervantes
8. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
9. Virgil
10. John Milton
11. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. Jane Austen
13. James Joyce
14. Murasaki Shikibu
15. Anton Chekhov
16. Sophocles
17. Alexander Pushkin
18. Gustave Flaubert
19. Marcel Proust
20. George Eliot
21. Rabindranath Tagore
22. Ovid
23. Du Fu
24. Cao Xueqin
25. Henrik Ibsen
26. Euripides
27. William Faulkner
28. Mark Twain
29. Moliere
30. Herman Melville
31. Franz Kafka
32. Aeschylus
33. Thomas Mann
34. William Wordsworth
35. Aristophanes
36. W. B. Yeats
37. T. S. Eliot
38. Victor Hugo
39. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
40. Stendhal
41. François Rabelais
42. Honoré de Balzac
43. Samuel Beckett
44. Walt Whitman
45. Virginia Woolf
46. Edgar Allan Poe
47. Jorge Luis Borges
48. John Keats
49. William Blake
50. Francesco Petrarch
51. Alexander Pope
52. Albert Camus
53. Charles Bauldelaire
54. Joseph Conrad
55. Henry James
56. August Strindberg
57. John Donne
58. Emily Dickinson
59. George Bernard Shaw
60. Daniel DeFoe
61. Jonathan Swift
62. Tennessee Williams
63. Pablo Neruda
64. Henry Fielding
65. Laurence Sterne
66. Nikolai Gogol
67. Voltaire
68. Ernest Hemingway
69. D. H. Lawrence
70. Pedro Calderón de la Barca
71. Jean Racine
72. Christopher Marlowe
73. Vladimir Nabokov
74. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
75. Ben Jonson
76. Robert Browning
77. Edmund Spenser
78. F. Scott Fitzgerald
79. Émile Zola
80. Robert Musil
81. Ivan Turgenev
82. Charlotte Brontë
83. Emily Brontë
84. Toni Morrison
85. Kalidasa
86. Lope de Vega
87. Matsuo Basho
88. Wallace Stevens
89. Percy Bysshe Shelley
90. Rainer Maria Rilke
91. Bertolt Brecht
92. Horace
93. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
94. Catullus
95. Lord Byron
96. Eugene O'Neill
97. Oscar Wilde
98. Robert Frost
99. Sappho
100. Federico García Lorca
101. Li Bo
102. Richard Wright
103. Anthony Trollope
104. Louis-Ferdinand Céline
105. Nathaniel Hawthorne
106. William Makepeace Thackeray
107. James Fenimore Cooper
108. Walter Scott
109. J. R. R. Tolkien
110. Chikamatsu Monzaemon
111. Luigi Pirandello
112. Zeami Motokiyo
113. George Orwell
114. Lewis Carroll
115. Friedrich von Schiller
116. Ralph Ellison
117. E. M. Forster
118. Edith Wharton
119. Knut Hamsun
120. Harold Pinter
Disclaimer: This list is strongly influenced by the Western canon of literature. This means that in the broader scope of a global literature certain regions may be underrepresented, among them India, China, Africa and Latin America.
Edited by: Tim
1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
4. Geoffrey Chaucer
5. Charles Dickens
6. Leo Tolstoy
7. Miguel de Cervantes
8. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
9. Virgil
10. John Milton
11. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
12. Jane Austen
13. James Joyce
14. Murasaki Shikibu
15. Anton Chekhov
16. Sophocles
17. Alexander Pushkin
18. Gustave Flaubert
19. Marcel Proust
20. George Eliot
21. Rabindranath Tagore
22. Ovid
23. Du Fu
24. Cao Xueqin
25. Henrik Ibsen
26. Euripides
27. William Faulkner
28. Mark Twain
29. Moliere
30. Herman Melville
31. Franz Kafka
32. Aeschylus
33. Thomas Mann
34. William Wordsworth
35. Aristophanes
36. W. B. Yeats
37. T. S. Eliot
38. Victor Hugo
39. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
40. Stendhal
41. François Rabelais
42. Honoré de Balzac
43. Samuel Beckett
44. Walt Whitman
45. Virginia Woolf
46. Edgar Allan Poe
47. Jorge Luis Borges
48. John Keats
49. William Blake
50. Francesco Petrarch
51. Alexander Pope
52. Albert Camus
53. Charles Bauldelaire
54. Joseph Conrad
55. Henry James
56. August Strindberg
57. John Donne
58. Emily Dickinson
59. George Bernard Shaw
60. Daniel DeFoe
61. Jonathan Swift
62. Tennessee Williams
63. Pablo Neruda
64. Henry Fielding
65. Laurence Sterne
66. Nikolai Gogol
67. Voltaire
68. Ernest Hemingway
69. D. H. Lawrence
70. Pedro Calderón de la Barca
71. Jean Racine
72. Christopher Marlowe
73. Vladimir Nabokov
74. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
75. Ben Jonson
76. Robert Browning
77. Edmund Spenser
78. F. Scott Fitzgerald
79. Émile Zola
80. Robert Musil
81. Ivan Turgenev
82. Charlotte Brontë
83. Emily Brontë
84. Toni Morrison
85. Kalidasa
86. Lope de Vega
87. Matsuo Basho
88. Wallace Stevens
89. Percy Bysshe Shelley
90. Rainer Maria Rilke
91. Bertolt Brecht
92. Horace
93. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
94. Catullus
95. Lord Byron
96. Eugene O'Neill
97. Oscar Wilde
98. Robert Frost
99. Sappho
100. Federico García Lorca
101. Li Bo
102. Richard Wright
103. Anthony Trollope
104. Louis-Ferdinand Céline
105. Nathaniel Hawthorne
106. William Makepeace Thackeray
107. James Fenimore Cooper
108. Walter Scott
109. J. R. R. Tolkien
110. Chikamatsu Monzaemon
111. Luigi Pirandello
112. Zeami Motokiyo
113. George Orwell
114. Lewis Carroll
115. Friedrich von Schiller
116. Ralph Ellison
117. E. M. Forster
118. Edith Wharton
119. Knut Hamsun
120. Harold Pinter