150+ Important Writers You Should Know About

Country - Major Author of Origin  - Genre(s)  - Representative Works

Agee, James U.S. novel, nonfiction A Death in the Family, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling,”  “The Tinder Box,” “The Little Mermaid”
Sherwood Anderson, U.S. short story, novel Winesburg, Ohio
Angelou, Maya U.S. poetry, autobiography I Know Why the Caged  Bird Sings
Arnold, Matthew England poetry “Dover Beach”
Auden, W. H. England poetry “Musée des Beaux Arts”
Austen, Jane England novel Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma
Balzac, Honoré de France novel Le Père Goriot, Eugénie Grandet
Barrie, J. M. England drama, novel Peter Pan, The Admirable Crichton
Baudelaire, Charles France poetry Les Fleurs de Mal
Beckett, Samuel Ireland/France drama Waiting for Godot, Endgame
Bellow, Saul Canada/U.S. novel The Adventures of Augie March, Humboldt’s Gift
Bradbury, Ray U.S. science fiction The Martian Chronicles
Brecht, Bertolt Germany drama The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children
Brontë, Charlotte England novel Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily England novel Wuthering Heights
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett England poetry Sonnets from the Portuguese
Browning, Robert England poetry “Pippa Passes,” “My Last Duchess”
Buck, Pearl S. U.S. novel The Good Earth
Byron, England poetry Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, George Gordon Don Juan
Camus, Albert Algeria/France  novel The Plague, The Stranger,  The Rebel
Carroll, Lewis England children’s literature  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,  Through the Looking Glass
Cather, Willa U.S. novel O Pioneers!, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Cervantes Miguel de, Spain novel Don Quixote
Chaucer, Geoffrey England poetry Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton Russia short story, dramaUncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard,  The Seagull, The Three Sisters
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor   England poetry “The Rime of the AncientMariner,” “Kublai Khan”
Conrad, Joseph Poland/ England novel Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James FenimoreU.S. novel The Last of the Mohicans,  The Deerslayer
Corneille, Pierre France drama Médée, Le Cid
Crane, Stephen U.S. novel, poetry, short story The Red Badge of Courage, The Black Riders, “The Open Boat”
Cummings, E.E. U.S. poetry “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” “my father moved through dooms of love”
Dante Alighieri Italy poetry The Divine Comedy
Defoe, Daniel England novel Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles England novel Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations
Dickinson, Emily U.S. poetry “A Bird came down the Walk,” “Because I could not stop for Death”
Donne, John England poetry, meditations “Death Be Not Proud,”   Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Dos Passos, John U.S. novel Manhattan Transfer, U.S.A.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor Russia novel Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov
Dreiser, Theodore U.S. novel Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy
Dryden, John England poetry, essay “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” Absalom and Achitophel
Dumas, Alexandre France novel The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George England novel The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch
Eliot, T. S. U.S./ England  poetry  “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” The Waste Land, Four Quartets
Emerson, Ralph Waldo  U.S. poetry, essay “Concord Hymn,” “Brahma,” “Self-Reliance”
Euripedes Greece drama Medea, The Trojan Women
Faulkner, William U.S. novel, short story Sartoris, The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, “The Bear”
Fitzgerald, F. Scott U.S. novel, short story The Great Gatsby, Tales of the Jazz Age, Tender Is the Night
Flaubert, Gustave France novel Madame Bovary, L’Education Sentimentale
Forster, E.M. England novel A Room with a View, A Passage to India
Frost, Robert U.S. poetry “Mending Wall,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
García Lorca, Spain drama, poetry The House of Bernarda Alba, Federico Blood Wedding
García Márquez, Colombia novel One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Gabriel The Autumn of the Patriarch
Gide, André France novel The Immoralist, The Counterfeiters
Ginsberg, Allen U.S. poetry “Howl,” “Kaddish”
Goethe, Johann Germany drama, novel Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther
Gogol, Nikolai Russia novel, drama, short story Dead Souls, The Inspector General,  “The Overcoat”
Gorky, Maxim Russia drama The Lower Depths
Gray, Thomas England poetry “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Hardy, Thomas England novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure
Harte, Bret U.S. short story “The Outcasts of Poker Flats,” “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
Hawthorne, Nathaniel  U.S. novel, short story The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, Tanglewood Tales
Hemingway, Ernest  U.S. novel, short story The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea
Hesse, Hermann Germany novel Siddhartha, Steppenwolf
Homer Ionia epic The Iliad, The Odyssey
Howells, U.S. novel The Rise of Silas Lapham,
William Dean A Hazard of New Fortunes
Hughes, Langston U.S. poetry “Harlem,” “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Hugo, Victor France novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Misérables
Huxley, Aldous England essay, novel “The Doors of Perception,” Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik Norway drama A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler
Ionesco, Eugène Romania/ drama The Bald Soprano, France Rhinoceros
Irving, Washington U.S. short story “Rip Van Winkle,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
James, Henry U.S. novel Daisy Miller, The Turn of the Screw, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl
Jonson, Ben England drama Volpone, The Alchemist
Joyce, James Ireland novel short story A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Dubliners, Finnegans Wake
Kafka, Franz Austria novel The Metamorphosis, The Trial
Keats, John England poetry Endymion, “The Eve of St. Agnes,” “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Kerouac, Jack U.S. novel On the Road, The Dharma Bums
Kipling, Rudyard India/ poetry, short story, “Gunga Din,” Just-So Stories, England novel The Jungle Book, Kim
Lawrence, D.H. England novel, short story, poetry  Women in Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”
Lewis, Sinclair U.S. novel Main Street, Elmer Gantry, Babbitt
London, Jack U.S. novel The Call of the Wild, White Fang
Longfellow, U.S. poetry “The Children’s Hour,”
Henry Wadsworth “The Village Blacksmith,” Evangeline, Hiawatha
Machiavelli, NiccolòFlorence essay The Prince 
Mann, Thomas Germany novel Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain
Marlowe, Christopher  England drama The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta
Marvell, Andrew England poetry “To His Coy Mistress”
Masters, Edgar Lee U.S. poetry Spoon River Anthology
Maugham, W. Somerset England novel Of Human Bondage, Cakes and Ale, The Razor’s Edge
Maupassant, Guy de France short story “The Necklace,” “The Umbrella” 
Melville, Herman U.S. novel, short story Typee, Omoo, Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, “Bartleby the Scrivener”
Millay, Edna St. Vincent U.S. poetry The Harp Weaver and Other Poems
Miller, Arthur U.S. drama Death of a Salesman,The Crucible
Milton, John England poetry “Lycidas,” Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes
Molière France drama Le Misanthrope, School for Wives, Tartuffe
Morrison, Toni U.S. novel Tar Baby, Beloved
Nabokov, Vladimir Russia/U.S. novel Lolita, Ada, Pale Fire
O’Casey, Sean Ireland drama Juno and the Paycock
O’Connor, Flannery U.S. novel, short story Wise Blood, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Odets, Clifford U.S. drama Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing
O’Neill, Eugene U.S. drama Anna Christie, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Moon for the Misbegotten
Paine, Thomas England/ U.S. essay “Common Sense,” “The Rights of Man,” “The Age of Reason”
Pinter, Harold England drama The Birthday Party, Old Times
Pirandello, Luigi Italy drama Six Characters in Search of an Author
Plath, Sylvia U.S. poetry, novel Ariel, The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan U.S. poetry, short story Annabel Lee, “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Pope, Alexander England poetry, essay “The Rape of the Lock,” The Dunciad, “An Essay on Man”
Porter, Katherine AnneU.S. short story, novel Pale Horse, Pale Rider; Ship of Fools
Pound, Ezra U.S. poetry Personae, Cantos
Proust, Marcel France novel Remembrance of Things Past
Pushkin, Aleksandr Russia poetry, drama Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov
Rabelais, François France satire Gargantua and Pantagruel
Racine, Jean France drama Andromaque, Phèdre
Richardson, Samuel England novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded; Clarissa Harlowe
Rilke, Germany poetry The Duino Elegies,
Rainer Maria The Sonnets to Orpheus
Rimbaud, Arthur France poetry A Season in Hell
Robinson, Edwin Arlington U.S. poetry “Richard Corey,” “Miniver Cheevy”
Salinger, J.D. U.S. novel short story The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
Sandburg, Carl U.S. poetry “Chicago,” “Grass”
Saroyan, William U.S. drama, novel The Time of Your Life, The Human Comedy
Sartre, Jean-Paul France novel, essay, drama Nausea, Being and Nothingness, No Exit
Schiller, Friedrich von Germany drama Don Carlos, The Maid of Orleans, Wilhelm Tell
Scott, Walter Scotland novel Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth
Shakespeare, William England poetry Sonnets,
Shaw, Bernard George Ireland drama Arms and the Man, Major Barbara, Pygmalion, St. Joan
Shelley, Percy ByssheEngland poetry “Ozymandias,” “To a Skylark,”  “Ode to the West Wind”
Sheridan, Richard England drama The Rivals, The School for Scandal
Sidney, Philip England poetry Astrophel and Stella
Smollett, Tobias Scotland/ England novel The Adventures of Roderick Random, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker
Solzhenitsyn, AleksandrRussia novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Gulag Archipelago
Sophocles Athens drama Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Electra
Spenser, Edmund England poetry The Faerie Queene, “Astrophel”
Stein, Gertrude U.S. poetry, autobiography Tender Buttons, The Autobiography  of Alice B. Toklas
Steinbeck, John U.S. novel Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row
Sterne, Laurence England novel Tristram Shandy, A Sentimental Journey
Stevens, Wallace U.S. poetry “Sunday Morning,” “The Emperor of Ice Cream”
Stevenson, Robert LouisScotland novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and  Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped
Stowe, Harriet Beecher U.S. novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Strindberg, August Sweden drama The Dance of Death, Miss Julie
Swift, Jonathan England satire The Tale of a Tub, Gulliver’s Travels, “A Modest Proposal”
Synge, John Millington  Ireland drama Riders to the Sea, Playboy of the Western World
Tennyson, Alfred England poetry “Idylls of the King,” “Charge ofthe Light Brigade,” “Crossing the Bar”
Thackeray, William Makepeace  England novel Vanity Fair, The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon
Thomas, Dylan Wales poetry “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Thoreau, Henry David U.S. essay “Civil Disobedience,” “Walden”
Tolstoy, Leo Russia novel War and Peace, Anna Karenina
Turgenev, Ivan Russia novel Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark U.S. novel, short story Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Verlaine, Paul France poetry “Chanson d’automne”
Verne, Jules France science fiction Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days
Virgil Rome epic The Aeneid
Voltaire France satire Candide
Wells, H. G. England science fiction The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds
Wharton, Edith U.S. novel Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence
Whitman, Walt U.S. poetry Leaves of Grass, “O Captain! My Captain!”
Whittier, John Greenleaf  U.S. poetry “The Barefoot Boy,” “Barbara Frietchie”
Wilde, Oscar England poetry, drama, novel  “The Ballad of Reading Jail,” Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee U.S. drama The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Williams, William CarlosU.S. poetry Paterson, “The Red Wheelbarrow”
Wolfe, Thomas U.S. novel Look Homeward, Angel; You Can’t Go Home Again
Woolf, Virginia England novel Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse
Wordsworth, William “The Daffodils,” England poetry “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” “Ode: Intimations of Immortality”
Yeats,William Butler  Ireland poetry “Sailing to Byzantium,”  “Easter 1916”
Zola, Émile France novel Germinal, Nana