Authors Flashcards
We won't blame you if you haven't read ALL of the books mentioned in this deck, but at the very least, learn to identify major writers and their best works.
Who is:
Harper Lee
- American author of the 20th century
- Her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published in 1960 and has since become a classic of American literature
- The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962
- Her second novel, Go Set A Watchmen, was published in 2015.
Who is:
J.D. Salinger
- American author of the 20th century most famous for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye
- From the mid-sixties on, he was reclusive and did not publish any new material; he died in 2010
Who is:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
- American author of the 20th century, part of the Jazz Age and a member of the Lost Generation of American writers in Paris in the 1920s
- He wrote five novels in all, one of them published posthumously
- His most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is one of his many short stories
Who is:
William Shakespeare
- English poet and playwright of the 16th and 17th centuries, typically regarded as the greatest Anglophone writer
- He wrote over 150 sonnets, and his plays include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Othello
- A large number of familiar English sayings and expressions come from his works
- He spent most of his life in London, where he managed the Globe Theatre
Who is:
Homer
- Ancient Greek poet, likely to have lived in the 7th or 8th centuries B.C., and author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are central to the history of literature
- It is believed that he was blind
Who is:
Miguel de Cervantes
- Spanish writer of the 16th and 17th centuries, greatly influential to the Spanish language in general
- His masterpiece was Don Quixote, published in two volumes (in 1605 and 1615)
- Don Quixote is considered the first modern European novel and a classic of Western literature
Who is:
Sophocles
- Ancient Greek playwright of the 5th century B.C.
- One of three Greek authors of tragedies, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, whose plays have survived
- His most famous tragedies feature Antigone and Oedipus
Who is:
Ernest Hemingway
- American author of the 20th century and a member of the Lost Generation of writers in the 1920s
- Known for his economical, simple writing and adventurous lifestyle, his novels include The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
John Steinbeck
- American author of the 20th century
- He is best known for his novels Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and East of Eden
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
William Faulkner
- 20th-century American author most known for his novels The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying
- He won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Who is:
Toni Morrison
- American professor and writer of the 20th and 21st centuries most known for her novels Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon
- In 2012 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Who is:
J.R.R. Tolkien
20th-century British writer and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Who is:
Herman Melville
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel Moby Dick
Who is:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel The Scarlet Letter
Who is:
Henry David Thoreau
- American abolitionist, author, philosopher, and transcendentalist of the 19th century
- He is best known for his essay “Civil Disobedience” and his book Walden
Who is:
Charles Dickens
- English author of the 19th century whose work was immensely popular during his lifetime
- Seen as one of the great writers of the Victorian era, his works include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield
Who is:
J.K. Rowling
British writer best known as the author of the widely read Harry Potter series, the best-selling book series in history
Who is:
Stephen King
- American author and columnist of the 20th and 21st centuries whose popular suspense novels and short stories have frequently been adapted into films
- Some of his notable works include The Shining, Carrie, Misery, and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Who are:
Emily and Charlotte Brontë
- English authors of the 19th century
- Emily most famously wrote Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre
Who is:
Jane Austen
- English novelist of the 18th and 19th centuries
- She was noted for her irony and social commentary, as well as for the love stories she crafted
- Notable works include Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century
- Her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published in 1960 and has since become a classic of American literature
- The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962
Harper Lee
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century most famous for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye
- From the mid-sixties on, he was reclusive and did not publish any new material; he died in 2010
J.D. Salinger
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century, part of the Jazz Age and a member of the Lost Generation of American writers in Paris in the 1920s
- He wrote five novels in all, one of them published posthumously
- His most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is one of his many short stories
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Name the author:
- English poet and playwright of the 16th and 17th centuries, typically regarded as the greatest Anglophone writer
- He wrote over 150 sonnets, and his plays include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Othello
- A large number of familiar English sayings and expressions come from his works
- He spent most of his life in London, where he managed the Globe Theatre
William Shakespeare
Name the author:
- Ancient Greek poet, likely to have lived in the 7th or 8th centuries B.C., and author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are central to the history of literature
- It is believed that he was blind
Homer
Name the author:
- Spanish writer of the 16th and 17th centuries, greatly influential to the Spanish language in general
- His masterpiece was Don Quixote, published in two volumes (in 1605 and 1615)
- Don Quixote is considered the first modern European novel and a classic of Western literature
Miguel de Cervantes
Name the author:
- Ancient Greek playwright of the 5th century B.C.
- One of three Greek authors of tragedies, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, whose plays have survived
- His most famous tragedies feature Antigone and Oedipus
Sophocles
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century and a member of the Lost Generation of writers in the 1920s
- Known for his economical, simple writing and adventurous lifestyle, his novels include The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
Ernest Hemingway
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century
- He is best known for his novels Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and East of Eden
- He won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
John Steinbeck
Name the author:
- 20th-century American author most known for his novels The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying
- He won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature
William Faulkner
Name the author:
- American professor and writer of the 20th and 21st centuries most known for her novels Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon
- In 2012 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Toni Morrison
Name the author:
20th-century British writer and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy
J.R.R. Tolkien
Name the author:
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Name the author:
American author of the 19th century most known for his novel The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Name the author:
- American abolitionist, author, philosopher, and transcendentalist of the 19th century
- He is best known for his essay “Civil Disobedience” and his book Walden
Henry David Thoreau
Name the author:
- English author of the 19th century whose work was immensely popular during his lifetime
- Seen as one of the great writers of the Victorian era, his works include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
Name the author:
- English authors of the 19th century
- Emily most famously wrote Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre
Emily and Charlotte Brontë
Name the author:
British writer best known as the author of the widely read Harry Potter series, the best-selling book series in history
J.K. Rowling
Name the author:
- American author and columnist of the 20th and 21st centuries whose popular suspense novels and short stories have frequently been adapted into films
- Some of his notable works include The Shining, Carrie, Misery, and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Stephen King
Name the author:
- English novelist of the 18th and 19th centuries
- She was noted for her irony and social commentary, as well as for the love stories she crafted
- Notable works include Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma
Jane Austen
Who is:
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- American writer of the 20th century whose works mixed satire and fantasy
- He is best known for his novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five
Who is:
Arthur Miller
- American playwright of the 20th and 21st centuries whose plays include Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, and The Crucible
- A Pulitzer Prize winner, he was married for five years to Marilyn Monroe and known for having testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee
Who is:
Tennessee Williams
American writer of the 20th century best known for his plays, including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and The Rose Tattoo
Who is:
Tom Stoppard
- Czech-born English playwright best known for his plays Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, and The Real Thing
- He co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1998 movie Shakespeare in Love
Who is:
Henrik Ibsen
- Norwegian playwright of the 19th century whose plays include A Doll’s House, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, and Hedda Gabler
- He is regarded as one of the founders of Modernism in drama
Who is:
Jean-Paul Sartre
- French philosopher of the 20th century known as a central figure of existentialism
- His works include Being and Nothingness and the play No Exit
Who is:
Albert Camus
- Algerian-born French author and philosopher of the 20th century
- His works include L’Étranger, La Peste, and La Chute
Who is:
Charles Baudelaire
- French poet of the 19th century most famous for his collection of poems called Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil)
- His verse is known for its morbid beauty, depictions of the fleeting nature of modernity, and its use of and mixture with prose
- He influenced later poets such as Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Verlaine
Who is:
Victor Hugo
French Romantic author of the 19th century best known for his collection of poetry La Légende des siècles and his novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Who is:
Jules Verne
- French author of the 19th century whose novels laid the groundwork for science fiction
- His works include Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey to the Center of the Earth
Who is:
Gustave Flaubert
- French author of the 19th century known for his perfectionist writing style and his novels Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education
- He served as a guardian and mentor to Guy de Maupassant
Who is:
Leo Tolstoy
- Russian writer of the 19th and early 20th centuries who is regarded as one of the great Russian novelists along with Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- He is best known for his novels Anna Karenina and War and Peace
Who is:
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Russian author of the 19th century who, along with Leo Tolstoy, is regarded as one of the greatest Russian novelists
- Among his most famous works are The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and The Idiot
Who is:
Stendhal
- The pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle, a 19th-century French writer, known for his psychologically realistic works
- He is best known for his novels The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma
Who is:
Honoré de Balzac
- 19th-century French novelist known for his complex, fully human characters and regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature
- His most famous work, La Comédie humaine, is a long series of novels and short stories about modern French society after the fall of Napoleon
Who is:
Guy de Maupassant
- French writer of the 19th century best known for playing a fundamental role in the development of the modern short story
- A protégé of Flaubert, his works include the novel Pierre et Jean and the stories “Boul de Suif”, “Le Horla”, and “Deux Amis”
Who is:
Friedrich Nietzsche
- German philosopher of the 19th century who subtantially influenced existentialism
- He challenged Christianity and morality and believed strongly in the idea of “life-affirmation”
Who is:
Sigmund Freud
- Austrian physician of the 19th and 20th centuries, regarded as the founder of psychoanalysis
- He was interested in the unconscious mind and developed the use of free association and theories about the Oedipus complex, sexual repression, and dreams
Who is:
Gabriel García Márquez
- Colombian writer of the 20th and 21st centuries, regarded as one of the great authors of his generation
- A recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is best known for his novels, which include One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Autumn of the Patriarch, and Love in the Time of Cholera
Who is:
Hunter S. Thompson
- American journalist of the 20th century, known for his eccentric lifestyle and development of Gonzo journalism, for which reporters heavily involve themselves in the action
- His most famous works include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72
Name the author:
- American writer of the 20th century whose works mixed satire and fantasy
- He is best known for his novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Name the author:
- American playwright of the 20th and 21st centuries whose plays include Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, and The Crucible
- A Pulitzer Prize winner, he was married for five years to Marilyn Monroe and known for having testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee
Arthur Miller
Name the author:
American writer of the 20th century best known for his plays, including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and The Rose Tattoo
Tennessee Williams
Name the author:
- Czech-born English playwright best known for his plays Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, and The Real Thing
- He co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1998 movie Shakespeare in Love
Tom Stoppard
Name the author:
- Norwegian playwright of the 19th century whose plays include A Doll’s House, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, and Hedda Gabler
- He is regarded as one of the founders of Modernism in drama
Henrik Ibsen
Name the author:
- French philosopher of the 20th century known as a central figure of existentialism
- His works include Being and Nothingness and the play No Exit
Jean-Paul Sartre
Name the author:
- Algerian-born French author and philosopher of the 20th century
- His works include L’Étranger, La Peste, and La Chute
Albert Camus
Name the author:
- French poet of the 19th century most famous for his collection of poems called Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil)
- His verse is known for its morbid beauty, depictions of the fleeting nature of modernity, and its use of and mixture with prose
- He influenced later poets such as Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Verlaine
Charles Baudelaire
Name the author:
French Romantic author of the 19th century best known for his collection of poetry La Légende des siècles and his novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Victor Hugo
Name the author:
- French author of the 19th century whose novels laid the groundwork for science fiction
- His works include Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jules Verne
Name the author:
- French author of the 19th century known for his perfectionist writing style and his novels Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education
- He served as a guardian and mentor to Guy de Maupassant
Gustave Flaubert
Name the author:
- Russian writer of the 19th and early 20th centuries who is regarded as one of the great Russian novelists along with Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- He is best known for his novels Anna Karenina and War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
Name the author:
- Russian author of the 19th century who, along with Leo Tolstoy, is regarded as one of the greatest Russian novelists
- Among his most famous works are The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Name the author:
- The pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle, a 19th-century French writer, known for his psychologically realistic works
- He is best known for his novels The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma
Stendhal
Name the author:
- 19th-century French novelist known for his complex, fully human characters and regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature
- His most famous work, La Comédie humaine, is a long series of novels and short stories about modern French society after the fall of Napoleon
Honoré de Balzac
Name the author:
- French writer of the 19th century best known for playing a fundamental role in the development of the modern short story
- A protégé of Flaubert, his works include the novel Pierre et Jean and the stories “Boul de Suif”, “Le Horla”, and “Deux Amis”
Guy de Maupassant
Name the author:
- German philosopher of the 19th century who subtantially influenced existentialism
- He challenged Christianity and morality and believed strongly in the idea of “life-affirmation”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Name the author:
- Austrian physician of the 19th and 20th centuries, regarded as the founder of psychoanalysis
- He was interested in the unconscious mind and developed the use of free association and theories about the Oedipus complex, sexual repression, and dreams
Sigmund Freud
Name the author:
- Colombian writer of the 20th and 21st centuries, regarded as one of the great authors of his generation
- A recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is best known for his novels, which include One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Autumn of the Patriarch, and Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez
Name the author:
- American journalist of the 20th century, known for his eccentric lifestyle and development of Gonzo journalism, for which reporters heavily involve themselves in the action
- His most famous works include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72
Hunter S. Thompson
Who is:
David Foster Wallace
- American writer regarded as one of the most influential writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries
- Among his best-known works are the short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and his novel Infinite Jest
- Also a well-respected nonfiction writer and professor at Pomona College, he committed suicide in 2008
Who is:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- German author and politician of the 18th and 19th centuries, highly influential to European literature
- His works include the two-part play Faust and the novels The Sorrows of Young Werther and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
Who is:
John Locke
- English philosopher from the 17th century who argued that governments should depend on the consent of the governed and criticized the notion of monarchs’ divine right
- Also claimed that the human mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth and until experience eventually begins to write on it
- His writings greatly influenced the American Founding Fathers
Who is:
Thomas Hobbes
- English philosopher of the 17th century best known for his 1651 book Leviathan
- He is regarded as a founder of modern political philosophy
Who is:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Swiss-born French philosopher of the 18th century and one of the central figures of the Enlightenment
- He argued that humans are good in the context of nature, but corrupted by society
- Influential to modern thought and particularly to the French Revolution, he is known for his works On the Social Contract, Discourse on Inequality, Émile, and his autobiography Confessions
Who is:
Walt Whitman
- American humanist poet and journalist of the 19th century
- He is known for his use of free verse, sexuality, and celebration of the material world
- His most famous work is the collection Leaves of Grass, which contains the poem “Song of Myself”
Who is:
T.S. Eliot
- American-born English poet and playwright of the 20th century
- He is best known for his play Murder in the Cathedral and the poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land”
Who is:
Emily Dickinson
- American poet of the 19th century whose short, unconventional poems were, for the most part, published posthumously
- Now considered a major American poet, she was known in her later years for being reclusive and introverted
Who is:
Langston Hughes
- American author of the 20th century primarily associated with the Harlem Renaissance
- In his writing he often depicted the black experience in the United States
- His poems include “The Weary Blues” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Who is:
Ralph Ellison
- American author of the 20th century best known for his novel Invisible Man, about an unnamed black man who considers himself invisible to society
- A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, he also wrote the essay collections Going to the Territory and Shadow and Act
Who is:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
- American essayist and lecturer of the 19th century and a major leader of Trascendentalism
- He is best known for championing individualism and for his essay Self-Reliance
Who is:
Virginia Woolf
- English author of the 20th century known as a modernist, particularly for her adoption of stream-of-consciousness writing
- Her major works include the essay A Room of One’s Own and the novels To the Lighthouse and Orlando
Who is:
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- English poet of the 19th century who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and highly popular during his time
- His works include “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Crossing the Bar”
- He wrote the famous lines “‘Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all”
Who is:
Truman Capote
- American author of the 20th century whose works have frequently been adapted into films or TV dramas
- He is best known for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, about the murder of a Kansas family
- His childhood friend Harper Lee helped him research and write In Cold Blood
Who is:
Mark Twain
- The pen name of Samuel Clemens, an American humorist and author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Who is:
Machado de Assis
- Brazilian author of the 19th and 20th centuries, regarded as one of the greatest writers in Brazilian literature
- His major works include Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba, and The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
Who is:
Jorge Luis Borges
- Argentinian writer and poet of the 20th century known for his short stories which combine myth, fantasy, magical realism, and philosophy
- Some of his most famous works include The Aleph, Ficciones, and Los Conjurados
Who is:
George Orwell
- The pen name of Eric Blair, an English author of the 20th century known for his witty social commentary
- His most famous works are Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian social science fiction novel depicting totalitarianism
Who is:
Rudyard Kipling
- English writer of the 19th and 20th centuries who wrote extensively about British imperialism
- His works include the poems “The White Man’s Burden” and “Gunga Din”, the novella “The Man Who Would Be King”, and the collection The Jungle Book
Who is:
René Descartes
- French philosopher of the 17th century who was fundamental to modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution
- Well versed in math as well, the Cartesian coordinate system is named after him
- He is best known for the statement “I think, therefore I am”
Name the author:
- American writer regarded as one of the most influential writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries
- Among his best-known works are the short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and his novel Infinite Jest
- Also a well-respected nonfiction writer and professor at Pomona College, he committed suicide in 2008
David Foster Wallace
Name the author:
- German author and politician of the 18th and 19th centuries, highly influential to European literature
- His works include the two-part play Faust and the novels The Sorrows of Young Werther and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Name the author:
- English philosopher from the 17th century who argued that governments should depend on the consent of the governed and criticized the notion of monarchs’ divine right
- Also claimed that the human mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth and until experience eventually begins to write on it
- His writings greatly influenced the American Founding Fathers
John Locke
Name the author:
- English philosopher of the 17th century best known for his 1651 book Leviathan
- He is regarded as a founder of modern political philosophy
Thomas Hobbes
Name the author:
- Swiss-born French philosopher of the 18th century and one of the central figures of the Enlightenment
- He argued that humans are good in the context of nature, but corrupted by society
- Influential to modern thought and particularly to the French Revolution, he is known for his works On the Social Contract, Discourse on Inequality, Émile, and his autobiography Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Name the author:
- American humanist poet and journalist of the 19th century
- He is known for his use of free verse, sexuality, and celebration of the material world
- His most famous work is the collection Leaves of Grass, which contains the poem “Song of Myself”
Walt Whitman
Name the author:
- American-born English poet and playwright of the 20th century
- He is best known for his play Murder in the Cathedral and the poems “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land”
T.S. Eliot
Name the author:
- American poet of the 19th century whose short, unconventional poems were, for the most part, published posthumously
- Now considered a major American poet, she was known in her later years for being reclusive and introverted
Emily Dickinson
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century primarily associated with the Harlem Renaissance
- In his writing he often depicted the black experience in the United States
- His poems include “The Weary Blues” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Langston Hughes
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century best known for his novel Invisible Man, about an unnamed black man who considers himself invisible to society
- A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, he also wrote the essay collections Going to the Territory and Shadow and Act
Ralph Ellison
Name the author:
- American essayist and lecturer of the 19th century and a major leader of Trascendentalism
- He is best known for championing individualism and for his essay Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Name the author:
- English author of the 20th century known as a modernist, particularly for her adoption of stream-of-consciousness writing
- Her major works include the essay A Room of One’s Own and the novels To the Lighthouse and Orlando
Virginia Woolf
Name the author:
- English poet of the 19th century who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and highly popular during his time
- His works include “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Crossing the Bar”
- He wrote the famous lines “‘Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century whose works have frequently been adapted into films or TV dramas
- He is best known for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, about the murder of a Kansas family
- His childhood friend Harper Lee helped him research and write In Cold Blood
Truman Capote
Name the author:
- The pen name of Samuel Clemens, an American humorist and author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
Name the author:
- Brazilian author of the 19th and 20th centuries, regarded as one of the greatest writers in Brazilian literature
- His major works include Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba, and The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
Machado de Assis
Name the author:
- Argentinian writer and poet of the 20th century known for his short stories which combine myth, fantasy, magical realism, and philosophy
- Some of his most famous works include The Aleph, Ficciones, and Los Conjurados
Jorge Luis Borges
Name the author:
- The pen name of Eric Blair, an English author of the 20th century known for his witty social commentary
- His most famous works are Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a satirical novel depicting totalitarianism
George Orwell
Name the author:
- English writer of the 19th and 20th centuries who wrote extensively about British imperialism
- His works include the poems “The White Man’s Burden” and “Gunga Din”, the novella “The Man Who Would Be King”, and the collection The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling
Name the author:
- French philosopher of the 17th century who was fundamental to modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution
- Well versed in math as well, the Cartesian coordinate system is named after him
- He is best known for the statement “I think, therefore I am”
René Descartes
Who is:
Vladimir Nabokov
- Russian-born American writer of the 20th century who wrote at first in Russian and later in English
- He is known for such works as the novels Lolita, Pale Fire, and The Defense, and the memoir Speak, Memory
Who is:
Dylan Thomas
- Welsh poet of the 20th century known for his rhythmic verse and turbulent lifestyle
- His works include the radio dramas Under Milk Wood and A Child’s Christmas in Wales, but he is most famous for the beginning of one poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Who is:
Robert Frost
- American poet of the 19th and 20th centuries, celebrated by critics and readers alike and noted for his realistic treatment of rural life in America
- Some of his poems include “Mending Wall”, “Acquainted with the Night”, and “The Road Not Taken”
Who is:
Edgar Allen Poe
- American author and poet of the 19th century known for his macabre horror stories and for establishing the detective fiction genre with his mysteries
- His best-known works include the poem “The Raven” and the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Who are:
the Brothers Grimm
- Jacob and Wilhelm, German siblings, scholars, and authors of the 18th and 19th centuries
- They collected folklore and published their collections, which included such classics as “Hansel and Gretel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Rumpelstiltskin”, “Snow White”, and “Cinderella”
Who is:
Dr. Seuss
- The pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American illustrator and author of the 20th century
- His children’s books are celebrated, and they include The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Who is:
Maurice Sendak
- 20th and 21st-century American author and illustrator of children’s books
- His best-known works are Where the Wild Things Are, Outside Over There, and In the Night Kitchen
Who is:
Roald Dahl
- British author of the 20th century best known for his children’s stories
- His works include Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Witches
Who are:
Rodgers and Hammerstein
- A 20th-century American musical theatre writing team; their first names were Richard and Oscar
- Richard composed the music and Oscar the lyrics
- Their best-known musicals are The Sound of Music and The King and I
Who is:
Immanuel Kant
- German philosopher from the 18th century whose major work is Critique of Pure Reason
- He aimed to unite reason and experience, as in his mind metaphysics had not arrived at answers on important topics such as free will, God, and the soul
Who is:
C.S. Lewis
Irish author and academic of the 20th century, best known for his works The Allegory of Love, The Screwtape Letters, The Space Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Narnia
Who is:
Lewis Carroll
- The pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English author of the 19th century
- He is best known for writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Who is:
Simone de Beauvoir
- French existentialist and feminist writer and philosopher of the 20th century
- Her most famous works include the treatise The Second Sex and the novels Les Mandarins and L’Invitée
- She is also known for her lifelong relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre
Who is:
Dante
- An Italian poet of the 13th and 14th centuries; commonly known by his first name, his surname was Alighieri
- He is best known for his Divine Comedy, an epic poem about heaven, hell, and purgatory, considered a masterpiece of Italian and world literature
Who is:
Geoffrey Chaucer
- English poet of the 14th century who is regarded as the father of English poetry and the first major poet to write in English
- His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories written in rhyme and in Middle English about a group of pilgrims who tell stories to one another
Who is:
John Milton
English poet of the 17th century best known as the author of Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the Biblical fall of man, regarded as one of the greatest works of English literature
Who is:
Stan Lee
American comic book writer best known as the co-creator of characters such as Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Spider-Man
Who is:
Bob Kane
American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating Batman, along with Bill Finger
Who is:
Ian Fleming
English author of the 20th century who wrote the children’s book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car and the James Bond series of spy novels
Who are:
Jerry Siegel (writer) and Joe Shuster (artist)
The creators of the comic book superhero Superman
Name the author:
- Russian-born American writer of the 20th century who wrote at first in Russian and later in English
- He is known for such works as the novels Lolita, Pale Fire, and The Defense, and the memoir Speak, Memory
Vladimir Nabokov
Name the author:
- Welsh poet of the 20th century known for his rhythmic verse and turbulent lifestyle
- His works include the radio dramas Under Milk Wood and A Child’s Christmas in Wales, but he is most famous for the beginning of one poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night”
Dylan Thomas
Name the author:
- American poet of the 19th and 20th centuries, celebrated by critics and readers alike and noted for his realistic treatment of rural life in America
- Some of his poems include “Mending Wall”, “Acquainted with the Night”, and “The Road Not Taken”
Robert Frost
Name the author:
- American author and poet of the 19th century known for his macabre horror stories and for establishing the detective fiction genre with his mysteries
- His best-known works include the poem “The Raven” and the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Edgar Allen Poe
Name the author:
- Jacob and Wilhelm, German siblings, scholars, and authors of the 18th and 19th centuries
- They collected folklore and published their collections, which included such classics as “Hansel and Gretel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Rumpelstiltskin”, “Snow White”, and “Cinderella”
the Brothers Grimm
Name the author:
- The pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American illustrator and author of the 20th century
- His children’s books are celebrated, and they include The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Dr. Seuss
Name the author:
- 20th and 21st-century American author and illustrator of children’s books
- His best-known works are Where the Wild Things Are, Outside Over There, and In the Night Kitchen
Maurice Sendak
Name the author:
- British author of the 20th century best known for his children’s stories
- His works include Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Witches
Roald Dahl
Name the author:
- A 20th-century American musical theatre writing team; their first names were Richard and Oscar
- Richard composed the music and Oscar the lyrics
- Their best-known musicals are The Sound of Music and The King and I
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Name the author
- German philosopher from the 18th century whose major work is Critique of Pure Reason
- He aimed to unite reason and experience, as in his mind metaphysics had not arrived at answers on important topics such as free will, God, and the soul
Immanuel Kant
Name the author:
Irish author and academic of the 20th century, best known for his works The Allegory of Love, The Screwtape Letters, The Space Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Narnia
C.S. Lewis
Name the author:
- The pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English author of the 19th century
- He is best known for writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll
Name the author:
- French existentialist and feminist writer and philosopher of the 20th century
- Her most famous works include the treatise The Second Sex and the novels Les Mandarins and L’Invitée
- She is also known for her lifelong relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir
Name the author:
- An Italian poet of the 13th and 14th centuries; commonly known by his first name, his surname was Alighieri
- He is best known for his Divine Comedy, an epic poem about heaven, hell, and purgatory, considered a masterpiece of Italian and world literature
Dante
Name the author:
- English poet of the 14th century who is regarded as the father of English poetry and the first major poet to write in English
- His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories written in rhyme and in Middle English about a group of pilgrims who tell stories to one another
Geoffrey Chaucer
Name the author:
English poet of the 17th century best known as the author of Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the Biblical fall of man, regarded as one of the greatest works of English literature
John Milton
Name the author:
American comic book writer best known as the co-creator of characters such as Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Spider-Man
Stan Lee
Name the author:
American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating Batman, along with Bill Finger
Bob Kane
Name the author:
English author of the 20th century who wrote the children’s book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car and the James Bond series of spy novels
Ian Fleming
Name the author:
The creators of the comic book superhero Superman
Jerry Siegel (writer) and Joe Shuster (artist)
Who is:
Ayn Rand
- Russian-born American writer of the 20th century
- She is noted for her promotion of individual rights, reason as the central mode of knowledge and learning, and her philosophical system Objectivism
- Her best-known works are the novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
Who is:
Samuel Beckett
- Influential Irish author and playwright of the 20th century who wrote in both French and English
- He is associated with modernism, minimalism, and the Theatre of the Absurd
- He wrote the novel Molloy and the play Endgame, but he is best known for his play Waiting for Godot
Who is:
Aesop
- Ancient Greek storyteller credited with a series of fables
- The tales are characterized by animal characters who can speak, and each contains a moral lesson
- Some fables include “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “The Tortoise and the Hare”
Who is:
Hans Christian Andersen
19th-century Danish author known for his children’s fairy tales, which include “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “Thumbelina”, and “The Little Mermaid”
Who is:
Anton Chekhov
- Russian author of the 19th century, noted for his short stories and plays
- Two of his major works are the plays Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard
Who is:
Noam Chomsky
- American liguist and academic of the 20th and 21st centuries who is a professor at MIT
- Considered the father of modern linguistics, he has written over 100 books on linguistics, politics, philosophy, media, and war
Who is:
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- German philosopher of the 18th and 19th centuries who influenced a great many writers and thinkers, notably Karl Marx
- He stressed the all-important nature of mind or spirit
Who is:
Hermann Hesse
- German-born Swiss author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is best known for his novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, which explore such themes as spirituality, the duality of existence, and knowledge
Who is:
Franz Kafka
- Austrian author of the 20th century who is noted for the surreal, bizarre nature of his writing
- His works include the novella The Metamorphosis and the novels The Castle and The Trial
Who is:
Soren Kierkegaard
- Danish philosopher from the 19th century, considered a forerunner of existentialism
- A consistent theme of his writing was the loneliness and fear that can come with religion
Who is:
Jean de La Fontaine
17th-century French author known for his classic Fables, a series of stories about animal characters that poke fun of and dispense moral lessons about the human condition
Who is:
Niccolo Machiavelli
Italian Renaissance philosopher and author of The Prince, which advises rulers to maintain power by ruthlessly subordinating moral principles to personal or political goals
Who is:
Molière
- The stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a French playwright and actor of the 17th century
- Regarded as a genius of comedy, he was adored by the court of Louis XIV and aristocrats of Paris
- His comedies include Tartuffe, or The Impostor, The Miser, and The Imaginary Invalid
Who is:
Michel de Montaigne
- French writer of the 16th century credited with establishing the essay as a literary genre
- His best-known work is Essais, translated as “Attempts”
Who is:
Montesquieu
- French baron and political philosopher of the 18th century
- His treatise The Spirit of Laws is famous for its articulation of the merits of the separation of powers in government
Who is:
Pablo Neruda
- Chilean statesman and poet, revered in Latin America during his lifetime
- He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971
Who is:
Plutarch
- Greek historian and biographer of the first and second centuries
- He is known for his works Moralia and Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Who is:
Marcel Proust
- French author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is most famous for his multi-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), which explores the theme of memory
Who is:
François Rabelais
- French writer of the 16th century
- A French Renaissance humanist, his most famous work is the series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel
Who is:
Adam Smith
Scottish philosopher and writer of the 18th century, noted for his classic book The Wealth of Nations, considered the first work of modern economics
Name the author:
- Russian-born American writer of the 20th century
- She is noted for her promotion of individual rights, reason as the central mode of knowledge and learning, and her philosophical system Objectivism
- Her best-known works are the novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand
Name the author:
- Influential Irish author and playwright of the 20th century who wrote in both French and English
- He is associated with modernism, minimalism, and the Theatre of the Absurd
- He wrote the novel Molloy and the play Endgame, but he is best known for his play Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett
Name the author:
- Ancient Greek storyteller credited with a series of fables
- The tales are characterized by animal characters who can speak, and each contains a moral lesson
- Some fables include “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “The Tortoise and the Hare”
Aesop
Name the author:
19th-century Danish author known for his children’s fairy tales, which include “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “Thumbelina”, and “The Little Mermaid”
Hans Christian Andersen
Name the author:
- Russian author of the 19th century, noted for his short stories and plays
- Two of his major works are the plays Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov
Name the author:
- American liguist and academic of the 20th and 21st centuries who is a professor at MIT
- Considered the father of modern linguistics, he has written over 100 books on linguistics, politics, philosophy, media, and war
Noam Chomsky
Name the author:
- German philosopher of the 18th and 19th centuries who influenced a great many writers and thinkers, notably Karl Marx
- He stressed the all-important nature of mind or spirit
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Name the author:
- German-born Swiss author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is best known for his novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, which explore such themes as spirituality, the duality of existence, and knowledge
Hermann Hesse
Name the author:
- Austrian author of the 20th century who is noted for the surreal, bizarre nature of his writing
- His works include the novella The Metamorphosis and the novels The Castle and The Trial
Franz Kafka
Name the author:
- Danish philosopher from the 19th century, considered a forerunner of existentialism
- A consistent theme of his writing was the loneliness and fear that can come with religion
Soren Kierkegaard
Name the author:
17th-century French author known for his classic Fables, a series of stories about animal characters that poke fun of and dispense moral lessons about the human condition
Jean de La Fontaine
Name the author:
Italian Renaissance philosopher and author of The Prince, which advises rulers to maintain power by ruthlessly subordinating moral principles to personal or political goals
Niccolo Machiavelli
Name the author:
- The stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a French playwright and actor of the 17th century
- Regarded as a genius of comedy, he was adored by the court of Louis XIV and aristocrats of Paris
- His comedies include Tartuffe, or The Impostor, The Miser, and The Imaginary Invalid
Molière
Name the author:
- French writer of the 16th century credited with establishing the essay as a literary genre
- His best-known work is Essais, translated as “Attempts”
Michel de Montaigne
Name the author:
- French baron and political philosopher of the 18th century
- His treatise The Spirit of Laws is famous for its articulation of the merits of the separation of powers in government
Montesquieu
Name the author:
- Chilean statesman and poet, revered in Latin America during his lifetime
- He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971
Pablo Neruda
Name the author:
- Greek historian and biographer of the first and second centuries
- He is known for his works Moralia and Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Plutarch
Name the author:
- French author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- He is most famous for his multi-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), which explores the theme of memory
Marcel Proust
Name the author:
- French writer of the 16th century
- A French Renaissance humanist, his most famous work is the series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel
François Rabelais
Name the author:
Scottish philosopher and writer of the 18th century, noted for his classic book The Wealth of Nations, considered the first work of modern economics
Adam Smith
Who is:
Alexandre Dumas
- French writer of the 19th century, best known for his historical novels
- His most famous works are The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo
Who is:
Voltaire
- The pen name of François-Marie Arouet, a French philosopher of the 18th century and a leading figure in the Enlightenment
- A considerable influence on the French and American Revolutions, he championed freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the separation of church and state
- One of his major works is the satirical novella Candide
Who is:
Émile Zola
- French writer of the 19th century, noted as an important naturalist
- He was a leading figure in the sociopolitical liberalization of France, and is most famous for his essay “J’Accuse”, his criticism of the French government during the Dreyfus Affair
Who is:
Maya Angelou
- Influential American author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- Her work has been viewed as representative of African-American culture
- She was most famous for her autobiographical work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Who is:
Joseph Heller
- American satirical writer of the 20th century
- His major work is the war novel Catch-22, whose title entered the English lexicon, meaning any situation that puts one in a double bind
Who is:
Chinua Achebe
- Nigerian writer and professor of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He often focused on colonialism, the effect of Christianity, and the clash between African and Western values
- His most famous work is the novel Things Fall Apart
Who is:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Scottish writer of the 19th and 20th centuries, best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes
Who is:
John Dos Passos
- American author of the 20th century, considered part of the Lost Generation
- He is best known for his experimental trilogy of novels U.S.A., which depict American society of the early 20th century
Who is:
Robert Louis Stevenson
- Scottish author of the 19th century
- He is best known for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island
Who is:
Agatha Christie
- English author of the 20th century best known for her crime and detective novels
- She is one of the most widely read and translated authors of all time
Who is:
E.E. Cummings
American poet and author of the 20th century noted for his sometimes unconventional style and use of presentation or typography
Who is:
Allen Ginsberg
American poet of the 20th century and one of the major figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, best known for his epic poem “Howl”
Who is:
James Joyce
- Celebrated Irish author of the 20th century, noted as an avant-garde modernist and for his occasional use of stream-of-consciousness writing
- His major works include Ulysses, Dubliners, and Finnegans Wake
Who is:
Norman Mailer
- American author of the 20th century noted as a central figure in the development of creative nonfiction
- A Pulitzer Prize-winner, he co-founded The Village Voice
- His major works include The Executioner’s Song, The Armies of the Night, and The Naked and the Dead
Who is:
Stephen Hawking
- English author, physicist, and professor of the 20th and 21st centuries
- Noted for his research in general relativity, he wrote the popular book A Brief History of Time
- He suffers from a disease related to ALS, which has left him almost entirely paralyzed
Who is:
D.H. Lawrence
- English author of the 20th century, noted for his at times controversial reflections on modernity, sex, and health
- His novels include Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Women in Love
Who is:
Jack London
- American author of the 19th and 20th centuries, often associated with magazine fiction
- His works include White Fang and The Call of the Wild
Who is:
Ogden Nash
- American poet of the 20th century, noted for his witty poems and humorous light verse
- One of his most famous lines is, “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker”
Who is:
A.A. Milne
English playwright and author of the 20th century, most famous for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh
Who is:
Jonathan Swift
- Irish satirist and author of the 17th and 18th centuries
- He is best known for writing the novel Gulliver’s Travels and the satirical essay “A Modest Proposal”
Name the author:
- French writer of the 19th century, best known for his historical novels
- His most famous works are The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Name the author:
- The pen name of François-Marie Arouet, a French philosopher of the 18th century and a leading figure in the Enlightenment
- A considerable influence on the French and American Revolutions, he championed freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the separation of church and state
- One of his major works is the satirical novella Candide
Voltaire
Name the author:
- French writer of the 19th century, noted as an important naturalist
- He was a leading figure in the sociopolitical liberalization of France, and is most famous for his essay “J’Accuse”, his criticism of the French government during the Dreyfus Affair
Émile Zola
Name the author:
- Influential American author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- Her work has been viewed as representative of African-American culture
- She is most famous for her autobiographical work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Name the author:
- American satirical writer of the 20th century
- His major work is the war novel Catch-22, whose title entered the English lexicon, meaning any situation that puts one in a double bind
Joseph Heller
Name the author:
- Nigerian writer and professor of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He often focused on colonialism, the effect of Christianity, and the clash between African and Western values
- His most famous work is the novel Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
Name the author:
Scottish writer of the 19th and 20th centuries, best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century, considered part of the Lost Generation
- He is best known for his experimental trilogy of novels U.S.A., which depict American society of the early 20th century
John Dos Passos
Name the author:
- Scottish author of the 19th century
- He is best known for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
Name the author:
- English author of the 20th century best known for her crime and detective novels
- She is one of the most widely read and translated authors of all time
Agatha Christie
Name the author:
American poet and author of the 20th century noted for his sometimes unconventional style and use of presentation or typography
E.E. Cummings
Name the author:
American poet of the 20th century and one of the major figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, best known for his epic poem “Howl”
Allen Ginsberg
Name the author:
- Celebrated Irish author of the 20th century, noted as an avant-garde modernist and for his occasional use of stream-of-consciousness writing
- His major works include Ulysses, Dubliners, and Finnegans Wake
James Joyce
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century noted as a central figure in the development of creative nonfiction
- A Pulitzer Prize-winner, he co-founded The Village Voice
- His major works include The Executioner’s Song, The Armies of the Night, and The Naked and the Dead
Norman Mailer
Name the author:
- English author, physicist, and professor of the 20th and 21st centuries
- Noted for his research in general relativity, he wrote the popular book A Brief History of Time
- He suffers from a disease related to ALS, which has left him almost entirely paralyzed
Stephen Hawking
Name the author:
- English author of the 20th century, noted for his at times controversial reflections on modernity, sex, and health
- His novels include Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Women in Love
D.H. Lawrence
Name the author:
- American author of the 19th and 20th centuries, often associated with magazine fiction
- His works include White Fang and The Call of the Wild
Jack London
Name the author:
- American poet of the 20th century, noted for his witty poems and humorous light verse
- One of his most famous lines is, “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker”
Ogden Nash
Name the author:
English playwright and author of the 20th century, most famous for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh
A.A. Milne
Name the author:
- Irish satirist and author of the 17th and 18th centuries
- He is best known for writing the novel Gulliver’s Travels and the satirical essay “A Modest Proposal”
Jonathan Swift
Who is:
James Matthew Barrie
Scottish author and playwright of the 19th and 20th centuries best known as the creator of Peter Pan
Who is:
Washington Irving
American author of the 19th century, noted for his biographies and his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”
Who is:
Sylvia Plath
- American writer and poet of the 20th century, known for the confessional nature of her poetry
- She committed suicide at the age of 30, but left behind notable works such as The Bell Jar, Ariel, and The Colossus and Other Poems
Who is:
Salman Rushdie
- Indian-born British writer of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He is known as the author of Midnight’s Children, Shame, and the highly controversial The Satanic Verses
Who is:
Gertrude Stein
- Expatriate American writer, intellectual, and literary figure of the 20th century
- Often credited with coining the term “Lost Generation”, she hosted American artists at her Parisian home for many years, and published The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Who is:
Milan Kundera
- Czech-born writer of the 20th century, now a French citizen
- The Czech Republic’s most famous living author, his works include The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Who is:
Harriet Beecher Stowe
American abolitionist and author of the 19th century, best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which had a tremendous effect on anti-slavery sentiment in America
Who is:
Oscar Wilde
Irish author of the 19th century, best known for his wit, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the play The Importance of Being Earnest
Who is:
H.G. Wells
- English author of the 19th and 20th centuries, noted for his prolific writing in a variety of different genres
- He is most famous, however, as a writer of science fiction; his major works include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man
Who is:
William Butler Yeats
- Irish poet of the 19th and 20th centuries, a prominent literary figure and recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature
- He is perhaps best known for his collection The Tower, which contains poems like “Among School Children”, “Leda and the Swan”, and “Sailing to Byzantium”
Who is:
William Wordsworth
- English poet of the 18th and 19th centuries, a major figure of Romanticism
- Named Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, he is known for his poem “The Prelude” and for his close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Who is:
Richard Wright
- American author of the 20th century, noted for his works concerning the black experience in America
- He is known for his autobiography Black Boy and his novels The Outsider and Native Son
Who is:
Francis Scott Key
18th and 19th-century American lawyer and author who is best known for writing the lyrics to the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Who are:
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Washington Post journalists who did much of the original reporting on the Watergate scandal, which resulted in government investigations and the resignation of President Nixon
Who is:
George Bernard Shaw
- Irish author of the 19th and 20th centuries, best known as a playwright
- His most famous play, Pygmalion, was later adopted into a film
- He co-founded the London School of Economics
Who is:
Lord Byron
- English Romantic poet of the 19th century
- His best-known work is the satirical poem “Don Juan”
- He is noted for his rebellious nature and many love affairs
- A hero in Greece for his aid in fighting against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, he died at age 36 from a fever contracted in Greece
Who is:
José Saramago
- Portuguese author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- A celebrated world literary figure, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998
- His major works include Blindness and The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
Who is:
William Goldman
- American author and screenwriter of the 20th and 21st centuries
- His works include the memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade, the novel (and screenplay for) The Princess Bride, and the screenplays for Misery, All the President’s Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Who is:
Joseph Campbell
- American author of the 20th century noted for his work in comparative religion and mythology
- His works include A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which had a considerable influence on George Lucas and the development of his Star Wars series
- He is known for the line “Follow your bliss”
Who is:
Joan Didion
- American author of the 20th and 21st centuries, best known for her nonfiction works which explore American culture and family life
- Her works include the essay collection The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking
Name the author:
Scottish author and playwright of the 19th and 20th centuries best known as the creator of Peter Pan
James Matthew Barrie
Name the author:
American author of the 19th century, noted for his biographies and his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”
Washington Irving
Name the author:
- American writer and poet of the 20th century, known for the confessional nature of her poetry
- She committed suicide at the age of 30, but left behind notable works such as The Bell Jar, Ariel, and The Colossus and Other Poems
Sylvia Plath
Name the author:
- Indian-born British writer of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He is known as the author of Midnight’s Children, Shame, and the highly controversial The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Name the author:
- Expatriate American writer, intellectual, and literary figure of the 20th century
- Often credited with coining the term “Lost Generation”, she hosted American artists at her Parisian home for many years, and published The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Gertrude Stein
Name the author:
- Czech-born writer of the 20th century, now a French citizen
- The Czech Republic’s most famous living author, his works include The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Milan Kundera
Name the author:
American abolitionist and author of the 19th century, best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which had a tremendous effect on anti-slavery sentiment in America
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Name the author
Irish author of the 19th century, best known for his wit, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the play The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde
Name the author:
- English author of the 19th and 20th centuries, noted for his prolific writing in a variety of different genres
- He is most famous, however, as a writer of science fiction; his major works include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man
H.G. Wells
Name the author:
- Irish poet of the 19th and 20th centuries, a prominent literary figure and recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature
- He is perhaps best known for his collection The Tower, which contains poems like “Among School Children”, “Leda and the Swan”, and “Sailing to Byzantium”
William Butler Yeats
Name the author:
- English poet of the 18th and 19th centuries, a major figure of Romanticism
- Named Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, he is known for his poem “The Prelude” and for his close friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century, noted for his works concerning the black experience in America
- He is known for his autobiography Black Boy and his novels The Outsider and Native Son
Richard Wright
Name the author:
18th and 19th-century American lawyer and author who is best known for writing the lyrics to the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Francis Scott Key
Name the author:
Washington Post journalists who did much of the original reporting on the Watergate scandal, which resulted in government investigations and the resignation of President Nixon
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Name the author:
- Irish author of the 19th and 20th centuries, best known as a playwright
- His most famous play, Pygmalion, was later adopted into a film
- He co-founded the London School of Economics
George Bernard Shaw
Name the author:
- English Romantic poet of the 19th century
- His best-known work is the satirical poem “Don Juan”
- He is noted for his rebellious nature and many love affairs
- A hero in Greece for his aid in fighting against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, he died at age 36 from a fever contracted in Greece
Lord Byron
Name the author:
- Portuguese author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- A celebrated world literary figure, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998
- His major works include Blindness and The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
José Saramago
Name the author:
- American author and screenwriter of the 20th and 21st centuries
- His works include the memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade, the novel (and screenplay for) The Princess Bride, and the screenplays for Misery, All the President’s Men, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
William Goldman
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th century noted for his work in comparative religion and mythology
- His works include A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which had a considerable influence on George Lucas and the development of his Star Wars series
- He is known for the line “Follow your bliss”
Joseph Campbell
Name the author:
- American author of the 20th and 21st centuries, best known for her nonfiction works which explore American culture and family life
- Her works include the essay collection The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
Who is:
E.B. White
American writer and journalist of the 20th century, best known as the co-author of The Elements of Style and the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web
Who is:
Elizabeth Bishop
20th-century American poet who was Poet Laureate of the United States and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her work, characterized by its highly detailed yet distant nature
Who is:
Italo Calvino
- 20th-century Italian author known for his short stories and novels
- His works include Invisible Cities, The Baron in the Trees, and If on a winter’s night a traveler
- He was a member of Oulipo, a mostly French group of experimental writers
Who is:
Georges Perec
- French author of the 20th century
- A member of the experimental writing group Oulipo, he is known for experimenting with word play in his writing
- His works include La Vie mode d’emploi and La disparition, a novel written without the use of the letter “e”
Who is:
Raymond Queneau
- French writer of the 20th century best known as the co-founder of Oulipo, a group of writers who sought to stimulate creativy in their works by establishing writing constraints and techniques such as palindromes or lipograms
- His works include Exercices de style, in which the same story is retold 99 times, each in a different way
Who is:
Jack Kerouac
- 20th-century American author and member of the Beat Generation
- A countercultural icon, his writing was spontaneous in nature
- He is known for works such as On the Road and The Dharma Bums
Who is:
Henry James
- 19th and 20th-century American author known for his novels The American and The Portrait of a Lady
- He was the brother of psychologist William James
Who is:
Virgil
- Ancient Roman poet of the first century B.C.
- He wrote the epic masterpiece Aeneid, and served as an inspiration to many, including Dante, who included him in his Divine Comedy
Who is:
Murasaki Shikibu
- 10th and 11th-century Japanese writer and lady-in-waiting at the Japanese Imperial court
- She is best known as the author of the classic Japanese work The Tale of Genji, often regarded as the world’s first novel
Who is:
Laozi
- Ancient philosopher of China, believed to have lived in the 6th century B.C.
- He is known as the author of the classical text Tao Te Ching, which laid the foundation for Taoism
Who is:
Sun Tzu
- Ancient Chinese general and philosopher of the 6th century B.C.
- He is widely credited as the author of The Art of War, regarded as the fundamental text on military strategy of its time
Who is:
Joseph Conrad
- Polish-born English author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- Noted for his stylish prose, his works include Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Lord Jim
Who is:
Jaroslav Hašek
Czech humorist and writer of the 19th and 20th centuries, most famous for his satirical collection The Good Soldier Švejk
Who is:
Malcolm Gladwell
- British-Canadian journalist of the 20th and 21st centuries who works for The New Yorker
- His popular books, which often deal with social psychology and academic research, include The Tipping Point and Outliers
Who is:
Bill Simmons
- American sports columnist of the 20th and 21st centuries, highly popular and nicknamed The Sports Guy
- He is noted for mixing pop culture into his analysis of sports, and currently heads Grantland.com, a sports site affiliated with ESPN
Who is:
Boccaccio
- 14th-century Italian poet, regarded as an important humanist of the Renaissance
- A friend of Petrarch, his works include The Decameron and his collection of biographies On Famous Women
Who is:
Petrarch
- Italian poet and humanist of the 14th century
- A contemporary of Boccaccio, he is known for coining the term “the Dark Ages” and for contributing to the development of lyrical poetry
Who is:
Herodotus
- Greek historian of the fifth century B.C. who is frequently referred to as the “Father of History”
- The first historian to collect materials and resources and to arrange them in narrative form, his major work was a detailed history of the Greco-Persian Wars
Who is:
Mary Wollstonecraft
- English writer of the 18th century who is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers
- Her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein
Who is:
Alice Walker
African-American writer of the 20th century best known for her novel The Color Purple, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted into a film
Who is:
David Sedaris
- American humorist and author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He is best known for his popular collections of essays and short stories, which are self-deprecating and often deal with his own personal or familial experiences
Who is:
Carlos Fuentes
- Mexican author of the 20th and 21st centuries, celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world
- His major works include The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo
Who is:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- English poet of the 18th and 19th centuries, regarded as a founder of English Romanticism along with his friend William Wordsworth
- He is known for his poem “Kubla Khan”, about Xanadu, the summer palace of the ancient Mongol emperor Kublai Khan
Who is:
Ezra Pound
- American expatriate modernist poet and author of the 20th century, noted for his promotion of Imagism
- His works include the collection Ripostes and the long poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”
- He served as a mentor to many notable 20th-century authors such as Hemingway, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot, helping to publish their work
- He later controversially supported Mussolini and Hitler
Name the author:
American writer and journalist of the 20th century, best known as the co-author of The Elements of Style and the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web
E.B. White
Name the author:
20th-century American poet who was Poet Laureate of the United States and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her work, characterized by its highly detailed yet distant nature
Elizabeth Bishop
Name the author:
- 20th-century Italian author known for his short stories and novels
- His works include Invisible Cities, The Baron in the Trees, and If on a winter’s night a traveler
- He was a member of Oulipo, a mostly French group of experimental writers
Italo Calvino
Name the author:
- French author of the 20th century
- A member of the experimental writing group Oulipo, he is known for experimenting with word play in his writing
- His works include La Vie mode d’emploi and La disparition, a novel written without the use of the letter “e”
Georges Perec
Name the author:
- French writer of the 20th century best known as the co-founder of Oulipo, a group of writers who sought to stimulate creativy in their works by establishing writing constraints and techniques such as palindromes or lipograms
- His works include Exercices de style, in which the same story is retold 99 times, each in a different way
Raymond Queneau
Name the author:
- 20th-century American author and member of the Beat Generation
- A countercultural icon, his writing was spontaneous in nature
- He is known for works such as On the Road and The Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac
Name the author:
- 19th and 20th-century American author known for his novels The American and The Portrait of a Lady
- He was the brother of psychologist William James
Henry James
Name the author:
- Ancient Roman poet of the first century B.C.
- He wrote the epic masterpiece Aeneid, and served as an inspiration to many, including Dante, who included him in his Divine Comedy
Virgil
Name the author:
- 10th and 11th-century Japanese writer and lady-in-waiting at the Japanese Imperial court
- She is best known as the author of the classic Japanese work The Tale of Genji, often regarded as the world’s first novel
Murasaki Shikibu
Name the author:
- Ancient philosopher of China, believed to have lived in the 6th century B.C.
- He is known as the author of the classical text Tao Te Ching, which laid the foundation for Taoism
Laozi
Name the author:
- Ancient Chinese general and philosopher of the 6th century B.C.
- He is widely credited as the author of The Art of War, regarded as the fundamental text on military strategy of its time
Sun Tzu
Name the author:
- Polish-born English author of the 19th and 20th centuries
- Noted for his stylish prose, his works include Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Lord Jim
Joseph Conrad
Name the author:
Czech humorist and writer of the 19th and 20th centuries, most famous for his satirical collection The Good Soldier Švejk
Jaroslav Hašek
Name the author:
- British-Canadian journalist of the 20th and 21st centuries who works for The New Yorker
- His popular books, which often deal with social psychology and academic research, include The Tipping Point and Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
Name the author:
- American sports columnist of the 20th and 21st centuries, highly popular and nicknamed The Sports Guy
- He is noted for mixing pop culture into his analysis of sports, and currently heads Grantland.com, a sports site affiliated with ESPN
Bill Simmons
Name the author:
- 14th-century Italian poet, regarded as an important humanist of the Renaissance
- A friend of Petrarch, his works include The Decameron and his collection of biographies On Famous Women
Boccaccio
Name the author:
- Italian poet and humanist of the 14th century
- A contemporary of Boccaccio, he is known for coining the term “the Dark Ages” and for contributing to the development of lyrical poetry
Petrarch
Name the author:
- Greek historian of the fifth century B.C. who is frequently referred to as the “Father of History”
- The first historian to collect materials and resources and to arrange them in narrative form, his major work was a detailed history of the Greco-Persian Wars
Herodotus
Name the author:
- English writer of the 18th century who is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers
- Her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft
Name the author:
African-American writer of the 20th century best known for her novel The Color Purple, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted into a film
Alice Walker
Name the author:
- American humorist and author of the 20th and 21st centuries
- He is best known for his popular collections of essays and short stories, which are self-deprecating and often deal with his own personal or familial experiences
David Sedaris
Name the author:
- Mexican author of the 20th and 21st centuries, celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world
- His major works include The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo
Carlos Fuentes
Name the author:
- English poet of the 18th and 19th centuries, regarded as a founder of English Romanticism along with his friend William Wordsworth
- He is known for his poem “Kubla Khan”, about Xanadu, the summer palace of the ancient Mongol emperor Kublai Khan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Name the author:
- American expatriate modernist poet and author of the 20th century, noted for his promotion of Imagism
- His works include the collection Ripostes and the long poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”
- He served as a mentor to many notable 20th-century authors such as Hemingway, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot, helping to publish their work
- He later controversially supported Mussolini and Hitler
Ezra Pound
