PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: children's literature
American writer
Mark Twain was an American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives, especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on...
French theologian
John Calvin was a theologian and ecclesiastical statesman. He was the leading French Protestant reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. His interpretation...
British author
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, best known for his novels Treasure Island (1881), Kidnapped (1886), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr....
American writer
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest fiction writers of 19th-century American literature. A master of the allegorical and symbolic tale, he remains best known for the novels The Scarlet Letter (1850)...
British author
Lewis Carroll was an English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, especially remembered for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). His...
American author and illustrator
Dr. Seuss was an American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures. After graduating from Dartmouth College (B.A.,...
American writer
Alice Walker is an American writer whose novels, short stories, and poems are noted for their insightful treatment of African American culture. Her novels, most notably The Color Purple (1982), focus particularly...
American author
Louise Erdrich is an American author whose principal subject is the Ojibwe people of the northern Midwest. Among her acclaimed novels are The Round House (2012; winner of the National Book Award) and The...
Irish-born author and scholar
C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. His works of greatest lasting...
British writer
Rudyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for...
American author
Toni Morrison was an American writer noted for her examination of Black experience (particularly Black female experience) within the Black community and for her poetic, luminous prose. Considered one of...
English author
J.R.R. Tolkien was an English writer and scholar who achieved fame with his children’s book The Hobbit (1937) and his richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). At age four Tolkien,...
American journalist and novelist
From 1985 to 2021 Carl Hiaasen wrote a popular syndicated opinion column for The Miami Herald. Hiaasen’s acerbic, often humorous columns tackled both Florida-specific and national issues. A lifelong Florida...
American poet and educator
Gwendolyn Brooks was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century and the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). Her works deal with the everyday life of urban African Americans,...
British writer
Neil Gaiman is a British writer who earned critical praise and popular success with richly imagined fantasy tales that frequently feature a darkly humorous tone. His notable works include the comic book...
American actress
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author who first rose to fame with a series of popular horror movies, most notably Halloween (1978) and its sequels, and who later found success with comedic...
Australian author
Liane Moriarty is an Australian author known for her contemporary fiction that often explores the complexities of relationships, buried secrets, and the emotional intricacies of everyday life. Her work...
American poet, memoirist, and actress
Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Her best-known work is the powerful memoir...
British-American writer
Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues by means of surreal characters, brooding humor, and an effusive and melodramatic...
American actor
John Lithgow is an American stage and screen character actor known for his extreme versatility, earning acclaim in roles ranging from mild-mannered everymen to cold-blooded killers. Lithgow was born into...
American children’s author
Walter Dean Myers, was a prolific American children’s author best known for his urban fiction inspired by his childhood and adolescence in the Harlem district of New York City. His body of work consists...
British actress and director
Emerald Fennell is an English actress, director, and writer known for her versatile talents and her provocative works exploring horror, revenge, gender, and social class. She directed and wrote the films...
American author
James Patterson is an American author, principally known for his thriller and suspense novels. His prolific output and business savvy made him a ubiquitous presence on best-seller lists in the late 20th...
British poet
Ted Hughes was an English poet whose most characteristic verse is without sentimentality, emphasizing the cunning and savagery of animal life in harsh, sometimes disjunctive lines. Hughes served as poet...
Irish writer
Roddy Doyle is an Irish author known for his unvarnished depiction of the working class in Ireland, particularly in his home city of Dublin. Since his literary debut in the 1980s, Doyle’s distinctively...
American writer and illustrator
Dav Pilkey is an American cartoonist, writer, and illustrator known for his humorous books and graphic novels for children. He is the creator of several popular children’s characters, including Captain...
British author
P.L. Travers was an Australian English writer known for her Mary Poppins books, about a magical nanny. The books insightfully explored the fraught relationship between children and adults through a combination...
American author
Kate DiCamillo is an American author whose award-winning children’s books commonly confront themes of loss but whose protagonists—who range from a lonely girl in Florida to a lost porcelain rabbit—find...
English illustrator and author
Quentin Blake is a prolific and award-winning English illustrator and children’s author, with a distinct and recognizable style of drawing. He is perhaps best known for illustrating books written by British...
American actress and singer
Bette Midler is an American actress and singer who is known for her dynamic energy, comedic wit, and campy humour. Midler was raised in rural Aiea, Oahu, the third of four children of a house painter and...
British writer
Alexander McCall Smith is a British writer, creator of a series of novels about Precious Ramotswe, a fictional character who is Botswana’s only female detective. McCall Smith was raised in Southern Rhodesia...
American author, educator, and philanthropist
Chelsea Clinton is an American author, educator, and philanthropist who was perhaps best known as the only child of politicians Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), and Hillary...
American poet, author, and activist
Juan Felipe Herrera is an American poet, author, and activist of Mexican descent who became the first Hispanic American to serve as U.S. poet laureate (2015–17). He is known for his often-bilingual and...
American writer
John Grisham is an American writer, attorney, and politician whose legal thrillers often top best-seller lists and are adapted for film. In the late 20th century, Grisham became one of the fastest-selling...
American author
Laurence Yep is a prolific American author of more than 60 children’s and young adult books. He is well known for two of his books, Dragonwings (1975) and Dragon’s Gate (1993), which were named Newbery...
British author
Enid Blyton was a prolific and highly popular British author of stories, poems, plays, and educational books for children, best known for series such as Noddy, The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, and Malory...
British author
J.K. Rowling is a British author and the creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series, about a young sorcerer in training. After graduating from the University of Exeter in 1986,...
Indian author
Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent, known for his extensive body of work in English, which includes The Room on the Roof (1956) and A Flight of Pigeons (1978). Over a career spanning more...
American author
Lois Lowry is an American author who wrote some 50 books, mainly directed toward young adults, beginning in the 1970s. By the early 1990s she had solidified her reputation by winning two Newbery Medals,...
American author
Judy Blume is an American author known for creating juvenile fiction that features people and situations identifiable to young readers. While her frankness, first-person narratives, and ability to portray...
American author and illustrator
Chris Van Allsburg is an American author and illustrator who created several critically acclaimed children’s books. Van Allsburg made narrative and pictures work together to convincingly blur the line...
British author
Anthony Horowitz is a prolific British author and screenwriter known for his popular young adult fiction. Horowitz has also written for an adult audience and has created and written several television...
American author
Jacqueline Woodson is an American author who has written more than 40 books for adults, young adults, and children that focus on African American experiences. Her work has helped to inspire children in...
British author
Ian Fleming was a suspense-fiction novelist whose character James Bond, the stylish, high-living British secret service agent 007, became one of the most successful and widely imitated heroes of 20th-century...
American poet and children’s author
Kwame Alexander is an American poet, author of young adult and children’s fiction, and advocate for introducing literary works and the art of writing to schoolchildren. He gained national prominence after...
English author
Michael Rosen is a prolific English children’s author who has written picture books, nonfiction works, and collections of poetry. Much of his work, often composed in humorous verse, incorporates events...
Filipino- American children’s author
Erin Entrada Kelly is a Filipino American children’s author best known for writing novels for and about middle schoolers and for weaving aspects of Filipino culture into her stories. Kelly won the Newbery...
British actor, author, and host
David Walliams is an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who first gained fame with the television show Little Britain, a sketch comedy that he and his frequent collaborator, Matt Lucas, starred...
American author and illustrator
Grace Lin is an American author and illustrator of picture books, books for early readers, and middle-school novels. Lin often includes aspects of Taiwanese and Chinese culture in her works. Her novel...
New Zealand writer
Patricia Grace is a New Zealand writer who was a foundational figure in the rise and development of Māori fiction. Her work has been acclaimed for its depiction of Māori culture in general as well as Māori...