The Greatest Authors of All Time
Ever wondered who the greatest authors of all time are? We've analyzed 759 diverse book lists to create this comprehensive ranking of literary masters. Our algorithm considers several key factors to determine each author's position:
- Book Rankings: Each author's score starts with the sum of their books' rankings from our master list.
- Number of Great Books: Authors are rewarded for having multiple highly-ranked books. The more great books an author has, the higher their overall score.
- Age of Books: Older books receive a small bonus to their score, with the maximum bonus going to books over 100 years old.
This system ensures that authors with multiple enduring works are recognized, while still giving weight to the quality of individual books. The rankings are automatically calculated and updated as new lists are added to our database.
9301. Gregory L. Roper
9302. Kevin Robb
9303. J.P. Moreland
American philosopher and Christian apologist known for work in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and Christian apologetics; author of books such as Scaling the Secular City and Consciousness and the Existence of God.
9304. Nicholas Wolterstorff
American philosopher (born 1932) known for influential work in philosophy of religion, political philosophy, epistemology, and aesthetics; a prominent Reformed Christian thinker and author of books on justice, faith, and the arts.
9305. Frances M. Young
British theologian, New Testament scholar and historian of Christian doctrine, author of works on early Christian creeds and theology.
9306. Roger Lundin
9307. Ilana Masad
American writer, journalist, and critic who publishes fiction and nonfiction exploring queer and Jewish identity; author of novels and essays and a contributor of cultural criticism and personal essays to various outlets.
9308. Christian Smith
9309. Felix Gilman
Speculative fiction novelist and short story writer, best known for the novel The Half-Made World.
9310. Herbert Coleridge
English philologist and lexicographer; an early contributor to the Philological Society and to work that led to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, died young.
9311. Eric O. Jacobsen
9312. Hunter Baker
9313. Christine D. Pohl
American Christian ethicist and author known for work on Christian hospitality and community; author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition and Living into Community.
9314. Brent Hull
9315. Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette
9316. Mark T. Mitchell
9317. Jason Peters
9318. Henry Chadwick
English-born American sportswriter, baseball statistician and journalist known as the "Father of Baseball"; helped develop the box score, batting average and modern scorekeeping.
9319. Stephen R. Turley
9320. James S. Taylor
9321. Rita Copeland
American scholar of medieval literature, translation, and textual studies; long-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania known for work on medieval rhetoric, translation theory, and manuscript culture.
9322. Kate Thomas
9323. Matt Perman
Author, speaker, and consultant focusing on productivity, leadership, and Christian discipleship; author of the book 'What's Best Next'.
9324. Lincoln Peirce
American cartoonist and author, best known as the creator of the Big Nate comic strip and the Big Nate children's book and graphic novel series.
9325. Pekka Himanen
Finnish philosopher and social scientist known for his work on the information society and ethics of technology; author of The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age (co-authored with Linus Torvalds).
9326. Antonio Escohotado
Spanish philosopher, essayist and historian of ideas, best known for his work 'Historia general de las drogas' (General History of Drugs).
9329. Louise DeSalvo
American writer, editor, and professor known for her memoirs and for scholarship and teaching on memoir writing and women's literature (author of 'Writing as a Way of Healing').
9330. Christopher Nobes
British accounting scholar known for research on international and comparative accounting; author of the book 'Comparative International Accounting'.
9331. Jörg Lauster
9332. Anne-Marie O'Connor
American journalist and author, best known for The Lady in Gold (2012), a history of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer; has worked as a reporter for major U.S. newspapers.
9333. Giles Udy
British author, researcher and historian specializing in Soviet-era forced labour camps (the Gulag) and related human-rights and historical research; contributor to publications and author of works examining the British connection to the Gulag.
9334. Brian P. Levack
American historian specializing in early modern Europe, particularly witch-hunts and legal history; author of The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe and associated with the University of Texas at Austin.
9335. Mark Edmundson
American author, literary critic, and professor of English known for essays and books on literature, culture, and education; long-time faculty member at the University of Virginia.
9336. Margaret Thatcher
British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990; leader of the Conservative Party and the first woman to hold the office. Known as the "Iron Lady," associated with free-market economic reforms, privatization, and curbing union power.
9337. Frank Schirrmacher
German journalist, essayist and co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, known as an influential public intellectual who wrote on literature, media and the social effects of technology.
9338. Alain de Benoist
French political philosopher, writer and journalist; founding figure of the Nouvelle Droite (New Right) and founder/leading intellectual of GRECE (Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne), known for works on nationalism, ethnopluralism and critiques of liberal egalitarianism.
9339. Meryl Gordon
American journalist and author of biographies and investigative non‑fiction, known for books including The Phantom of Fifth Avenue (a biography of Huguette Clark) and Mrs. Astor Regrets.
9340. James W. Douglass
American author, theologian and peace activist known for writings on nonviolence and for investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy, notably the book 'JFK and the Unspeakable.'
9341. Arthur Michael Ramsey
English Anglican bishop and theologian who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974; known for his work in ecumenism and pastoral theology.
9342. Hubertus Knabe
German historian and author specializing in the history and repression of the East German (GDR) regime; former director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen memorial.
9343. Hans-Ulrich Wehler
German social historian and leading figure of the Bielefeld School; specialized in 19th-century German history and author of the multi-volume Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte; associated with debates about Germany's 'Sonderweg'.
9344. Nicole Mazzarella
9346. Michael H. Hugos
Author of business and IT books focused on supply chain management and cloud computing; known for titles such as 'Essentials of Supply Chain Management' and 'Business in the Cloud.'
9347. Richard von Glahn
American historian of China who specializes in Chinese economic and monetary history; author of works including 'Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700.'
9348. Robin Alexander
9349. Aleksander Wat
Polish poet, essayist, translator and literary critic, prominent as an interwar and postwar intellectual.
9350. Dmitri Volkogonov
Soviet and Russian military historian and lieutenant-general who served as an archivist; known for critical, archival-based biographies of Soviet leaders (including Lenin and Stalin) and for revealing previously suppressed information about the Soviet regime.