The Greatest Books of All Time on Creativity

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
88 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce 1916 Irish English
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English
209 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
434 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand 1943 American English
515 Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari 1550 Italian Italian
855 A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway 1964 American English
960 The Gift Vladimir Nabokov 1938 Russian Russian
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1134 The Neverending Story Michael Ende 1979 German German
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1187 Jean Christophe Romain Rolland 1904 French French
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1402 The Seagull Anton Chekhov 1896 Russian Russian
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1651 The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1892 American English
1680 Harold and the Purple Crayon Crockett Johnson 1955 American English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1744 Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie 1990 British English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1936 Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini 1728 Italian Italian
2000 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2155 The Flame Of Life Gabriele D'Annunzio 1900 Italian Italian
2360 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2373 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2373 The Tales Of Hoffmann E. T. A. Hoffmann 1814 German German
2413 Loitering With Intent Muriel Spark 1981 British English
2419 A Mathematician's Apology G. H. Hardy 1940 British English
2469 The Hill Of Dreams Arthur Machen 1907 British English
2577 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
2829 Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 2022 American English
2836 How to Cook a Wolf M. F. K. Fisher 1942 American English
2872 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
2888 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
3085 Diane Arbus Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus 1972 American English
3175 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3324 Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel 1910 French French
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3521 Balzac Stefan Zweig 1946 Austrian German
3599 Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid 2019 American English
3637 Being Geniuses Together Robert McAlmon 1938 American English
3637 The Story Of My Life George Sand 1855 French French
3637 Franz Sternbald's Wanderings Ludwig Tieck 1798 German German
3802 Inside Mr. Enderby Anthony Burgess 1963 British English
3809 The Writing Life Annie Dillard 1989 American English
4099 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
4272 The Noise Of Time Osip Mandelstam 1925 Russian Russian
4292 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4295 Bird By Bird Anne Lamott 1994 American English
4308 Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing May Sarton 1965 American English
4436 Native Funk & Flash Alexandra Jacopetti 1974 American English
4501 How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti 2010 Canadian English
4669 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
4717 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
5030 Lust For Life Irving Stone 1934 American English
5112 The War Of Art Steven Pressfield 2002 American English
5126 Ο Εχθρός του Ποιητή Giorgos Heimonas 1979 Greek Greek
5157 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
5235 Memories And Commentaries Igor Stravinsky 1960 Russian English
5288 A Nap Szerelmese Sándor Dallos 1931 Hungarian Hungarian
5338 Aranyecset Sándor Dallos 1931 Hungarian Hungarian
5723 The Rosy Crucifixion Henry Miller 1949 American English
5925 In Search Of Our Mother’s Gardens Alice Walker 1983 American English
5935 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5936 Las Poetas Visitan A Andrea Del Sarto Juana Bignozzi 1993 Argentinian Spanish
5950 The Afternoon of a Writer Peter Handke 1987 Austrian German
5959 Microserfs Douglas Coupland 1995 Canadian English
6079 John Keats Robert Gittings 1968 British English
6081 Essential Cuisine Michel Bras 1996 French French
6124 The First Garden Anne Hébert 1988 Canadian French
6134 The Dance Of Life Havelock Ellis 1923 British English
6147 A Giacometti Portrait James Lord 1965 American English
6178 Geste Michelle Grangaud 1991 French French
6253 The Craftsman Richard Sennett 2008 American English
6258 The Allure Of Chanel Paul Morand 1976 French French
6281 The Mirror and the Lamp Meyer Howard Abrams 1953 American English
6292 Gaston André Franquin 1957 French French
6318 The Artist's Way Julia Cameron 1992 American English
6324 The Voices Of Silence Andre Malraux 1951 French French
6378 Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson 2017 American English
6426 Le Pays Où Tout Est Permis Sophie Podolski 1979 Unknown French
6555 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6580 Zuckerman Bound Philip Roth 1985 American English
6637 Autonauts Of The Cosmoroute Julio Cortazar 1983 Argentinian Spanish
6645 It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want To Be Paul Arden 2003 British English
7019 Corinne Madame de Staël 1807 French French
7056 A Passionate Apprentice Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
7083 The Art of the Soluble Peter B. Medawar 1967 British English
7085 Nothing Like the Sun Anthony Burgess 1964 British English
7216 Sonnets And Madrigals Michelangelo Buonarroti 1545 Italian Italian
7216 When We Dead Awaken Henrik Ibsen 1899 Norwegian Norwegian
7216 A Defence Of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley 1840 British English
7216 Dialogue On Poetry And Literary Aphorisms Friedrich Schlegel 1800 German German
7216 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
7216 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7216 Seven Dada Manifestoes Tristan Tzara 1924 French French
7216 The Blue Octavo Notebook Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
7216 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
7606 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7671 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
7754 Mr. Fox Helen Oyeyemi 2011 British English
7772 The Name Above the Title Frank Capra 1971 American English
7861 Selected Writings Paul Valéry 1950 French French
8009 Still Life A. S. Byatt 1985 British English
8051 Rita Angus Jill Trevelyan 2008 New Zealand English
8089 Process And Reality Alfred North Whitehead 1929 British English
8174 Life Keith Richards 2010 British English
8203 Insomnia Drawings Louise Bourgeois 2000 Unknown English
8336 The Bat Poet Randall Jarrell 1964 American English
8393 de Kooning Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan 2004 American English
8443 Diaries 1959 1971 Alejandra Pizarnik 2003 Argentinian Spanish