author
Other forms: authors; authorized; authored; authoring
An author is a person who writes books or articles, usually for money. It can also refer to the person responsible for something, like the author of a plan to overthrow the student government.
Author comes from the Latin word auctorem, meaning "founder, master, leader." Bow down to the author! Well, no need for that, just make sure the author gets credit. Author usually refers to a professional writer. In fact, author can be used interchangeably with the word writer. But author packs a little more punch — an author is involved in the creation of the work and generating the ideas behind it; strictly speaking, a writer could just execute the written product.
Definitions of author
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a person who writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)
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synonyms:
writer
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examples:
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Conrad Potter Aiken
United States writer (1889-1973)
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Horatio Alger
United States author of inspirational adventure stories for boys; virtue and hard work overcome poverty (1832-1899)
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Nelson Algren
United States writer (1909-1981)
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Hans Christian Andersen
a Danish author remembered for his fairy stories (1805-1875)
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Sherwood Anderson
United States author whose works were frequently autobiographical (1876-1941)
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Louis Aragon
French writer who generalized surrealism to literature (1897-1982)
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Shalom Asch
United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957)
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Isaac Asimov
United States writer (born in Russia) noted for his science fiction (1920-1992)
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Louis Stanton Auchincloss
United States writer (born in 1917)
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Jane Austen
English novelist noted for her insightful portrayals of middle-class families (1775-1817)
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James Arthur Baldwin
United States author who was an outspoken critic of racism (1924-1987)
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Imamu Amiri Baraka
United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict (born in 1934)
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John Simmons Barth
United States novelist (born in 1930)
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Donald Barthelme
United States author of sometimes surrealistic stories (1931-1989)
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Lyman Frank Brown
United States writer of children's books (1856-1919)
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Simone de Beauvoir
French feminist and existentialist and novelist (1908-1986)
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Samuel Beckett
a playwright and novelist (born in Ireland) who lived in France; wrote plays for the theater of the absurd (1906-1989)
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Sir Henry Maxmilian Beerbohm
English writer and caricaturist (1872-1956)
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Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc
English author (born in France) remembered especially for his verse for children (1870-1953)
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Solomon Bellow
United States author (born in Canada) whose novels influenced American literature after World War II (1915-2005)
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Robert Charles Benchley
United States humorist (1889-1945)
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William Rose Benet
United States writer; brother of Stephen Vincent Benet (1886-1950)
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Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
United States writer of caustic wit (1842-1914)
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Heinrich Theodor Boell
German novelist and writer of short stories (1917-1985)
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Arna Wendell Bontemps
United States writer (1902-1973)
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Jorge Luis Borges
Argentinian writer remembered for his short stories (1899-1986)
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James Boswell
Scottish author noted for his biography of Samuel Johnson (1740-1795)
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Kay Boyle
United States writer (1902-1992)
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Ray Douglas Bradbury
United States writer of science fiction (born 1920)
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Charlotte Bronte
English novelist; oldest of three Bronte sisters (1816-1855)
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Emily Jane Bronte
English novelist; one of three Bronte sisters (1818-1848)
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Anne Bronte
English novelist; youngest of three Bronte sisters (1820-1849)
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Charles Farrar Browne
United States writer of humorous tales of an itinerant showman (1834-1867)
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Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
United States author whose novels drew on her experiences as a missionary in China (1892-1973)
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John Bunyan
English preacher and author of an allegorical novel, Pilgrim's Progress (1628-1688)
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Anthony Burgess
English writer of satirical novels (1917-1993)
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Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett
United States writer (born in England) remembered for her novels for children (1849-1924)
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Edgar Rice Burroughs
United States novelist and author of the Tarzan stories (1875-1950)
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William Seward Burroughs
United States writer noted for his works portraying the life of drug addicts (1914-1997)
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Samuel Butler
English novelist who described a fictitious land he called Erewhon (1835-1902)
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James Branch Cabell
United States writer of satirical novels (1879-1958)
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Erskine Preston Caldwell
United States author remembered for novels about poverty and degeneration (1903-1987)
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Italo Calvino
Italian writer of novels and short stories (born in Cuba) (1923-1987)
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Albert Camus
French writer who portrayed the human condition as isolated in an absurd world (1913-1960)
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Elias Canetti
English writer born in Germany (1905-1994)
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Karel Capek
Czech writer who introduced the word `robot' into the English language (1890-1938)
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Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
English author; Charles Dodgson was an Oxford don of mathematics who is remembered for the children's stories he wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
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Willa Sibert Cather
United States writer who wrote about frontier life (1873-1947)
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Spanish writer best remembered for `Don Quixote' which satirizes chivalry and influenced the development of the novel form (1547-1616)
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Raymond Thornton Chandler
United States writer of detective thrillers featuring the character of Philip Marlowe (1888-1959)
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Francois Rene Chateaubriand
French statesman and writer; considered a precursor of the romantic movement in France (1768-1848)
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John Cheever
United States writer of novels and short stories (1912-1982)
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
conservative English writer of the Roman Catholic persuasion; in addition to volumes of criticism and polemics he wrote detective novels featuring Father Brown (1874-1936)
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Kate O'Flaherty Chopin
United States writer who described Creole life in Louisiana (1851-1904)
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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie
prolific English writer of detective stories (1890-1976)
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Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill
British statesman and leader during World War II; received Nobel prize for literature in 1953 (1874-1965)
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens
United States writer and humorist best known for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1835-1910)
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Jean Cocteau
French writer and film maker who worked in many artistic media (1889-1963)
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Sidonie-Gabrielle Claudine Colette
French writer of novels about women (1873-1954)
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William Wilkie Collins
English writer noted for early detective novels (1824-1889)
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
British author who created Sherlock Holmes (1859-1930)
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Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski
English novelist (born in Poland) noted for sea stories and for his narrative technique (1857-1924)
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James Fenimore Cooper
United States novelist noted for his stories of American Indians and the frontier life (1789-1851)
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Stephen Crane
United States writer (1871-1900)
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Edward Estlin Cummings
United States writer noted for his typographically eccentric poetry (1894-1962)
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Clarence Shepard Day Jr.
United States writer best known for his autobiographical works (1874-1935)
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Daniel Defoe
English writer remembered particularly for his novel about Robinson Crusoe (1660-1731)
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Thomas De Quincey
English writer who described the psychological effects of addiction to opium (1785-1859)
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Charles John Huffam Dickens
English writer whose novels depicted and criticized social injustice (1812-1870)
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Joan Didion
United States writer (born in 1934)
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Baroness Karen Blixen
Danish writer who lived in Kenya for 19 years and is remembered for her writings about Africa (1885-1962)
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Edgard Lawrence Doctorow
United States novelist (born in 1931)
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John Roderigo Dos Passos
United States novelist remembered for his portrayal of life in the United States (1896-1970)
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Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
Russian novelist who wrote of human suffering with humor and psychological insight (1821-1881)
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Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser
United States novelist (1871-1945)
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Alexandre Dumas
French writer remembered for his swashbuckling historical tales (1802-1870)
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George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier
English writer and illustrator; grandfather of Daphne du Maurier (1834-1896)
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Dame Daphne du Maurier
English writer of melodramatic novels (1907-1989)
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Lawrence George Durrell
English writer of Irish descent who spent much of his life in Mediterranean regions (1912-1990)
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Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenberg
Russian novelist (1891-1967)
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Mary Ann Evans
British writer of novels characterized by realistic analysis of provincial Victorian society (1819-1880)
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Ralph Waldo Ellison
United States novelist who wrote about a young Black man and his struggles in American society (1914-1994)
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
United States writer and leading exponent of transcendentalism (1803-1882)
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James Thomas Farrell
United States writer remembered for his novels (1904-1979)
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Edna Ferber
United States novelist; author of several popular novels (1887-1968)
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Henry Fielding
English novelist and dramatist (1707-1754)
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Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
United States author whose novels characterized the Jazz Age in the United States (1896-1940)
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Gustave Flaubert
French writer of novels and short stories (1821-1880)
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Ian Lancaster Fleming
British writer famous for writing spy novels about secret agent James Bond (1908-1964)
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Ford Hermann Hueffer
English writer and editor (1873-1939)
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Cecil Scott Forester
English writer of adventure novels featuring Captain Horatio Hornblower (1899-1966)
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Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault
French writer of sophisticated novels and short stories (1844-1924)
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Benjamin Franklin
printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics; he helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists; as a scientist he is remembered particularly for his research in electricity (1706-1790)
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Carlos Fuentes
Mexican novelist (born in 1928)
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Emile Gaboriau
French writer considered by some to be a founder of the detective novel (1832-1873)
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John Galsworthy
English novelist (1867-1933)
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Erle Stanley Gardner
writer of detective novels featuring Perry Mason (1889-1970)
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Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson Gaskell
English writer who is remembered for her biography of Charlotte Bronte (1810-1865)
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Theodor Seuss Geisel
United States writer of children's books (1904-1991)
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Kahlil Gibran
United States writer (born in Lebanon) (1883-1931)
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Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
French author and dramatist who is regarded as the father of modern French literature (1869-1951)
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Karl Gjellerup
Danish novelist (1857-1919)
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Russian writer who introduced realism to Russian literature (1809-1852)
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Sir William Gerald Golding
English novelist (1911-1993)
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Oliver Goldsmith
Irish writer of novels and poetry and plays and essays (1728-1774)
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Witold Gombrowicz
Polish author (1904-1969)
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Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt
French writer who collaborated with his brother Jules de Goncourt on many books and who in his will established the Prix Goncourt (1822-1896)
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Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt
French writer who collaborated with his brother Edmond de Goncourt on many books (1830-1870)
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Nadine Gordimer
South African novelist and short-story writer whose work describes the effects of apartheid (born in 1923)
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Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov
Russian writer of plays and novels and short stories; noted for his depiction of social outcasts
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Kenneth Grahame
English writer (born in Scotland) of children's stories (1859-1932)
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Gunter Wilhelm Grass
German writer of novels and poetry and plays (born 1927)
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Robert Ranke Graves
English writer known for his interest in mythology and in the classics (1895-1985)
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Henry Graham Greene
English novelist and Catholic (1904-1991)
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Zane Grey
United States writer of western adventure novels (1875-1939)
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Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm
the older of the two Grimm brothers remembered best for their fairy stories; also author of Grimm's law describing consonant changes in Germanic languages (1785-1863)
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Wilhelm Karl Grimm
the younger of the two Grimm brothers remembered best for their fairy stories (1786-1859)
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Sir Henry Rider Haggard
British writer noted for romantic adventure novels (1856-1925)
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Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane
Scottish writer and sister of Richard Haldane and John Haldane (1862-1937)
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Edward Everett Hale
prolific United States writer (1822-1909)
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Alex Haley
United States writer and Afro-American who wrote a fictionalized account of tracing his family roots back to Africa (1921-1992)
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Marguerite Radclyffe Hall
English writer whose novel about a lesbian relationship was banned in Britain for many years (1883-1943)
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Samuel Dashiell Hammett
United States writer of hard-boiled detective fiction (1894-1961)
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Knut Pedersen
Norwegian writer of novels (1859-1952)
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Thomas Hardy
English novelist and poet (1840-1928)
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James Thomas Harris
Irish writer noted for his sexually explicit but unreliable autobiography (1856-1931)
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Joel Chandler Harris
United States author who wrote the stories about Uncle Remus (1848-1908)
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Bret Harte
United States writer noted for his stories about life during the California gold rush (1836-1902)
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Jaroslav Hasek
Czech author of novels and short stories (1883-1923)
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
United States writer of novels and short stories mostly on moral themes (1804-1864)
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Ben Hecht
United States writer of stories and plays (1894-1946)
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Robert Anson Heinlein
United States writer of science fiction (1907-1988)
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Joseph Heller
United States novelist whose best known work was a black comedy inspired by his experiences in the Air Force during World War II (1923-1999)
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Ernest Hemingway
an American writer of fiction who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1954 (1899-1961)
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Hermann Hesse
Swiss writer (born in Germany) whose novels and poems express his interests in eastern spiritual values (1877-1962)
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Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse
German writer (1830-1914)
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Edwin DuBois Hayward
United States writer (1885-1940)
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Thomas Wentworth Storrow Higginson
United States writer and soldier who led the first Black regiment in the Union Army (1823-1911)
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Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
German writer of fantastic tales (1776-1822)
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Oliver Wendell Holmes
United States writer of humorous essays (1809-1894)
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William Dean Howells
United States writer and editor (1837-1920)
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Edmond Hoyle
English writer on card games (1672-1769)
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L. Ron Hubbard
a United States writer of science fiction and founder of Scientology (1911-1986)
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James Langston Hughes
United States writer (1902-1967)
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James Henry Leigh Hunt
British writer who defended the Romanticism of Keats and Shelley (1784-1859)
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Aldous Leonard Huxley
English writer; grandson of Thomas Huxley who is remembered mainly for his depiction of a scientifically controlled utopia (1894-1963)
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John Irving
United States writer of darkly humorous novels (born in 1942)
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Washington Irving
United States writer remembered for his stories (1783-1859)
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Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood
United States writer (born in England) whose best known novels portray Berlin in the 1930's and who collaborated with W. H. Auden in writing plays in verse (1904-1986)
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Helen Maria Fiske Hunt Jackson
United States writer of romantic novels about the unjust treatment of Native Americans (1830-1885)
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Jane Jacobs
United States writer and critic of urban planning (born in 1916)
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William Wymark Jacobs
English writer of macabre short stories (1863-1943)
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Henry James
writer who was born in the United States but lived in England (1843-1916)
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Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
modernistic Danish writer (1873-1950)
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Samuel Johnson
English writer and lexicographer (1709-1784)
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Erica Jong
United States writer (born in 1942)
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James Augustine Aloysius Joyce
influential Irish writer noted for his many innovations (such as stream of consciousness writing) (1882-1941)
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Franz Kafka
Czech novelist who wrote in German about a nightmarish world of isolated and troubled individuals (1883-1924)
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Helen Adams Keller
United States lecturer and writer who was blind and deaf from the age of 19 months; Anne Sullivan taught her to read and write and speak; Helen Keller graduated from college and went on to champion the cause of blind and deaf people (1880-1968)
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Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac
United States writer who was a leading figure of the beat generation (1922-1969)
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Ken Elton Kesey
United States writer whose best-known novel was based on his experiences as an attendant in a mental hospital (1935-2001)
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Joseph Rudyard Kipling
English author of novels and poetry who was born in India (1865-1936)
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Arthur Koestler
British writer (born in Hungary) who wrote a novel exposing the Stalinist purges during the 1930s (1905-1983)
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Jean de La Fontaine
French writer who collected Aesop's fables and published them (1621-1695)
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Ringgold Wilmer Lardner
United States humorist and writer of satirical short stories (1885-1933)
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld
French writer of moralistic maxims (1613-1680)
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David Herbert Lawrence
English novelist and poet and essayist whose work condemned industrial society and explored sexual relationships (1885-1930)
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Thomas Edward Lawrence
Welsh soldier who from 1916 to 1918 organized the Arab revolt against the Turks; he later wrote an account of his adventures (1888-1935)
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David John Moore Cornwell
English writer of novels of espionage (born in 1931)
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Elmore John Leonard
United States writer of thrillers (born in 1925)
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Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov
Russian writer (1814-1841)
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Doris May Lessing
English author of novels and short stories who grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) (born in 1919)
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Clive Staples Lewis
English critic and novelist; author of theological works and of books for children (1898-1963)
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Harry Sinclair Lewis
United States novelist who satirized middle-class America in his novel Main Street (1885-1951)
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John Griffith Chaney
United States writer of novels based on experiences in the Klondike gold rush (1876-1916)
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Clarence Malcolm Lowry
English novelist (1909-1957)
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John Lyly
English writer noted for his elaborate style (1554-1606)
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Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton
English writer of historical romances (1803-1873)
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Norman Mailer
United States writer (born in 1923)
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Bernard Malamud
United States writer (1914-1986)
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Sir Thomas Malory
English writer who published a translation of romances about King Arthur taken from French and other sources (died in 1471)
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Andre Malraux
French novelist (1901-1976)
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Thomas Mann
German writer concerned about the role of the artist in bourgeois society (1875-1955)
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Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp
New Zealand writer of short stories (1888-1923)
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Alessandro Manzoni
Italian novelist and poet (1785-1873)
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John Philip Marquand
United States writer who created the Japanese detective Mr. Moto and wrote other novels as well (1893-1960)
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Ngaio Marsh
New Zealand writer of detective stories (1899-1982)
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Alfred Edward Woodley Mason
English writer (1865-1948)
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William Somerset Maugham
English writer (born in France) of novels and short stories (1874-1965)
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Henri Rene Albert Guy de Maupassant
French writer noted especially for his short stories (1850-1893)
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Francois Charles Mauriac
French novelist who wrote about the conflict between desire and religious belief (1885-1970)
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Andre Maurois
French writer best known for his biographies (1885-1967)
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Mary Therese McCarthy
United States satirical novelist and literary critic (1912-1989)
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Carson Smith McCullers
United States novelist (1917-1967)
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Herbert Marshall McLuhan
Canadian writer noted for his analyses of the mass media (1911-1980)
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Herman Melville
United States writer of novels and short stories (1819-1891)
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Thomas Merton
United States religious and writer (1915-1968)
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James Albert Michener
United States writer of historical novels (1907-1997)
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Henry Valentine Miller
United States novelist whose novels were originally banned as pornographic (1891-1980)
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Alan Alexander Milne
English writer of stories for children (1882-1956)
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Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell
United States writer noted for her novel about the South during the American Civil War (1900-1949)
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Nancy Freeman Mitford
English writer of comic novels (1904-1973)
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Jessica Lucy Mitford
United States writer (born in England) who wrote on American culture (1917-1996)
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Michel Eyquem Montaigne
French writer regarded as the originator of the modern essay (1533-1592)
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Lucy Maud Montgomery
Canadian novelist (1874-1942)
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Sir Thomas More
English statesman who opposed Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and was imprisoned and beheaded; recalled for his concept of Utopia, the ideal state
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Chloe Anthony Wofford
United States writer whose novels describe the lives of African-Americans (born in 1931)
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Hector Hugh Munro
British writer of short stories (1870-1916)
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Dame Jean Iris Murdoch
British writer (born in Ireland) known primarily for her novels (1919-1999)
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Louis Charles Alfred de Musset
French poet and writer (1810-1857)
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Vladimir vladimirovich Nabokov
United States writer (born in Russia) (1899-1977)
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Ogden Nash
United States writer noted for his droll epigrams (1902-1971)
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Sir Harold George Nicolson
English diplomat and author (1886-1968)
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Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr.
United States writer (1870-1902)
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Joyce Carol Oates
United States writer (born in 1938)
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Edna O'Brien
Irish writer (born in 1932)
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Mary Flannery O'Connor
United States writer (1925-1964)
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Liam O'Flaherty
Irish writer of short stories (1896-1984)
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John Henry O'Hara
United States writer (1905-1970)
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Philip Michael Ondaatje
Canadian writer (born in Sri Lanka in 1943)
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Baroness Emmusca Orczy
British writer (born in Hungary) (1865-1947)
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Eric Arthur Blair
imaginative British writer concerned with social justice (1903-1950)
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Thomas Nelson Page
United States diplomat and writer about the Old South (1853-1922)
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Dorothy Rothschild Parker
United States writer noted for her sharp wit (1893-1967)
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Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
Russian writer whose best known novel was banned by Soviet authorities but translated and published abroad (1890-1960)
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Alan Stewart Paton
South African writer (1903-1988)
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Walker Percy
United States writer whose novels explored human alienation (1916-1990)
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Petronius Arbiter
Roman satirist (died in 66)
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Sylvia Plath
United States writer and poet (1932-1963)
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Gaius Plinius Secundus
Roman author of an encyclopedic natural history; died while observing the eruption of Vesuvius (23-79)
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Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
Roman writer and nephew of Pliny the Elder; author of books of letters that commented on affairs of the day (62-113)
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Edgar Allan Poe
United States writer and poet (1809-1849)
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William Sydney Porter
United States writer of short stories whose pen name was O. Henry (1862-1910)
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Katherine Anne Porter
United States writer of novels and short stories (1890-1980)
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Emily Price Post
United States female author who wrote a book and a syndicated newspaper column on etiquette (1872-1960)
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Ezra Loomis Pound
United States writer who lived in Europe; strongly influenced the development of modern literature (1885-1972)
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John Cowper Powys
British writer of novels about nature; one of three literary brothers (1872-1963)
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Theodore Francis Powys
British writer of allegorical novels; one of three literary brothers (1875-1953)
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Llewelyn Powys
British writer of essays; one of three literary brothers (1884-1939)
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Howard Pyle
United States writer and illustrator of children's books (1853-1911)
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Thomas Pynchon
United States writer of pessimistic novels about life in a technologically advanced society (born in 1937)
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Ayn Rand
United States writer (born in Russia) noted for her polemical novels and political conservativism (1905-1982)
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Mordecai Richler
Canadian novelist (born in 1931)
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Kenneth Roberts
United States writer remembered for his historical novels about colonial America (1885-1957)
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Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
wife of Franklin Roosevelt and a strong advocate of human rights (1884-1962)
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Philip Milton Roth
United States writer whose novels portray middle-class Jewish life (born in 1933)
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French philosopher and writer born in Switzerland; believed that the natural goodness of man was warped by society; ideas influenced the French Revolution (1712-1778)
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Alfred Damon Runyon
United States writer of humorous stylized stories about Broadway and the New York underground (1884-1946)
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Ahmed Salman Rushdie
British writer of novels who was born in India; one of his novels is regarded as blasphemous by Muslims and a fatwa was issued condemning him to death (born in 1947)
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George William Russell
Irish writer whose pen name was A.E. (1867-1935)
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Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade
French soldier and writer whose descriptions of sexual perversion gave rise to the term `sadism' (1740-1814)
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Jerome David Salinger
United States writer (born 1919)
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Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin
French writer known for works concerning women's rights and independence (1804-1876)
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Carl Sandburg
United States writer remembered for his poetry in free verse and his six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln (1878-1967)
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William Saroyan
United States writer of plays and short stories (1908-1981)
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Dorothy Leigh Sayers
English writer of detective fiction (1893-1957)
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
German romantic writer (1759-1805)
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Sir Walter Scott
British author of historical novels and ballads (1771-1832)
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Robert William Service
Canadian writer (born in England) who wrote about life in the Yukon Territory (1874-1958)
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George Bernard Shaw
British playwright (born in Ireland); founder of the Fabian Society (1856-1950)
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Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley
English writer who created Frankenstein's monster and married Percy Bysshe Shelley (1797-1851)
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Nevil Shute Norway
English writer who settled in Norway after World War II (1899-1960)
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Georges Joseph Christian Simenon
French writer (born in Belgium) best known for his detective novels featuring Inspector Maigret (1903-1989)
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Upton Beall Sinclair
United States writer whose novels argued for social reform (1878-1968)
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Isaac Bashevis Singer
United States writer (born in Poland) of Yiddish stories and novels (1904-1991)
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Tobias George Smollett
Scottish writer of adventure novels (1721-1771)
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Baron Snow of Leicester
English writer of novels about moral dilemmas in academe (1905-1980)
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Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
Soviet writer and political dissident whose novels exposed the brutality of Soviet labor camps (born in 1918)
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Susan Sontag
United States writer (born in 1933)
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Muriel Sarah Spark
Scottish writer of satirical novels (born in 1918)
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Frank Morrison Spillane
United States writer of popular detective novels (born in 1918)
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Baronne Anne Louise Germaine Necker de Steal-Holstein
French romantic writer (1766-1817)
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Sir Richrd Steele
English writer (1672-1729)
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Gertrude Stein
experimental expatriate United States writer (1874-1946)
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John Ernst Steinbeck
United States writer noted for his novels about agricultural workers (1902-1968)
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Marie Henri Beyle
French writer whose novels were the first to feature psychological analysis of the character (1783-1842)
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Sir Leslie Stephen
English writer (1832-1904)
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Laurence Sterne
English writer (born in Ireland) (1713-1766)
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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
Scottish author (1850-1894)
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Francis Richard Stockton
United States writer (1834-1902)
-
Abraham Stoker
Irish writer of the horror novel about Dracula (1847-1912)
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Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe
United States writer of a novel about slavery that advanced the abolitionists' cause (1811-1896)
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William Styron
United States writer best known for his novels (born in 1925)
-
Eugene Sue
French writer whose novels described the sordid side of city life (1804-1857)
-
John Addington Symonds
English writer (1840-1893)
-
Sir Rabindranath Tagore
Indian writer and philosopher whose poetry (based on traditional Hindu themes) pioneered the use of colloquial Bengali (1861-1941)
-
Ida Minerva Tarbell
United States writer remembered for her muckraking investigations into industries in the early 20th century (1857-1944)
-
William Makepeace Thackeray
English writer (born in India) (1811-1863)
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Henry David Thoreau
United States writer and social critic (1817-1862)
-
Alexis Charles Henri Maurice de Tocqueville
French political writer noted for his analysis of American institutions (1805-1859)
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Alice B. Toklas
United States writer remembered as the secretary and companion of Gertrude Stein (1877-1967)
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
British philologist and writer of fantasies (born in South Africa) (1892-1973)
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Count Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy
Russian author remembered for two great novels (1828-1910)
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Anthony Trollope
English writer of novels (1815-1882)
-
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Russian writer of stories and novels and plays (1818-1883)
-
Sigrid Undset
Norwegian novelist (1882-1949)
-
Louis Untermeyer
United States writer (1885-1977)
-
John Hoyer Updike
United States author (born 1932)
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Carl Clinton Van Doren
United States writer and literary critic (1885-1950)
-
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa
Peruvian writer (born in 1936)
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Jules Verne
French writer who is considered the father of science fiction (1828-1905)
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Eugene Luther Vidal
United States writer (born in 1925)
-
Francois-Marie Arouet
French writer who was the embodiment of 18th century Enlightenment (1694-1778)
-
Kurt Vonnegut
United States writer whose novels and short stories are a mixture of realism and satire and science fiction (born in 1922)
-
John Barrington Wain
English writer (1925-1994)
-
Alice Malsenior Walker
United States writer (born in 1944)
-
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace
English writer noted for his crime novels (1875-1932)
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Fourth Earl of Orford
English writer and historian; son of Sir Robert Walpole (1717-1797)
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Izaak Walton
English writer remember for his treatise on fishing (1593-1683)
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Mary Augusta Arnold Ward
English writer of novels who was an active opponent of the women's suffrage movement (1851-1920)
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Robert Penn Warren
United States writer and poet (1905-1989)
-
Evelyn Arthur Saint John Waugh
English author of satirical novels (1903-1966)
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Martha Beatrice Potter Webb
English writer and a central member of the Fabian Society (1858-1943)
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Herbert George Wells
prolific English writer best known for his science-fiction novels; he also wrote on contemporary social problems and wrote popular accounts of history and science (1866-1946)
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Eudora Welty
United States writer about rural southern life (1909-2001)
-
Franz Werfel
United States writer (1890-1945)
-
Cicily Isabel Fairfield
British writer (born in Ireland) (1892-1983)
-
Edith Newbold Jones Wharton
United States novelist (1862-1937)
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Elwyn Brooks White
United States writer noted for his humorous essays (1899-1985)
-
Patrick Victor Martindale White
Australian writer (1912-1990)
-
Eliezer Wiesel
United States writer (born in Romania) who survived Nazi concentration camps and is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust (born in 1928)
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Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Irish writer and wit (1854-1900)
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Thornton Niven Wilder
United States writer and dramatist (1897-1975)
-
Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson
English writer of novels and short stories (1913-1991)
-
Harriet Wilson
author of the first novel by an African American that was published in the United States (1808-1870)
-
Owen Wister
United States writer (1860-1938)
-
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
English writer known for his humorous novels and stories (1881-1975)
-
Thomas Clayton Wolfe
United States writer best known for his autobiographical novels (1900-1938)
-
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr.
United States writer who has written extensively on American culture (born in 1931)
-
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
English writer and early feminist who denied male supremacy and advocated equal education for women; mother of Mary Shelley (1759-1797)
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Ellen Price Wood
English writer of novels about murders and thefts and forgeries (1814-1887)
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Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf
English author whose work used such techniques as stream of consciousness and the interior monologue; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1882-1941)
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Herman Wouk
United States writer (born in 1915)
-
Richard Wright
United States writer whose work is concerned with the oppression of African Americans (1908-1960)
-
Willard Huntington Wright
United States writer of detective novels (1888-1939)
-
Israel Zangwill
English writer (1864-1926)
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Stefan Zweig
Austrian writer (1881-1942)
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types:
- show 56 types...
- hide 56 types...
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abstracter, abstractor
one who makes abstracts or summarizes information
-
alliterator
a speaker or writer who makes use of alliteration
-
authoress
a woman author
-
biographer
someone who writes an account of a person's life
-
coauthor, joint author
a writer who collaborates with others in writing something
-
commentator, reviewer
a writer who reports and analyzes events of the day
-
compiler
a person who compiles information (as for reference purposes)
-
contributor
a writer whose work is published in a newspaper or magazine or as part of a book
-
cyberpunk
a writer of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology
-
drafter
a writer of a draft
-
dramatist, dramaturge, playwright
someone who writes plays
-
essayist, litterateur
a writer of literary works
-
folk writer
a writer of folktales
-
framer
someone who writes a new law or plan
-
gagman, gagster, gagwriter
someone who writes comic material for public performers
-
ghost, ghostwriter
a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else
-
Gothic romancer
a writer of Gothic romances
-
hack, hack writer, literary hack
a mediocre and disdained writer
-
journalist
a writer for newspapers and magazines
-
librettist
author of words to be set to music in an opera or operetta
-
lyricist, lyrist
a person who writes the words for songs
-
novelist
one who writes novels
-
pamphleteer
a writer of pamphlets (usually taking a partisan stand on public issues)
-
paragrapher
a writer of paragraphs (as for publication on the editorial page of a newspaper)
-
poet
a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry)
-
polemic, polemicist, polemist
a writer who argues in opposition to others (especially in theology)
-
poetiser, poetizer, rhymer, rhymester, versifier
a writer who composes rhymes; a maker of poor verses (usually used as terms of contempt for minor or inferior poets)
-
scenarist
a writer of screenplays
-
scriptwriter
someone who writes scripts for plays or movies or broadcast dramas
-
space writer
a writer paid by the area of the copy
-
speechwriter
a writer who composes speeches for others to deliver
-
tragedian
a writer (especially a playwright) who writes tragedies
-
wordmonger
a writer who uses language carelessly or pretentiously with little regard for meaning
-
word-painter
a writer of vivid or graphic descriptive power
-
wordsmith
a fluent and prolific writer
-
autobiographer
someone who writes their own biography
-
bard
a lyric poet
-
broadcast journalist
a journalist who broadcasts on radio or television
-
columnist, editorialist
a journalist who writes editorials
-
correspondent, newspaperman, newspaperwoman, newswriter, pressman
a journalist employed to provide news stories for newspapers or broadcast media
-
elegist
the author of a mournful poem lamenting the dead
-
encyclopaedist, encyclopedist
a person who compiles information for encyclopedias
-
folk poet
a folk writer who composes in verse
-
gazetteer
a journalist who writes for a gazette
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hagiographer, hagiographist, hagiologist
the author of a worshipful or idealizing biography
-
lexicographer, lexicologist
a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language
-
odist
a poet who writes odes
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photojournalist
a journalist who presents a story primarily through the use of photographs
-
poetess
a woman poet
-
poet laureate
the poet officially appointed to the royal household in Great Britain
-
poet laureate
a poet who is unofficially regarded as holding an honorary position in a particular group or region
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film writer, screenwriter
someone who writes screenplays
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penman, scribbler, scribe
informal terms for journalists
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sob sister
a journalist who specializes in sentimental stories
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sonneteer
a poet who writes sonnets
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sports writer, sportswriter
a journalist who writes about sports
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type of:
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communicator
a person who communicates with others
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someone who originates or causes or initiates something
-
be the author of
Pronunciation
US
/ˈɔθər/
UK
/ˈɔθə/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘author'.
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