Top Ten American Authors of All Time

Who is you favorite American author? As long as they wrote literature and were an American citizen they are eligible for this list.
The Top Ten
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced... read more
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American... read more

Ligeia, The Black Cat, The Tell Tale Heart, A Descent into the Maelström, The Golden Bug and much more awesome stories, as well as single poems such as: Alone, A Dream Within A Dream, The Raven and Lenore. Some of his stories are heavy and others just on a few words and shows what true beauty yet also what horror can and may be like no others. Was a man well with words but not with the ladies, yet somewhat in a good way actually.

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.
John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories.

He’s awesome. Always seemed to be pull back in time with his stories, characters, locations, and descriptions.

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. Many of his most well-known novels include Carrie, It, The Shinning, The Stand, Misery, The Dark Tower series, and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, which was later... read more

Doesn't beat England's Peter James, though...

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short story writer, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age.
Robert Jordan James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan, was an American author known for writing the epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. He was also known for writing stories about Conan the Barbarian, and for writing other books with different pseudonyms. He died from cardiac... read more
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays, and screenplays. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha... read more
Dan Brown
Chuck Palahniuk
The Contenders
Walt Whitman Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called... read more
H.P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century... read more
Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), born Jean-Louis Kérouac (though he called himself Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac) was an American novelist and poet of French-Canadian descent... read more
Jack London John Griffith "Jack" London, born John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and... read more
Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American playwright. Along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery fiction... read more
Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.
Raymond Chandler

Why nobody thought of him? Don't you people know the importance of this man to today's literature?

Adam Grant
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet . Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts .

Although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation .

While Dickinson was a prolific... read more
Maya Angelou
George R.R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin), also known as George R. R. Martin, is an American author known for his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which was later adapted into the famous HBO series Game of Thrones.
Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee, better known by her pen name Harper Lee, was an American novelist widely known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature.
Brandon Sanderson
Herman Melville Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period best known for Typee, a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick.
8Load More
PSearch List