People Known for: literature - 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...

John Calvin

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...

John Bunyan

English author

John Bunyan was a celebrated English minister and preacher, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), the book that was the most characteristic expression of the Puritan religious outlook. His other works...

Shel Silverstein

American illustrator and author

Growing up in Chicago, Shel Silverstein always planned on being an artist, but he never set out to become an icon of children’s literature. A man of many roles—artist, poet, songwriter, and playwright—he...

Robert Louis Stevenson

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....

C.S. Lewis

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...

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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)...

Lewis Carroll

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...

J.R.R. Tolkien

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,...

Dr. Seuss

American writer 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.,...

Roald Dahl

British author

Roald Dahl was a British writer known for his ingenious and irreverent children’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and Matilda (1988), both of which were adapted into popular films....

Judy Blume

American author

Judy Blume is an American author known for creating juvenile fiction that features people and situations identifiable to young readers. A literary giant in the genres of young adult (YA) and children’s...

Alice Walker

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...

Louise Erdrich

American author

Louise Erdrich is an American author known for her rich, immersive storytelling on the Ojibwe people of the northern Midwest as well as other subjects. Among her acclaimed novels are The Round House (2012;...

Rudyard Kipling

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...

Viet Thanh Nguyen

American author

Viet Thanh Nguyen is an American writer known for his novel The Sympathizer (2015), which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was adapted into a television miniseries in 2024. Nguyen’s work frequently...

Toni Morrison

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...

David Walliams

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...

Carl Hiaasen

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...

Julia Donaldson

English author

A mean dragon is outsmarted by a dog, a cat, a bird, and a frog; a little mouse scares off an orange-eyed monster (and his child); a tiny ladybird saves a farm’s prized cow; and a snail helps rescue a...

Gwendolyn Brooks

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,...

Sarah Ferguson

English author and television personality

Sarah Ferguson is the former wife (1986–96) of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York). After they divorced in 1996, Sarah became a prolific author, television personality, entrepreneur,...

Salman Rushdie

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...

Lois Lowry

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,...

Walter Dean Myers

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...

Julia Alvarez

Dominican-American author and educator

Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American author and educator best known for her novels, short stories, and poems for adults and young people. Many of her works have been published in both Spanish and English...

Jamie Lee Curtis

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...

Neil Gaiman

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...

Liane Moriarty

Australian author

Liane Moriarty is an Australian author known for her contemporary fiction that explores the complexities of relationships, buried secrets, and the emotional intricacies of everyday life. Her work typically...

Jacqueline Woodson

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...

Maya Angelou

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...

Kate DiCamillo

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...

James Patterson

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...

Sandra Cisneros

American author

Sandra Cisneros is an American novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, and poet best known for her groundbreaking evocation of Mexican American life in Chicago, in particular in her 1983 novella The House...

Ted Hughes

English 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...

Jill Biden

American first lady

Jill Biden is an American first lady (2021–25), wife of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States. She previously served as second lady (2009–17) when her husband was vice president under President...

Kwame Alexander

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...

Dav Pilkey

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...

P.L. Travers

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...

Quentin Blake

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...

Roddy Doyle

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...

Bette Midler

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...

Alexander McCall Smith

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...

Chelsea Clinton

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...

J.K. Rowling

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,...

John Grisham

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...

Dave Eggers

American author

Dave Eggers is an American author, publisher, and literacy advocate whose breakout memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), was followed by other fiction and nonfiction successes. He also...

Laurence Yep

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...

Juan Felipe Herrera

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...

Enid Blyton

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...

PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: children's literature

Thank you for signing up!