List of novelists by nationality

Well-known authors of novels, listed by country:

See also the list of novelists by genre

• Argentina
  • Ricardo Güiraldes, (1886-1927) Don Segundo Sombra

• Australia
  • Jessica Anderson
  • Thea Astley
  • Murray Bail
  • Carmel Bird
  • Rolf Boldrewood
  • Lily Brett, author of Just Like That (1994)
  • Peter Carey
  • Marcus Clarke
  • James Clavell, screenwriter, director (of the original The Fly among others), author of Shogun
  • Greg Egan, science fiction
  • Richard Flanagan
  • David Foster
  • Miles Franklin
  • Joseph Furphy
  • Helen Garner
  • Peter Goldsworthy
  • Kerry Greenwood
  • Kate Grenville
  • Xavier Herbert
  • Dorothy Hewett
  • George Johnston
  • Elizabeth Jolley
  • Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark (1985), on which the film Schindler's List was based, Confederates (1979)
  • Frank Moorhouse
  • Gerald Murnane
  • Henry Handel Richardson
  • Nevil Shute
  • Christina Stead, author of The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
  • Patrick White, Nobel Prize for Literature (1973), noted for his examinations of his native land
  • Tim Winton
  • Amy Witting

• Austria (see also German literature)
  • Hugo Bettauer
  • Peter Handke, (1942- )
  • Josef Haslinger
  • Peter Henisch
  • Arthur Schnitzler
  • Stefan Zweig, (1881-1942)

• Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Ivo Andric, (1892-1975)

• Brazil
  • Paulo Coelho, (1947- )

• Canada (see also: Canadian literature, List of Canadian writers)
  • Grant Allen, (1848 - 1899), author of The Woman Who Did (1895)
  • Margaret Atwood, (1939- ), author of The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
  • Pierre Berton, (1920- )
  • Morley Callaghan, (1903-1990) author of Strange Fugitive (1928)
  • Wayson Choy, (1939- )
  • Douglas Coupland,
  • Robertson Davies, (1913-1995), author of Fifth Business
  • C. J. Everon, (1971- ) (See also France)
  • Timothy Findley (1930-2002) (See also France)
  • Mavis Gallant, (1922- ) (See also France)
  • Arthur Hailey, (1920- ), indefatigable researcher, author of Hotel (1965), Airport (1968)
  • Jack Hodgins
  • Nancy Huston, (1953- ) (See also France)
  • Robert N.Kucey, (1940- )
  • Hugh MacLennan,
  • Margaret Laurence,
  • Stephen Leacock
  • Malcolm Lowry, (1909-1957), author of Under the Volcano (1947)
  • Alistair MacLeod, (1936- )
  • Yann Martel, author of "Life of Pi", 2002 Booker Prize
  • Rohinton Mistry, (1952- )
  • Lucy Maude Montgomery, (1874-1942)
  • Susanna Moodie, (1803-1885)
  • Tara Moss (1973- ), author of Fetish
  • Farley Mowat
  • Alice Munro, (1931- )
  • Michael Ondaatje, (1943- ), author of The English Patient (1993)
  • Mordecai Richler, (1931-2001), author of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)
  • David Adams Richards, (1950- )
  • Gabrielle Roy, (1909-1983)
  • Carol Shields, (1935- )
  • Elizabeth Smart, (1913-1986)
  • Catherine Parr Traill, (1802-1899)
  • Jane Urquhart, (1949- )

• Catalan
  • Raimon Llull, (1235-1315), author of Libre de meravelles
  • Ramon Muntaner, (circa 1270-1336), author of Cronica
  • Joanot Martorell, (1413-1468), author of Tirant lo Blanch
  • Narcís Oller, (1846-1930), author of La febre d'or
  • Mercè Rodoreda, (1909-1983), author of La plaça del diamant

• China (see also: Chinese literature)
  • Lao She, (1899-1966), author of Si Shi Tong Tang
  • Zhang Ailing, (1920-1995), female romantic story writer
  • Qian Zhongshu, (1910-1998), author of "Wei Cheng
  • Lu Xun, (1881-1936), author of The True Story of Ah Q
  • Mao Dun, (1896-1981), author of Zi Ye

• Colombia
  • Gabriel García Márquez, (1928- ), author of One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Nobel Prize for Literature (1982), journalist, publisher, avatar of magical realism
  • José Eustasio Rivera, (1888-1928), author of La vorágine

• Cosmopolitan
  • Romain Gary, Russian-born French writer
  • Franz Kafka, (1883-1924) lived in Prague during Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia; German language writer; see also German literature
  • Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)
  • Milan Kundera, (1929- ) born in Czechoslovakia, but moved to France. Multi-language writer.
  • Salman Rushdie, (1947- ) born in India, but moved abroad later. English language writer, placed under fatwah (death sentence) by Muslim clerics

• Czech Republic (see also: Literature of the Czech Republic)
  • Karel Capek, (1890-1938) inventor of the word robot, moralist, ironist, Czech patriot
  • Jaroslav Hasek, (1883-1923), author of The Good Soldier Schweik
  • Vaclav Havel, (1936- President of Czech Republic (1993-2003) and famous playwright.
  • Bohumil Hrabal, (1914-1997), author of Closely Watched Trains, died trying to feed pigeons.
  • Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986), (Nobel Prize for Literature) (1984)

• Denmark (see also: Danish Literature)
  • Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
  • Isak Dinesen, (1885-1962) (real name: Karen Blixen), author of Seven Gothic Tales (1934), Out of Africa (1937)
  • Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873-1950)
  • Peter Kjaerulff
• Egypt
  • Naguib Mahfouz, (1911- ) Nobel Prize for Literature (1988), famous for the Cairo Trilogy about life in the sprawling inner city.

• England
  • Peter Ackroyd
  • Kingsley Amis, novelist and poet, young author of Lucky Jim and old author of The Old Devils.
  • Martin Amis, son of Kingsley, author of Dead Babies, Money, and The Information
  • Jeffrey Archer
  • Jane Austen
  • Beryl Bainbridge
  • J. G. Ballard, author of Crash, Empire of the Sun
  • Julian Barnes, author of England, England
  • Arnold Bennett
  • Anthony Berkeley, mystery writer (The Poisoned Chocolates Case)
  • Malcolm Bradbury, author of The History Man
  • Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  • Simon Brett (whodunnits)
  • Anne Brontë
  • Charlotte Brontë
  • Emily Brontë
  • Anita Brookner
  • Rhoda Broughton
  • Anthony Buckeridge
  • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the annual bad writing contest is named after him.
  • John Bunyan
  • Anthony Burgess, composer, essayist, author of A Clockwork Orange
  • Richard Francis Burton
  • Samuel Butler
  • Hall Caine
  • Dame Barbara Cartland
  • G. K. Chesterton, mystery writer and Christian apologist
  • Agatha Christie
  • Jonathan Coe
  • Ivy Compton-Burnett, author of novels about dysfunctional families
  • Joseph Conrad, Polish-born mariner, author of The Heart of Darkness
  • Marie Corelli, best-selling novelist
  • Bernard Cornwell, author of the Sharpe novels
  • Amanda Craig, author of A Vicious Circle and In a Dark Wood
  • Daniel Defoe, journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders
  • Charles Dickens, master of the novel, wrote for serial publication
  • Margaret Drabble
  • Daphne Du Maurier
  • George Du Maurier
  • Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet
  • George Eliot
  • Ben Elton
  • Henry Fielding
  • Ford Madox Ford, author of The Good Soldier (1914), promoter of many other writers.
  • E. M. Forster
  • Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal
  • John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant's Woman
  • Stephen Fry
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Alex Garland, author of The Beach
  • Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Stella Gibbons, author of Cold Comfort Farm, found something nasty in Mary Webb's woodshed.
  • William G. Golding, The Lord of the Flies
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield
  • Robert Graves, The White Goddess
  • Graham Greene
  • H. Rider Haggard, adventure novels set in exotic locations, such as King Solomon's Mines, She
  • Thomas Hardy
  • Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, Five Quarters of the Orange
  • Josephine Hart, author of Damage
  • Carole Hayman
  • Stewart Home, his 1999 novel
  • Nick Hornby, author of About a Boy (1998)
  • William Horwood
  • Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World
  • Hammond Innes
  • Christopher Isherwood
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day
  • P.D. James, author of crime fiction but also the dystopian novel The Children of Men (1992)
  • Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat
  • Rudyard Kipling, author of Kim (1904)
  • Arthur Koestler
  • D. H. Lawrence, author of Lady Chatterley's Lover
  • Doris Lessing, author of The Grass is Singing The Golden Notebook and Canopus in Argos: Archives
  • C. S. Lewis, Christian, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote a book called Surprised by Joy, years of English bachelorhood later, married an American fan named Joy
  • David Lodge, author of Thinks ... (2001)
  • Hilary Mantel
  • A. E. W. Mason, author of The Four Feathers
  • William Somerset Maugham, author of Liza of Lambeth and The Razor's Edge and creator of Sadie Thompson in Rain
  • Ian McEwan
  • Frederick Marryat, Mr Midshipman Easy and other sea stories
  • George Meredith
  • A. A. Milne, The Red House Mystery and Mr. Pim Passes By (a novelization of his own play)
  • Nancy Mitford
  • George A. Moore
  • Iris Murdoch, author of A Severed Head
  • Patrick O'Brian, author of the Aubrey/Maturin naval historical novels (Master and Commander is the first in the series)
  • George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, journalist, volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, author of Animal Farm (1945), 1984 (1949)
  • Ouida, (1839-1908)
  • Thomas Love Peacock
  • Terry Pratchett
  • J. B. Priestley
  • Barbara Pym
  • Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine), author of King Solomon's Carpet
  • Samuel Richardson, printer, contender for the title of "first English novelist", author of Pamela (1740)
  • Sax Rohmer, creator of Dr. Fu Manchu, "the yellow peril incarnate in one man".
  • Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery writer (creator of Lord Peter Wimsey), playwright, translator of Dante
  • Will Self
  • Tom Sharpe, author of Wilt
  • C. P. Snow
  • Muriel Spark
  • Graham Swift won the Booker Prize in 1996 for Last Orders; also known for an earlier novel Waterland (1984).
  • William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings
  • Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole books
  • Anthony Trollope, prolific documentor of life in Victorian England
  • Mary Augusta Ward
  • Evelyn Waugh, comic novelist (Scoop), tragic novelist (Brideshead Revisited), sometimes in the same book.
  • Mary Webb, tales of rural life
  • Fay Weldon
  • H. G. Wells, author and essayist, early writer of science fiction, author of The War of the Worlds
  • Mary Wesley, author of The Camomile Lawn
  • T. H. White, author of The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King
  • Angus Wilson
  • P. G. Wodehouse, creator of Jeeves and Wooster
  • Virginia Woolf, feminist, modernist
  • Dornford Yates, escapist adventure stories
  • Helen Zahavi, author of Dirty Weekend (1991), a modern-day picaresque novel

• Finland
  • Tove Jansson, (1914-2001) she wrote in Swedish
  • Aino Kallas, (1878-1956), female
  • Aleksis Kivi, (1834-1872)
  • Väinö Linna, (1920-1992)
  • Frans Emil Sillanpää, (1888-1964) (Nobel Prize for Literature) (1939)
  • Mika Waltari, (1908-1979)

• France (see also: French literature)
  • Honoré de Balzac, author of La Comedie Humaine, a series of novels presenting a full picture of France in the early 19th century
  • Henri Bordeaux
  • Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes.
  • Albert Camus
  • Louis Ferdinand Céline, Death on the Installment Plan or Mort á Credit.
  • Gilbert Cesbron
  • Emilie du Chatelet
  • Colette, best known for "Gigi" and "Cheri"
  • Alphonse Daudet
  • Régine Deforges
  • Denis Diderot
  • Alexandre Dumas, perhaps more movies have been made from his novels than any other; The Count of Monte Cristo has been filmed on an average of once every 18 months since films were first made.
  • C. J. Everon (See also Canada)
  • Timothy Findley (See also Canada)
  • Mavis Gallant (See also Canada)
  • Judith Godrèche, actress/author
  • Nancy Huston (See also Canada)
  • André Gide
  • Michel Houellebecq, Impact award winner
  • Joris-Karl Huysmans, (1848-1907), novelist of the perverse
  • Gustave Flaubert
  • Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables
  • Alfred Jarry, satirist, inventor of Pataphysics
  • Choderlos de Laclos
  • Andre Malraux
  • Alma Marceau
  • Georges Perec
  • Abbé Prévost
  • Marcel Proust
  • François Rabelais
  • Pauline Réage
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Marquis de Sade, Mr. Eponym
  • Françoise Sagan
  • Georges Sand
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist
  • Gertrude Stein (See also: United States)
  • Stendhal, author of The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel
  • Jules Verne, writer of techno-thrillers, and founding father of science fiction.
  • Boris Vian
  • Voltaire, satirist
  • Emile Zola, realist

• Germany (see also German literature)
  • Heinrich Böll, (1917-1985)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749-1832), polymath.
  • Günter Grass, (1927- )
  • Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962), author of The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf
  • Siegfried Lenz, (1926- )
  • Thomas Mann, (1875-1955)
  • Erich Maria Remarque, (1898-1970), author of Im Westen nichts Neues, or All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
  • Patrick Süskind (1949- ), author of Perfume

• Hungary
  • György Dalos, (1943- )
  • Mór Jókai, (1825-1904)
  • István Örkény, (1912-1979)

• Iceland
  • Snorri Sturluson, (1179-1241), author of the Younger Edda
  • Halldor Laxness, (1903-1998)

• India
  • Salman Rushdie, (1947- ), of the fatwa fame.
  • R K Narayan, (1906-2001)
  • Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (1908-1994)

• Ireland
  • Samuel Beckett, (1906-1989)
  • Brendan Behan, (1923-1964)
  • Thomas Flanagan, (1923-2002)
  • James Joyce, (1882-1941), author of Ulysses, Finnegans Wake
  • Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds
  • Brian O'Nolan, (1911-1966) better known as Flann O'Brien, Myles na Gcopaleen, Cruiskeen Lawn...
  • Laurence Sterne, (1713-1768) played with text and self-referential narrative two centuries before Postmodernism was invented.
  • Jonathan Swift, (1667-1745) author of biting satires. Gulliver's Travels was Bowdlerised into a children's book.
  • Oscar Wilde, (1854-1900), also a playwright, imprisoned for homosexual acts

• Israel
  • Amos Oz, author of Black Box, My Michael
  • A. B. Yehoshua, author of Mr. Mani

• Italy
  • Riccardo Bacchelli
  • Alessandro Baricco
  • Stefano Benni, journalist, poet, novelist, Terra (1985) is most popular work in English
  • Alberto Bevilacqua
  • Giovanni Boccaccio
  • Vitaliano Brancati
  • Gesualdo Bufalino
  • Aldo Busi
  • Dino Buzzati
  • Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
  • Luigi Capuana
  • Andrea Camilleri
  • Carlo Cassola
  • Carlo Collodi
  • Gabriele D'Annunzio, revolutionary
  • Massimo D'Azeglio
  • Grazia Deledda
  • Giuseppe Dessi
  • Umberto Eco
  • Carlo Emilio Gadda
  • Natalia Ginzburg
  • Primo Levi, resistance fighter, chemist and novelist
  • Emilio Lussu
  • Alessandro Manzoni
  • Dacia Maraini
  • Elsa Morante
  • Alberto Moravia
  • Cesare Pavese
  • Luigi Pirandello, playwright, Six Characters in Search of an Author
  • Vasco Pratolini
  • Salvatore Satta
  • Alberto Savinio
  • Leonardo Sciascia
  • Ignazio Silone
  • Mario Soldati
  • Italo Svevo
  • Susanna Tamaro
  • Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard
  • Giovanni Verga
  • Elio Vittorini

• Japan (see also Japanese literature, List of Japanese authors)
  • Kobo Abe (1924-1993) The Woman In the Dunes, The Magic Chalk
  • Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) Rashomon
  • Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) No Longer Human, Melos, Run!
  • Fumiko Enchi (1905-1986) A Tale of False Fortunes, The Waiting Years
  • Shusaku Endo, (1923-1996) Silence, Deep River
  • Ichiyo Higuchi, (1872-1896) Child's Play, The Thirteenth Night
  • Masuji Ibuse, (1898-1993) Black Rain
  • Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) Snow Country, The Izu Dancer (Winner of the Nobel Prize, 1968)
  • Yukio Mishima, (1925-1970) The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Confessions of a Mask
  • Kenji Miyazawa, (1896-1933) Night Train to the Stars, Matasaburo the Wind Imp
  • Ogai Mori, (1862-1922) The Wild Goose, The Dancing Girl
  • Soseki Natsume, (1867-1916) Kokoro, I Am a Cat
  • Kenzaburo Oe (1935-) Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, A Personal Matter (Nobel Prize, 1994)
  • Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters

• Kenya
  • Ngugi wa Thiongo, (1938- )

• Lebanon
  • Amin Maalouf

• Netherlands
  • Harry Mulisch
  • Tip Marugg
  • Willem Frederik Hermans
  • Jan Wolkers
  • Gerard van het Reve
  • A.F.Th. van der Heijden

• Nigeria
  • Chinua Achebe, (1930- ) Things Fall Apart, stories about the dissolution of traditional African society.

• Norway (see also: Norwegian literature)
  • Ingvar Ambjørnsen
  • Lars Saabye Christensen
  • Olav Duun
  • Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
  • Erik Fosnes Hansen
  • Knut Hamsun, Hunger
  • Roy Jacobsen
  • Alexander Kielland
  • Jan Kjærstad
  • Jonas Lie
  • Axel Sandemose
  • Gabriel Scott
  • Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavandsdatter

• Peru
  • Mario Vargas Llosa, (1936- ), ran for president, author of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter

• Poland (see also: Polish literature)
  • Witold Gombrowicz, (1904-1969)
  • Stanislaw Lem, (1921- )
  • Eliza Orzeszkowa, (1841-1910)
  • Boleslaw Prus, (1847-1912)
  • Wladyslaw Reymont, (1867-1925) Nobel Prize for Literature 1924, author of national epic The Peasants
  • Henryk Sienkiewicz, (1846-1916), Nobel Prize for Literature 1905, Quo Vadis
  • Stefan Zeromski, (1864-1925)

• Portugal
  • António Lobo Antunes
  • Fernando de Campos
  • Eca de Queiróz
  • Aqulino Ribeiro
  • Albino Forjaz de Sampaio, (1884-1949)
  • José Saramago, (1922- ), Nobel Prize for Literature 1998

• Romania
  • Liviu Rebreanu, (1885-1944)
  • Mihail Sadoveanu, (1880-1961)

• Russia (see also: Russian literature)
  • Andrey Bely, (1880-1934)
  • Mikhail Bulgakov, (1891-1940, author of The Master and Margarita
  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1821-1881), author of The Brothers Karamazov, The Possessed
  • Nikolai Gogol, (1809-1852), author of Dead Souls
  • Ivan Goncharov, (1812-1891), Oblomov, a tale of "everyman"
  • Mikhail Lermontov, (1814-1841)
  • Nikolai Leskov, (1831-1895)
  • Vladimir Nabokov, (1899-1977) early novels in Russian, later, including Lolita, in English.
  • Boris Pasternak, (1890-1960), refused the Nobel Prize for Literature, Doctor Zhivago
  • Aleksandr Pushkin, (1799-1837)
  • Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, (1826-1889)
  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (1918- ), One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, also historian
  • Aleksey K. Tolstoy, (1817-1875)
  • Aleksey N. Tolstoy, (1883-1945)
  • Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910) of whose greatest book it was said, "Loved the war, hated the peace".

• Scotland
  • Iain Banks aka Iain M. Banks, (1954- ) writes mainstream novels under the first name, science-fiction novels under the second.
  • J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan among others.
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Great Detective, discoverer of the Lost World, believer in fairies.
  • James Kelman
  • Ken MacLeod, (1954- ), science fiction
  • Ian Rankin
  • Sir Walter Scott, (1771-1832), innovator of the historical novel
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850-1894), author of Treasure Island
  • Mary Stewart, (1916- )
  • Nigel Tranter, (1909-2000), Scottish historical novels.
  • Irvine Welsh, (1961- )

• Serbia
  • Milorad Pavic, (1929- )

• Spain
  • Leopoldo Alas, author of 'La Regenta'
  • Miguel de Cervantes: El Quijote, or Don Quixote
  • Pérez Galdós
  • Juan Goytisolo: El sitio de los sitios
  • Juan Marsé: La Muchacha de las bragas de oro (Premio planeta)
  • Eduardo Mendoza: La ciudad de los prodigios, Sin Noticias de Gurp, El Misterio de la cripta embrujada
  • Arturo Pérez-Reverte: El Club Dumas
  • Miguel de Unamuno: Niebla, San Manuel Bueno Martir

• Sweden
  • Marianne Fredriksson
  • Gustaf Fröding
  • Jan Guillou
  • Pär Lagerkvist
  • Selma Lagerlöf
  • Astrid Lindgren
  • Pär Martinsson
  • Vilhelm Moberg
  • August Strindberg (1849 - 1912)

• Turkey
  • Cem Akas
  • Metin Kacan

• United States
  • Kathy Acker
  • Henry Adams, Democracy: An American Novel
  • George Ade, The Slim Princess
  • Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys
  • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
  • Nelson Algren, The Man With the Golden Arm.
  • Sherwood Anderson
  • Gertrude Atherton, The Conqueror
  • Paul Auster, postmodernist mystery writer extrordinaire, author of the City of Glass trilogy, Leviathan, Timbuktu
  • Richard Bach
  • James Baldwin, writer known for exploring race and sexuality, author of Another Country
  • Irving Bacheller, A Man for the Ages
  • Russell Banks, (1940- ), author of The Sweet Hereafter
  • John Franklin Bardin
  • Joel Barlow
  • Charles Baxter
  • Madison Smartt Bell, The Washington Square Ensemble, (1983), Waiting for the End of the World (1985), and A Soldier's Joy (1989) amongst others
  • Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887
  • Hillaire Belloc
  • Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
  • Ambrose Bierce
  • George Borrow
  • T.C. Boyle, author of The Road to Wellville, The Tortilla Curtain and A Friend of the Earth
  • Ray Bradbury, author of The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes
  • Richard Brautigan
  • Charles Brockden Brown
  • William Hill Brown
  • Frederick Buechner
  • Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth
  • Charles Bukowski, poet who also wrote novels about down-and-out life, including Post Office, Factotum, and Pulp.
  • William S. Burroughs
  • Francis Hodgson Burnett, Little Lord Fauntleroy
  • G. W. Cable
  • James M. Cain, author of The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce
  • Erskin Caldwell, God's Little Acre
  • Truman Capote
  • Orson Scott Card
  • Willa Cather, modernist, author of The Professor's House, My Antonia
  • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
  • Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Wonder Boys
  • Robert W. Chambers
  • Raymond Chandler
  • Lydia Maria Child
  • Kate Chopin
  • Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister's American cousin
  • Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October
  • Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., The Gunmaker of Moscow
  • John Esten Cooke, The Youth of Jefferson
  • James Fenimore Cooper, Leatherstocking Tales
  • Charles Cotton
  • Douglas Coupland
  • Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
  • Francis Marion Crawford
  • George William Curtis
  • Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast
  • Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
  • John Davis
  • Richard Harding Davis
  • Margaret Deland
  • Don DeLillo, White Noise
  • Stephen Dobyns
  • Theodore Dreiser, realist, author of Sister Carrie
  • John Dos Passos
  • Timothy Dwight
  • Brett Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho
  • Edward Eggleston
  • Edward S. Ellie
  • Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Juneteenth
  • Louise Erdrich
  • Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides
  • William Faulkner, Southern Modernist, author of A Light in August
  • Jessie Fauset, Harlem Renaissance writer; author of Plum Bun
  • Eugene Field, Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac
  • John Filson, Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise
  • Hannah Webster Foster
  • John Fox
  • Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections
  • Harold Frederic
  • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  • William Gaddis
  • Hamlin Garland
  • Ellen Glasgow
  • William Goodwin
  • Ben K. Green
  • John Grisham, legal thrillers
  • Alex Haley, Roots
  • Bayard Rush Hall
  • James Hall
  • Dashiell Hammett
  • Barry Hannah
  • Arthur Sheburne Hardy
  • J. C. Hart
  • Bret Harte
  • Kent Haruf, author of The Tie That Binds and Plainsong
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables
  • John Hay
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Joseph Heller, Catch-22, Something Happened
  • Ernest Hemingway, author of For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and The Sun Also Rises
  • Robert Herrick
  • Carl Hiaasen, author of environmental thrillers such as Sick Puppy
  • Josiah Gilbert Holland
  • Mary Jane Holmes
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Anthony Hope
  • Francis Hopkinson
  • Blance Willis Howard
  • E. W. Howe
  • William Dean Howells
  • Langston Hughes, (1902-1967), Simple Comes to Harlem
  • David Humphreys, Israel Putnam
  • Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and novelist, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God
  • Joseph Holt Ingraham
  • John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules
  • Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle
  • Helen Hunt Jackson
  • Thomas William Jackson
  • Henry James, The Golden Bowl, The Ambassadors
  • Sarah Orne Jewett, The Tory Lover
  • Mary Johnston
  • Sylvester Judd
  • James Jones
  • Jan Karon, (1937- )
  • John Pendleton Kennedy
  • Jack Kerouac, beatnik, author of On the Road (1952).
  • Barbara Kingsolver author of The Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer, amongst others
  • Joseph Kirkland
  • Jerzy Kosinski, (1933-1991), of Jewish origins - his works are in English
  • Anne Lamott
  • Sidney Lanier
  • Nella Larsen, Harlem Renaissance writer; author of Quicksand and Passing.
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, essayist, poet, novelist for children and adults
  • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Murray Leinster
  • Ira Levin
  • Alfred Henry Lewis
  • Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Main Street
  • Jack London, The Sea Wolf
  • Stephen King horror novelist
  • Robert Ludlum
  • Carson McCullers
  • John D. MacDonald, detective fiction
  • Larry McMurtry
  • Norman Mailer, journalist, author of The Naked and the Dead (1948).
  • Charles Major
  • Bernard Malamud
  • Richard Malcolm
  • Cotton Mather, Magnalia
  • Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City
  • William Starbuck Mayo
  • George Barr McCutcheon
  • Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
  • Oscar Micheaux
  • James A. Michener, Tales of the South Pacific
  • Henry Miller, author of frequently banned Tropic of Cancer
  • Steven Millhauser, (1943- )
  • Donald Grant Mitchell
  • Isaac Mitchell
  • S. Weir Mitchell
  • Christopher Moore, author of "Lamb" and others.
  • Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize for Literature, Beloved
  • Bharati Mukherjee, author of Jasmine
  • Vladimir Nabokov, lepidopterist, Lolita
  • John Neal, The Down-Easters
  • Frank Norris, McTeague
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Flannery O'Connor
  • Thomas Nelson Page
  • James Kirk Paulding
  • Chuck Palahniuk (1962- ), author of Fight Club and Choke
  • Walker Percy
  • David Graham Phillips
  • Richard Powers
  • Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, and V. among other works.
  • Julia Quinn
  • Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead
  • Harold Robbins
  • Tom Robbins
  • Edward Payson Roe
  • Philip Roth, author of Portnoy's Complaint and The Human Stain
  • Susan Rowson
  • J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
  • Budd Schulberg, author of What Makes Sammy Run? and On the Waterfront
  • Sybil Scott
  • Catharine Maria Sedgwick
  • Sidney Sheldon
  • William Gilmore Simms
  • Upton Sinclair, socialist, author of The Jungle (1906)
  • Francis Hopkinson Smith, Colonel Carter of Cartersville
  • Terry Southern, author of The Magic Christian
  • Emma D. E. N. Southworth
  • Mickey Spillane, author of I, the Jury (1947), the first of the Mike Hammer books
  • Danielle Steel
  • Gertrude Stein, Modernist innovator in prose and poetry, author of Three Lives, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (See also France)
  • John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men
  • Neal Stephenson science fiction writer, author of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon
  • Charles D. Stewart
  • Frederick Jesup Stimson
  • Frank R. Stockton
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Jacqueline Susann, author of Valley of the Dolls, the best selling novel of 1966.
  • Amy Tan
  • Booth Tarkington
  • Tabitha Tenney
  • Studs Terkel
  • Daniel Pierce Thompson
  • Maurice Thompson
  • Hunter S. Thompson, "gonzo journalist"
  • John Kennedy Toole
  • George Tucker
  • Bayard Tuckerman
  • Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent
  • Harry Turtledove
  • Mark Twain, pseudonym for Samuel Clemens author of Huckleberry Finn
  • Royall Tyler
  • John Updike, author of Rabit Run and sequels.
  • Kurt Vonnegut, author of Cat's Cradle
  • Alice Walker
  • David Foster Wallace
  • Lew Wallace
  • William Ware
  • Susan Warner
  • Mason Locke Weems
  • Edward Noyes Westcott
  • E. B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, co-author of The Elements of Style.
  • Stewart Edward White
  • William Allen White
  • Brad Whitlock
  • Edith Wharton
  • John Williams
  • Augusta Jane Evan Wilson
  • Theodore Winthrop
  • William Wirt
  • Owen Wister
  • Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of Vanities
  • Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again
  • Samuel Woodworth
  • Constance Fenimore Woolson

• Venezuela
  • Romulo Gallegos, (1884-1969) Canaima, Doña Bárbara

• Wales
  • English language
    • Ken Follett
    • Richard Hughes, (1900-1976), A High Wind in Jamaica
    • Jack Jones, (1884-1970)
    • Richard Llewellyn, (1907-1983), How Green Was My Valley
    • Jean Rhys
    • Bernice Rubens, author of A Solitary Grief
    • Howard Spring, (1889-1965)
  • Welsh language
    • Daniel Owen, (1836-1895)
    • Kate Roberts, (1891-1985)

• Yiddish
  • Sholom Aleichem, (1859-1916) (real name: Solomon Rabinovitz), Fiddler on the Roof was based on his stories.
  • Sholom Asch, (1880-1957)
  • Ber Honigman, (1923- )
  • Mendele Moykher-Sforim, (1836?-1917), pseud. for Sholem Yankev Abramovitch
  • Yitzok Lebesh Peretz, (1852-1915)
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991)