American Novelist Rankings
Fifty of the most influential American novelists with birth and death years.
Art & LiteratureTop 50
🌍 World Ranking
▲ Top 5
#1
Herman Melville (1819–1891)
+5
#2
William Faulkner (1897–1962)
+4
#3
John Steinbeck (1902–1968)
+3
#4
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007)
+2
#5
Joseph Heller (1923–1999)
+1
▼ Bottom 5
#1
Philip Roth (1933–2018)
-5
#2
Jonathan Franzen (1959– )
-4
#3
Norman Mailer (1923–2007)
-3
#4
John Updike (1932–2009)
-2
#5
Willa Cather (1873–1947)
-1
Similar Lists
All Items (50)
Herman Melville (1819–1891)+5
William Faulkner (1897–1962)+4
John Steinbeck (1902–1968)+3
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007)+2
Joseph Heller (1923–1999)+1
Mark Twain (1835–1910)—
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)—
Henry James (1843–1916)—
Edith Wharton (1862–1937)—
Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945)—
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)—
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)—
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)—
Richard Wright (1908–1960)—
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994)—
J.D. Salinger (1919–2010)—
Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)—
Saul Bellow (1915–2005)—
Toni Morrison (1931–2019)—
Alice Walker (1944– )—
Don DeLillo (1936– )—
Thomas Pynchon (1937– )—
Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023)—
Joyce Carol Oates (1938– )—
Anne Tyler (1941– )—
E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015)—
Truman Capote (1924–1984)—
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969)—
James Baldwin (1924–1987)—
Harper Lee (1926–2016)—
Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995)—
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)—
Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961)—
Stephen King (1947– )—
Michael Chabon (1963– )—
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008)—
Don Winslow (1953– )—
Colson Whitehead (1969– )—
Jesmyn Ward (1977– )—
Marilynne Robinson (1943– )—
Jhumpa Lahiri (1967– )—
Donna Tartt (1963– )—
Bret Easton Ellis (1964– )—
Louise Erdrich (1954– )—
Percival Everett (1956– )—
Willa Cather (1873–1947)-1
John Updike (1932–2009)-2
Norman Mailer (1923–2007)-3
Jonathan Franzen (1959– )-4
Philip Roth (1933–2018)-5