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Authors
People who write or wrote books, though not necessarily for a living. Remember, There Is No Such Thing As Notability. The preponderance of recent authors probably reflects the biases of the tropers updating the index. The nearly exclusive emphasis on authors of fiction reflects the basic purpose of the wiki.

Classical

Regrettably, many of the oldest classics such as The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Bible are essentially anonymous works. For the purposes of this page, "Classical" refers to all writers before the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD. These authors are arranged by place of origin.

Greek

  • Homer: (born c.800 BCE, died c.750 BCE) Author/collector of The Iliad and The Odyssey, the oldest written examples of many tropes. Homer himself was blind and illiterate, so his works were transmitted by oral tradition.
  • Hesiod: Rough contemporary of Homer whose Theogony set down the relationships between the gods and other beings of Classical Mythology.
  • Aeschylus (c.525 BCE to c.456 BCE) was a Greek playwright who adapted many myths and legends.
  • Sophocles (c.496 BCE to c.406 BCE) was a Greek playwright who adapted many myths and legends.
  • Euripides (c.480 BCE to c.406 BCE) was a Greek playwright who adapted many myths and legends.
  • Aristophanes: Comic playwright, contemporary with Euripides and Sophocles, as well as Socrates. The Modern Major General knows his "Croaking Frogs".
  • Herodotus: The Father of History, he compiled a history of the known world (Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, mostly, with Scythians and barbarians around the edges) that sought to explain the causes of the Persian Wars.
  • Thucydides: What Herodotus did for the Persian Wars, Thucydides did for the Peloponnesian War (but with less digressions, more analysis and some awesome speeches).
  • Socrates: Greek philosopher. Left no writings, but was of great influence because of his effect on
  • Plato: The first Greek philosopher from whom we have complete works with great influence on later thought;
  • Aristotle: one of Plato's student, also a Greek philosopher; author of Poetics, oldest existing work of literary criticism, in which he identified quite a few tropes.
  • Sappho: The only surviving female poet from antiquity, she was a native of Lesbos and the reason modern-day lesbians are called lesbians.
  • Aesop: The author — or at least attributed author of Aesops Fables. May never have existed.

Roman

  • Plautus: Roman comic playwright, the author of Miles Gloriosus.
  • Cicero: Roman politician, contemporary of Julius Caesar, whose Cataline Orations, other speeches, letters, and philosophical and rhetorical treatises are still widely read.
  • Virgil: Roman poet, contemporary of Augustus, who composed the Aeneid, setting out how Trojan refugees founded the greatest city in the world. Or, rather, founded the tribe that would later give birth to the founders.
  • Horace: Another poet active around the time of Augustus, wrote a variety of material, including satire and odes. Coined several phrases still in current use, including Carpe diem.
  • Ovid: Poet, contemporary of Virgil, who wrote the Metamorphoses, a large collection of myths dealing with love and transformations, and much other material, including a makeup manual.
  • Livy: Roman historian who wrote an acccount of the city's history from its founding by Romulus and Remus on down to his own time (Augustus's reign).
  • Juvenal: Roman satirist writing in the early second century AD. Treated greed, sexual immorality, and the generally terrible quality of urban life.
  • Martial: The epigrammist who wrote pithy little verses about the life of the upper class around the time Juvenal was active.
  • Suetonius and Tacitus: Contemporaries of Juvenal and Martial who went into history. Tacitus recorded events from the death of Augustus up to the assassination of Domitian; most of his work has been lost. Suetonius wrote biographies of the Emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian. These two authors' work forms most of the basis for I Claudius.
  • Vegetius: Late Roman writer, mostly known for his treatise on military matters.

Chinese

  • Lao-tzu and Confucius: Early Chinese philosophers; still highly influential
  • Sun-tzu: Author of The Art of War
  • Shi Naian: The Water Margin. Some believe him to be Luo Guanzhong or one of his teachers.
  • Wu Cheng'en: Journey To The West

The last three works are considered among the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature and were composed in the 14-16th centuries, drawing on older material.

Indian

  • Ramayana is reasonably ascertained to Valmiki.

Mediaeval

These are the writers between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, loosely dated as between the fifth and fourteenth centuries AD. A number of pieces from this period are also anonymous, including Beowulf and The Song of Roland. These are listed in chronological order.

  • Murasaki Shikibu: (c. 973–c. 1014 or 1025)Author of The Tale of Genji, Japanese noblewoman, novelist and poet. Her real name is unknown.
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth: (c. 1100 – c. 1155)) Author of the Historia Regum Britanniae, which includes one of the earliest accounts of King Arthur, as well as much of Shakespeare's source material. Mixed fiction/legend with history quite freely.
  • Chretien de Troyes: (Dates of birh and death uncertain; mid- to late-1100's) French troubadour who made great contributions to the Arthurian canon, including the quest for the Holy Grail and possibly Sir Launcelot.
  • Snorri Sturluson: (1178 – September 23, 1241)) Icelandic poet, lawyer, and lawspeaker who composed the Prose Edda, setting out many of the elements of Norse Mythology. Tolkien used names from Sturluson's work for the Dwarves in The Hobbit and for Gandalf. He also wrote the Heimskringla, a history; and may be the author of Egil's Saga
  • Dante Alighieri: (c.1265 – September 14, 1321) Poet best known for his Divine Comedy. Trope Namer for Word Of Dante. He did for Italian what Chaucer did for vernacular English, to the point that the French sometimes call Italian la langue de Dante

Renaissance

These writers wrote between the fourteenth and seventeeth centuries—a very broad span of time, which includes the Reformation and the beginnings of modern thought. The Renaissance began in Italy, but its influence spread slowly to the rest of Europe. These authors are listed in chronological order

  • Boccaccio: (1313 – 21 December 1375); Italian. Influenced such greats as Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer. And by "influenced", I mean, "They just rewrote his stories". He, like Dante before him, wrote in Italian, rather than Latin.
  • Luo Guanzhong: (c. 1330?-1400?); Chinese. Author of The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400); English. Author and poet. Best known for The Canterbury Tales, even though it's an unfinished work. Credited with being the first to regularly use vernacular English rather than Latin or French.
  • Sir Thomas Mallory: (c. 1405 – March 14, 1471); English. Compiler or author of Le Morte d'Arthur, generally regarded as the foundation of modern Arthurian tales.
  • Niccolo Machiavelli: (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527); Italian. Author of another Art of War, The Prince, and The Discourses; Italian political thinker whose influence is still felt.
  • Sir Thomas More: (February 7, 1478 – July 6, 1535); English. Author of Utopia
  • Miguel de Cervantes: (September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616)) Author of Don Quixote and a pile of plays.
  • Christopher Marlowe: (baptised February 26, 1564 – May 30, 1593); English. Poet, dramatist, and translator, he is probably best known for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Jew Of Malta, and Tamburlaine. He was one of the first to write English drama in blank verse.
  • William Shakespeare: (baptised April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) English. 38 plays, 154 sonnets and other works. He is the inventor or best-known source of many tropes, phrases and words.
  • John Milton: (December 9, 1608 - November 8, 1674); English. Poet and pamphleteer, his most seminal works are Areopagitica and Paradise Lost.
  • Charles Perrault: (January 12, 1628 – May 16, 1703); French. Credited creating the genre of Fairy Tale when he published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé) in 1697, with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose (Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oie)

18th Century

  • Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence (principal author)
  • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison as 'Publius:' The Federalist Papers, demonstrating that American political discourse started not far from the state it is in now. Especially when read alongside their opponents.
  • Thomas Paine: Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason, among other works. Famous for involvement in American Revolution
  • Jonathan Swift: Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, and other works; lived on the cusp of the 17th and 18th centuries.
  • Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France and many others. Considered by many as the father of modern political conservatism.
  • Francois Marie Arouet, AKA Voltaire: Ridiculously prolific (over 20,000 work ranging from pamphlets to treaties and novels). Candide, the short story Micromegas (one of the earliest works depicting aliens visiting Earth).
  • Colley Cibber: 1671-1757; Poet Laureate from 1730. Playwright, adapter of Shakespear, and object of Pope's heroic-coupleted wrath.

19th Century

. Quoted too many times to count.

20th and 21st Centuries

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