Authors by Picture

Can you identify these famous authors based on a photo, painting, or sculpture?

To make it easier we give you their nationality according to Wikipedia

One of these is legendary, not historical

Quiz idea: KingoftheBritons

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Last updated: June 28, 2022

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First submitted	July 5, 2018
Times taken	22,752
Average score	62.5%
Rating	4.44

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Russian, 1828–1910	American, 1835–1910	English, 1812–1870	British, 1965–


English, 1564–1616	American, 1809–1849	English, 1947–	American, 1947–


English, 1882–1941	American, 1899–1961	Irish, 1882–1941	American, 1922–1969


Irish, 1854-1900	Greek, ?	French, 1694–1778	English, 1890–1976

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51 Comments

Level 76

Jul 5, 2018

I am rather ashamed I didn't get either of the women. Although the first one did look very familiar.

Level 83

Jul 6, 2018

There are three women in the quiz.

Level 78

Jul 5, 2018

Dear God, J.K. Rowling is at the second place...

+11

Level 70

Jul 5, 2018

I rather wonder that she is not number one. I bet most persons below 30 have read more books from her than from all the others together. :-P

+32

Level 80

Jul 8, 2018

Yes, she's the most famous female modern author, and richest author in the world. Plus is still in the public eye, unlike Shakespeare who hasn't sent out a tweet in years.

Level 89

Jul 5, 2018

It just goes to show how many plebeians there are in the world!!! I have never even heard of JK Rowling... but I got Voltaire without even seeing his picture!!! If only everyone was as smart as me!

+24

Level 80

Jul 8, 2018

I am smarter than you. I got both.

Level 69

Jul 9, 2018

I went through all the Greeks. except Homer, the obvious one! Great quiz though!

+12

Level 79

Jul 10, 2018

that must have taken a while

Level 78

Sep 27, 2024

It's okay, Homer didn't see you either.

Level 65

Oct 14, 2018

J.K. Rowling does not belong among those other authors. She wrote fantasy tales for children. I know it's a weird gripe to have, but it pisses me off when I see her on lots of famous authors as if she's historically significant at all.

+21

Level 61

Oct 14, 2018

Yet you have no problem with a contemporary male horror writer or a crime novelist?

+22

Level 67

Oct 14, 2018

And it pisses me off that your elitism blinds you to Rowling's historical significance. Lord of the Rings is a fantasy too. And if you think only children read Harry Potter...well, I'm not really sure what to tell you.

+13

Level 72

Oct 15, 2018

99% of the criticism she gets is "I haven't read her books, therefore they can't be any good".

Level 39

Aug 13, 2020

I think Lord of the Rings is better...😐

+12

Level 91

Jul 22, 2022

Whether you like her or not, you can't deny that her books made a huge cultural impact.

Level 77

Jul 22, 2022

Something being popular hardly means it's culturally relevant in the long term. I have read most HP books. Their relevance lies in getting a lot of kids to read, for which she's to be commended, even if this achievement is offset by the fact many (most?) of those kids remained within the boundaries of easy, commercial YA/Bestseller type books. That kind of people, not knowing any better, tend to end up thinking Rowling is among the most important authors ever. Or that her work is comparable in quality and influence to Tolkien's, only on the very surface "it's fantasy" perspective.

Edit: To illustrate my point about some HP readers, not half an hour after typing, I run into this comment for a quiz entry about a Chosen One starting with M:

"I kept trying to figure out how to spell Harry Potter with an 'M'."

If your main reference for the old as dirt concept of a chosen one is HP, I'd guess you're not very well read.

Sure, it's a coincidence, but this kind of comment is quite prevalent.

Level 83

Dec 16, 2022

"something being popular hardly means it's culturally relevant in the long term" I don't know how you're defining 'long-term'. But I can't think of very many books in general, not just children's books, from the 90s that are still talked about so much today,

Level 46

Oct 16, 2018

She was the first author to become a billionaire based solely off of her stories. I'd say that's pretty historically significant.

Level 90

Sep 29, 2019

Population, inflation, global communication, etc. will always work in favor of later works.

What I want to know is, what has Rushdie ever done except become a poster boy because the Muslim world issued death threats against him for a book that would've otherwise been a minor seller?

Level 80

Dec 9, 2021

Rushdie, in addition to being a wonderful writer (a subjective statement that many others would agree with), has explored the interactions and tensions between the Eastern and Western world. His English writing about India has opened the subcontinent to a wider Western audience. He was also knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to literature if that says anything about how he's more than a 'poster boy'.

Level 71

Jul 22, 2022

Yeah Salman Rushdie is honestly a great author. The Satanic Verses gets all the attention, but his real masterpiece is Midnight's Children. I recommend giving it a try.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2019

I have read a couple of her books and I'm over 60. I wanted to at least have a clue about the genre. It isn't what I would pick up first to read today, but I dare say that the Hardy Boys books that I grew up on wouldn't appeal to many people today either and many people have never heard of Pearl Buck even though she is one of the all-time greats in my opinion. Anything that gets kids of any age reading is okay by me. Innocent fantasy stories like her books build imagination. Whether her work will be historically significant or not can only be judged by time. I just hope that there will be an author in the next generation who can inspire people to continue to read.

Level 79

Jul 22, 2022

I don’t think this quiz is comparing the quality of authors included. I mean, no one would actually compare Tolstoy to Rowling. Harry Potter is widely popular, frivolous fun, and Tolstoy’s works have significantly less child-friendly wizard rompery. Anyway, Rowling seems fair game for a famous authors quiz as much as Michael Bay is fair game for a famous directors quiz. I will point out, though, that the quiz left out one of the best living authors: Margaret Atwood! Maybe one day.

Level 67

Jul 22, 2022

You obviously haven't read the first draft of War and Peace. Rompery abounds.

Level 83

Dec 13, 2022

Even the final draft still has Napoleon's wizard bodyguard who fights Pierre

Level 66

Jul 22, 2022

Oooo nice misogyny!

Level 46

Jul 22, 2022

Your elitism is truly cringeworthy to the highest degree

Level 43

Oct 14, 2018

Tolstoj should be accepted as well, just sayin

Level 78

Oct 14, 2018

That would work in Dutch, Danish, German, Polish, and probably a couple of other languages. In English, j produces a different sound.

Level 61

Dec 5, 2018

Isn't Rowling Scottish ?

Level 66

Nov 15, 2019

She was born and raised in England and moved to Scotland in her late 20s. So probably not, but maybe, since there's no legal distinction between Scottish and English.

Level 76

Jan 30, 2020

She was born in England, but lives in Scotland and intends to stay there. She considers herself an immigrant to Scotland.

Level 66

Apr 16, 2019

yessss!! i'm just too happy that i was able to remember my favorite murder mystery writer!

Level 49

Dec 21, 2020

wait, was homer not real???

Level 60

Jan 4, 2021

why isn't Suzanne Collins on here lol

Level 78

Sep 27, 2024

Same reason Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jane Austen, Gabriel García Márquez, Roald Dahl, Nnedi Okorafor, and countless other authors aren't, I would imagine.

Level 66

Mar 4, 2021

Tell me why, is Rushdie looking at me like that?!

Level 80

Mar 5, 2021

I only miss'd Homer Simpson 😬

Level 24

Jul 13, 2022

Am I mad for trying toblerone for Homer?????

Level 81

Jul 22, 2022

Most of these people don't look at all like Ernest Hemingway.

Level 74

Jul 26, 2022

I got to Rowling before I realised that wasn't what the quiz was about

Level 75

Jul 22, 2022

I was about to nitpick that Homer wasn't really an author but more of a songwriter, but then I read his Wikipedia page (first line: "...the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey ...") and decided to just accept it and not be so silly.

Level 84

Jul 22, 2022

Needs more Terry Pratchett

Level 79

Jul 22, 2022

Nice selection, nearly all my favorites made the cut.

Level 49

Jul 24, 2022

Hmm. Only now realized I had no idea what Jack Kerouac looked like.

Level 61

Sep 9, 2022

OMG how did I get Jack Kerouac?!?! I had NO clue who the guy was, or what he looked like. I just remember vaguely that Jack Kerouac is the name of an author. That's IT! I didn't even know what era he lived in. I'm just sitting here in happy shock 😲 😄

Level 65

Dec 12, 2022

Am I the only one who thinks Oscar Wilde looks like Hugh Grant?

Level 68

Jan 20, 2023

Spelling Keraououcaiuss’s name nearly got me.

Level 72

Jun 20, 2024

Good selection of names!

And voltaire looks wayy too happy haha

Level 56

Sep 13, 2024

please allow "Moldemort" or "Demon of the Mold" for Jk Rowling.

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