Ranked by fame on Wikipedia: language editions times page views of the last 12 months. Each person is on one board only.
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Photo credits
- Portraits are freely licensed Wikimedia Commons files; the rest are public domain. Attribution:
- J. K. Rowling: Daniel Ogren · CC BY 2.0
- George Orwell: Cassowary Colorizations · CC BY 2.0
- Stephen King: Kevin Payravi · CC BY-SA 4.0
- George R. R. Martin: Henry Söderlund · CC BY 4.0
- Gabriel García Márquez: Gorup de Besanez · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Salman Rushdie: Elena Ternovaja · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Maya Angelou: York College ISLGP · CC BY 2.0
Rules & what counts
Most Famous Authors Quiz: Rules & What Counts
This quiz shows 40 portrait cards, ranked from 1 to 40. Each card is one of the 40 most famous authors in the world. Type the person's name to solve the card.
Each card shows the portrait and the rank. The name, the country, the occupation and the years appear when you solve the card.
Fame is measured on Wikipedia. The score is the number of language editions with an article about the person, multiplied by the English Wikipedia page views of the last 12 months. The board updates from time to time.
How to play
- Just start typing. The quiz checks your answer at every keystroke. There is no submit button.
- A correct name solves the card and shows the full name, the country, the occupation and the years.
- You can answer in any order. The name you type solves the matching card wherever it sits.
- Everyday names count. A surname alone, a pen name and a common nickname are accepted.
- Spelling is forgiving. Capitals, accents and punctuation are ignored.
- The timer starts at your first keystroke and counts up. Give Up ends the run and shows every person you missed. Progress saves automatically.
What counts in this quiz
- The 40 authors with the highest fame score, from every country and every century.
- A person counts as an author when the first line of the person's Wikipedia description says so. Many of these people did more than one thing, so each person is on one board only.
- A pen name or a stage name counts as the name. A surname alone counts when only one person on the board has it.
What's not included, and why
- People outside the top 40 do not count. A guess that is not on the board changes nothing. There is no penalty.
- Legendary figures are not on the boards. There is no real picture of them.
- People famous mainly for mass murder, terrorism or organised crime are not on the boards.
Good to know
- William Shakespeare is the most famous of all authors on this board. William Shakespeare is an English playwright.
- The last card, number 40, is Maya Angelou, an American poet.
- Virgil is the oldest name on the board: 70–19 BC.
- 11 of the 40 authors are English.