Astonishingly, we do not find J.K. Rowling, or any women for that matter, among Forbes top five most famous writers of all time. Rowling comes in at #69!
Unsurprisingly, Shakespeare is ranked #1 one all-time most famous writer in the world. Shakespeare basically rivals figures like Jesus or Elon Musk as a highly memorable person. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23rd April 1564 and as far as we know died on his birthday in 1616! What a way to celebrate! Now he is, of course, considered the supreme writer of all time penning histories, comedies, romances and tragedies.
As with many writers, his dark stuff, in tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth really hit the mark!
His most famous quote is from Hamlet: “To be or not to be, that is the question” but my favourite is from the lighter romance or 'problem play', The Tempest: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” This is prescient given that Shakespeare was born and died on the same day of the month!
I have read all Shakespeare’s plays and while I am terrible at remembering all the plots and details, I believe my own writing is enriched by his colourful capture of life.
According to Forbes, Homer ranks #2. Well, technically we shouldn’t say writer as he was part of the oral tradition of poetry, with his work later transcribed. He was alive, rather imprecisely in the 9th or 8th century BCE, and there is competing evidence about where exactly he was born.
The work of this Greek author includes the poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad is about an argument between King Agamemnon and Achilles, a warrior during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey follows the difficult journey of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, returning to his home after the fall of Troy. These important works have been at the heart of classical education across the centuries.
What struck me about this writer is the amount of violence and gore from battle scenes - something thankfully hidden from our view in coverage of the devastations of Gaza and Ukraine. His work reminds me how little we have moved on in terms of what humans do to one another. Turning his poems into film would attract an 18 certificate.
Virgil ranks #3. He was alive 70 BCE to 19 BCE and once again we are talking poetry. This time, however, we are looking at one of ancient Rome's greatest poets. And like the writers ranked more highly, he shares the powerful reduction to a single name. Maybe, I should promote myself simply as Crawford to get into Forbes pantheon?!
Probably, Virgil is best known for The Aeneid about the Trojan hero Aeneas. It is basically Roman propaganda, brown nosing Emperor Augustus. He died before completing it and even wished it not to be published. Unsurprisingly this wish was overruled by Augustus - think Trump - keen to remain flattered.
Virgil’s other works include The Eclogues and The Georgics.
One of his best loved quotes translated from the original Latin should inspire creative writers everywhere: “Fortune favours the bold.”
Given that Virgil is ranked at # 867 for male names by popularity, his fame may well be set to wane.
Leo Tolstoy ranks #4. He was born in Russia in 1828 and died in 1910. Among his prominent works we have War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Resurrection which has some crossover with my latest novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent, in exploring the treatment of those who are locked away from society.
Tolstoy was caught up in the whole business of the meaning of life. In his short work, My Confession, an allegorical autobiography, we see him grappling with the reality of death whilst dealing with melancholia or depression. Tolstoy presents suicide as a logical decision in the face of meaninglessness. He also neatly articulates the loss of joy in writing in facing the apparent absurdity and fleeting nature of human life.
The deep reflection that comes with a life of writing can of course weigh heavily, especially when exploring human trauma – something at the heart of much literature.
Ranked #5 on Forbes list is Ernest Hemingway. Born in Illinois in the US in 1899, he died in 1961 and mixed with many other great painters and writers of his time. He is a masterful, multi-genre communicator of human brokenness, a larger-than-life figure who experienced everything from bullfighting to plane crashes. His fiction For Whom the Bell Tolls,A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea are written in a direct, unflowery writing style that is worth studying. He preferred the ‘lightning rod’ approach to conveying characters and atmospheres over a dense, overly poetic kind or writing.
Like many writers before and after him, Hemingway suffered with depression. The beginning of his speech on receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature is illustrative of the solitary life of writing: “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. … “
My favourite Hemingway quote from A Farewell to Arms conveys the route to human resilience despite devastating experiences: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” This is true of the goth-psychiatrist in my novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent, who, like Hemingway, battles depression, yet finds his depth, his strength, in vulnerable survival.
Finally, those celebrated British writers, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, just missed the cut at #6 and #7 respectfully.
Paul Crawford’s The Wonders of Doctor Bent is available at Amazon, WHSmith, Foyles, Waterstones, Foyles, Cranthorpe Millner, and all good bookshops.
1. Contributed
#4 Leo Tolstoy Photo: Submitted
2. Contributed
#5 Ernest Hemingway Photo: Submitted
3. Contributed
Paul Crawford's second novel Photo: Submitted
4. Contributed
Review of The Wonders of Doctor Bent Photo: Submitted