Books | Guy Portman's Blog

7 Politically Inclined Authors

May 08 2015

This is a post that I wrote a while back about famous authors who held strong political opinions.

The following 7 authors were all politically inclined:

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

The father of Gonzo journalism was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. Despite his love of firearms and ardent support of the Second Amendment, Thompson’s politics were firmly entrenched in the far-left. A sworn enemy of Richard Nixon, he was vociferous in his support of George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. He covered the election in dispatches for Rolling Stone, which laid the foundation for his book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72.

Click here to read my review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

John Steinbeck

(February 27th 1902 – December 20th 1968)

John Steinbeck was a prolific novelist and short-story writer, and one of the most acclaimed literary figures America has ever produced. The author was very critical of capitalism and a supporter of unionisation, recurring themes in many of his books. His most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath, was viewed as so controversial at the time of its publication due to its criticism of the nation’s economic plight that it was burned on 2 separate occasions in the author’s hometown of Salinas.

Click here to read my review of In Dubious Battle.

Zora Neale Hurston

(January 7th 1891 – January 28th 1960)

Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist and author, who wrote 4 novels and more than 50 short stories, plays and essays. Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937. The highly opinionated Hurston could probably best be described as a conservative libertarian. Unlike many of her Soviet sympathising colleagues in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston, a staunch patriot, was vehemently anti-Communist. She often referred to them as ‘commies’ and ‘reds’ in her writing.

Maxim Gorky

(March 28th 1868 – June 18th 1936)

Maxim Gorky is one of Russia’s most popular authors. His opposition to the Tsarist regime led to him being arrested on numerous occasions. Gorky, who associated with many revolutionaries, became a friend of Lenin. Later he provided financial support to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Widely accepted as being the first famous Russian writer to emerge from the proletariat, Gorky is remembered as being a lifelong supporter of the Bolshevik cause and the founder of the Socialist realism literary method.

Click here to read my review of My Childhood.

Leo Tolstoy

(September 9th 1828 – November 20th 1910)

Russian novelist Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is widely regarded as being one of the greatest writers of all time. His most famous works are War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy was a Christian Anarchist, who believed that non-resistance was the only way to achieve a Utopian society. His beliefs influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Tolstoy’s argument that peaceful anarchy could only be brought about by non-violent revolution is explained in his essay On Anarchy (1900).

Kurt Vonnegut

(November 11th 1922 – April 11th 2007)

Vonnegut was an American author, whose writing incorporated science fiction, black humour and satire. He was a pacifist intellectual and supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. When he died in 2007 The New York Times described him as ‘the counterculture’s novelist’. His seminal work, Slaughterhouse-Five, is a satire about a survivor of the notorious firebombing of Dresden in World War II. Its anti-war rhetoric has resulted in it being banned by numerous US schools and libraries.

Click here to read my review of Slaughterhouse-Five.

George Orwell

(June 25th 1903 – January 21st 1950)

Author and journalist George Orwell was interested in social injustice, opposed to totalitarianism and committed to democratic socialism. So strongly was Orwell opposed to Fascism that he even volunteered to fight in The Spanish Civil War. His experiences there gave rise to his book, Homage to Catalonia (1938). Orwell’s most famous works, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both warned of the dangers of totalitarianism. They were perceived as being a thinly disguised attack on Stalin and banned in the Soviet Union.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.

Work in Progress Blog Hop

Apr 24 2015

I have been nominated for the Work in Progress Blog Hop by author Heather Burnside (heatherburnside.com). Heather is a regular blogger, who likes to share writing tips and information about her books. Heather is currently working on her second novel – a sequel to SLUR, her crime fiction novel, set in 1980s Manchester. Heather has also written a book of short stories called Crime, Conflict & Consequences. Thank you for nominating me Heather.

The blog hop rules are:

Link back to the person who nominated you.
Write a little about and give the first few lines of your first three chapters from your WIP.
Nominate some other writers to do the same.

Here are my nominations:

Andy Lowe – Andy is a poet and author of 4 books. He shares writing excerpts on his blog – andrewlowewriter.wordpress.com

Craig Stone – Craig is the author of 5 humorous novels. He is also something of a Twitter celebrity. Craig shares his unique insights on his blog – http://thoughtscratchings.com

You can find reviews of Heather, Andy and Craig’s books in the review section of my blog.

Here’s a little about my work in progress:

I am currently writing my third novel (Charles Middleworth & Necropolis). It will be an original and suspenseful work of psychological fiction.

This is the opening line:

‘wethiwethi deh klathi nuhnuh – meou klathi bothi iahn’

It’s not even English I hear you say. It is written in a cryptophasia. A cryptophasia is a secret language developed by a set of twins, which only they understand. The word originates from the Latin crypto meaning secret and phasia meaning speech. As you’ve probably guessed by now my book is about twins. Their names are Talulah and Taliah.

Here are the opening lines of my first draft of Chapter 2 and the second paragraph of Chapter 3 (the first contained spoilers).

Chapter 2

Framed watercolours capturing landscapes adorn the white walls of the spacious, brightly lit room, furnished with vivid coloured settees, chairs, polka dotted bean bags and a large glass desk. Spread out on the polished wooden floor in the centre of the room is a large gridded mat with different coloured squares. Taliah is crouched over the mat, each of her feet and hands resting on separate squares. The young psychiatrist, sitting cross-legged beside the mat, says, ‘You ready …’

Chapter 3

As far back as Colin can remember he has been led to believe that ownership of a Ferrari offers the prospect of redemption, but now as he looks down upon its metallic, inanimate form, and its balding proprietor Gerald, heaving his corpulent carcass towards the office entrance, it occurs to Colin that redemption is merely an illusion.

4 Female Writers’ Writing Styles

Apr 17 2015

Every author, myself included, has his/her own distinctive writing style. Earlier this year I dedicated a blog post to 4 famous male writers’ writing styles.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to 4 famous female writers’ writing styles:

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Woolf embraced an experimental stream of consciousness writing style, in which the subjective impressions of her protagonists formed the narrative. This writing device is in evidence in her novel Mrs Dalloway, in which Woolf parallels a single day in the lives of two people, adeptly portraying their internal emotions. This was a marked shift from the rigid objectivism of 19th Century fiction. Her rhetorical, informal personal style, effective use of metaphors, similes and symbolism continue to endear her to readers to this day.

George Eliot

(22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880)

Notable works: The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda

Mary Ann Evans was an author who used the male pen name George Eliot in order that she be taken seriously by the literary establishment. Her most famous novel, Middlemarch, is widely regarded as one of the greatest English language novels ever written. Her writing style incorporated an unusual style of phrasing, deep psychological insights, sophisticated character portraits, religious themes, highly original use of metaphors, comical elements and realism. Eliot also had a distinctive narrative voice, which some have criticised her for, because it often disrupts the action and casts judgement on the given event, as it is taking place.

Emily Dickinson

(10th December 1830 – 15th May 1886)

The reclusive Emily Dickinson was a prolific American poet, who penned over 1700 poems. Dickinson’s early poetry was fairly conventional, but her writing style became increasingly innovative and idiosyncratic. Her lineation, punctuation, capitalisation and extensive use of dashes were highly unusual. Most of Dickinson’s poems were written in short stanzas, the majority being quatrains, whilst other stanzas employed triplets and pairs of couplets as well as partial rhyming schemes. She also experimented with Iambic rhythms. The flexible and innovative structures of her poems, the conciseness of her language and the blending of different themes, such as the homely and exalted, in addition to her use of metaphors were in stark contrast to the rigid conventions of her era.

Jane Austen

(16th December 1775 – 18th July 1817)

Notable works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion

Jane Austen employed an elegant, experimental and innovative writing style. In contrast to other early 19th Century authors, Jane Austen’s novels have considerably more dialogue and much less description and narrative. She adroitly utilised indirect speech, burlesque, parody and realism to critique the portrayal of women in 18th Century literature, in addition to the perceived role of women during her own era. But it is her constant, imaginative use of irony that she is probably best known for. Austen utilised irony to highlight the social hypocrisy of her time, particularly with regards to marriage and social divisions.

7 Authors Who Overcame Adversity

Apr 10 2015

Earlier this week during a break from working on my third novel I took to thinking about famous authors who overcame adversity. Why, I don’t know why. Anyway, I thought it was a topic that would make a worthy addition to my popular famous author series of blog posts. Here are 7 authors who overcame varying degrees of adversity:

Maxim Gorky

(March 28th 1868 – June 18th 1936)

Iconic Russian author Maxim Gorky was brought up in relative poverty by his grandmother after being orphaned at a young age. During this period he suffered abuse from his grandfather. At the age of 12 he ran away from home and travelled across the Russian Empire for 5 years, living as a tramp for much of this time. Gorky went on to become one of Russia’s most popular authors ever and the founder of the Socialist realism literary method.

Click here to read my review of My Childhood

Victor Frankl

(March 26th 1905 – September 2nd 1997)

Austrian Jew Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist, neurologist and writer, who was imprisoned in several concentration camps during the WWII, including Auschwitz. Frankl’s wife, mother and brother died in the camps. The only immediate member of his family to survive the War was his sister Stella. Frankl went on to write a number of books, his most famous, Man’s Search for Meaning, had at the time of his death in 1997 sold 10 million copies and been translated into 24 languages.

Paulo Coelho

(Born: August 24th 1947)

Brazilian songwriter turned novelist Paulo Coelho was committed to a mental institution at the age of 17 by his parents, who were concerned about his introverted, non-conformist behavior. Coelho, who was fed tranquilizers and given electroshock treatments escaped several times before he was finally released at the age of 20. Today Coelho is the best-selling Portuguese language author of all time. His seminal work, The Alchemist, has been translated into 80 languages.

J.K. Rowling

(Born: July 31st 1965)

Listed by Forbes in 2004 as being the first person to become a U.S. dollar billionaire from writing books, the author of the Harry Potter series is one of the best selling authors of all time. Prior to her success Rowling went through a seven-year period that entailed divorcing her first husband, the death of her mother, existing on benefits as a single mother in Edinburgh, suffering from depression, and even considering suicide.

Janet Frame

(August 28th 1924 – January 29th 2004)

Novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist Janet Frame is widely considered to be one of New Zealand’s best ever authors. Frame’s traumatic childhood saw 2 of her sisters drowned. In 1945 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalised. The author was saved from a lobotomy, when days prior to the procedure, she unexpectedly won a national literary contest. In 1961 her novel Faces in the Water was published. It went on to become a best seller in her native country.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

(March 6th 1806 – June 29th 1861)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of England’s most famous poets during the Victorian era. In addition to producing poetry at a prolific rate, she campaigned for the abolition of slavery and child labour reform. Browning suffered from extremely poor health from an early age. After suffering spinal and head pain aged 15 she was prescribed laudanum (tincture of opium). Browning became a lifelong opium addict, which no doubt contributed to her ongoing health problems.

Jean-Dominique Bauby

(April 23rd 1952 –March 9th 1997)

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a well-known French journalist and editor of the French fashion magazine Elle, who suffered a massive stroke at the age of 43, which left him speechless and paralysed. Bauby went on to write his memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking every time a person reciting the alphabet reached the required letter. Through this painstaking method Bauby successfully created and edited his book one letter at a time.

7 Literary One Hit Wonders

Mar 27 2015

This week sees the latest instalment in my famous author series. Last week’s post, 7 Famous Authors Who Died Poor, proved to be very popular, receiving approximately 700 page views last weekend. This week’s post is devoted to 7 literary one hit wonders.

Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights (1847)

Emily Brontë, the sister of literary greats Charlotte and Anne Brontë, died at the age of 30, 1 year after the publication of Wuthering Heights. Regarded as a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights has been adapted for film, television and radio.

Anna Sewell: Black Beauty (1877)

English novelist Anna Sewell was passionate about horses from a young age. But it was not until late in her life that she wrote this equine children’s classic. 50 million copies of Black Beauty have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind (1936)

Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her debut novel, which was later adapted for the silver screen. The author did not like fame and vowed never to write another word. More than 30 million copies of this coming-of-age, historical novel have been printed.

Ross Lockridge Jr.: Raintree County (1948)

Raintree County is today regarded as a classic of American literature. It took Lockbridge 6 and a half years to complete, in part because his publisher demanded that he shorten the manuscript considerably. The author committed suicide 3 months after the novel’s publication.

J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Reclusive American author J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye spent 30 weeks on the New York Bestseller List, and went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. The book continues to sell around a quarter of a million copies a year. J.D. Salinger never published another novel.

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

Harper Lee is best known for her one and only published book, the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. However the reclusive 88-year-old has a second novel, Go Set a Watchman, due to be published in July of this year.

John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)

John Kennedy Toole was unsuccessful in getting A Confederacy of Dunces published during his lifetime. In 1980, 11 years after his death, his mother succeeded in getting it published. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.

5 Books About Drug Addiction

Mar 13 2015

As I have read a number of books about drug addiction recently, I have decided to dedicate a blog post to the subject.

The following 5 books are presented in the order in which they were published:

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey (1800)

Published in 1821, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is widely regarded as being the forefather of addiction literature. The book embraces an ornate prose style and grandiloquent use of language.

My Review: The first part of this autobiographical work takes the form of a lengthy discourse on the author’s childhood and teenage years… (More)

My Verdict: Downer

Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev (1934)

Reprehensible anti-hero Vadim offers some profound insights into the human condition in this depressing, nihilistic and at times humorous novel about adolescence and addiction.

My Review: Set in the years immediately before and after the Russian Revolution, Novel with Cocaine follows the life of Vadim, a Moscow adolescent and student… (More)

My Verdict: Good Stuff

Junky by William S. Burroughs (1953)

Junky is a semi-autobiographical novella, in which the author successfully utilises a detached journalistic approach to capture the obsessive nature of addiction.

My Review: Set in 1950s America and Mexico, Junky is a confessional novella about drug addiction. Its protagonist Bill Lee chronicles his drug-centred existence, … (More)

My Verdict: Good Stuff

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll (1978)

Narrated in a candid, brutal and matter of fact manner, The Basketball Diaries is a realistic depiction of an inner city youth drawn into a life of addiction.

My Review: Author Jim Carroll recounts his New York youth in this classic piece of adolescent literature. The book, which takes the form of seasonal diary entries, … (More)

My Verdict: Okay

Wasting Talent by Ryan Leone (2014)

Author Ryan Leone uses innovative writing techniques and a frenetic and at times poetic prose style to weave this graphic story about drug addiction.

My Review: Young guitar virtuoso Damien Cantwell is a member of a band in Southern California. Damian is talented, popular and good looking, but has a drug problem… (More)

My Verdict: Good Stuff

I plan to expand on this post when I get around to reading Irvine Welsh’s Skagboys and The Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley.

If you haven’t read it already you might be interested in my blog post about drug addicted authors – 7 Famous Drug Addicted Authors.

Click here to sign up for my newsletter.

Happy Birthday Bret Easton Ellis

Mar 06 2015

As Bret Easton Ellis, one of my favourite authors, turns 51 on March 7th, I am devoting this week’s blog post to him.

(Born: March 7th 1964)

Bret Easton Ellis rose to prominence when his impressive and controversial first novel, Less Than Zero, was published in 1985 when the author was only 21, and still studying at college. The social commentary and plotless realism that were to become Ellis’s trademark are in evidence throughout this nihilistic first person narrative.

My Review: Set in nineteen-eighties Los Angeles, the story follows eighteen-year-old Clay, returned home for Christmas from college in New Hampshire. Clay immediately falls back into the L.A. social scene, … (More).

Bret Easton Ellis shot to fame/infamy with his third novel American Psycho, which was widely condemned at the time of its publication for its violence and perceived misogyny.

My Review: American Psycho is a highly controversial novel that brought its young author Bret Easton Ellis instant fame. The book is written from the perspective of a young Wall Street financier, Patrick Bateman…. (More).

His fourth novel, Glamorama, is a satirical work that adeptly captures the hedonism of 1990s New York. In typical Ellis fashion the text is punctuated with numerous pop-culture references, in addition to sporadic descriptions of violence and prolonged graphic sexual encounters. Click here to read my review.

I have also read his sixth novel, Lunar Park. Lunar Park is a mock memoir that begins with a parodic account of the author’s early fame. Although I am a big fan of Bret Easton Ellis I found Lunar Park to be convoluted and self-indulgent. Click here to read my review.

To this day, Ellis, who has written 7 novels in total, 4 of which have been made into films, continues to cause controversy, not only through his books, but also with his incendiary Tweeting habits, which have included controversial Tweets on such sensitive subjects as HIV and Aids. This has left the author open to accusations from some that his social media antics are nothing more than publicity stunts. One might argue that controversy appears to be such an integral part of Ellis’s identity that he will never be able to willingly abandon it. However, regardless of this, there can be no doubt that the iconic author will always be remembered as a literary pioneer and erudite social commentator.

Happy Birthday John Steinbeck

Feb 27 2015

John Steinbeck would have been 113-years-old today. As it is his birthday, I am devoting this week’s blog post to him.

(February 27th 1902 – December 20th 1968)

Born in Salinas, California, John Steinbeck went on to become a prolific novelist and short-story writer, and one of the most acclaimed literary figures America has ever produced. Steinbeck’s accolades include The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1940) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1962).

Steinbeck’s most famous book and my favourite novel is The Grapes of Wrath. As most of you probably already know it is about a poor family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their land during the 1930s’ Dust Bowl and The Great Depression. The book was viewed as so controversial at the time of its publication due to its criticism of the nation’s economic plight that it was burned on 2 separate occasions in the author’s home town of Salinas.

Steinbeck was very critical of capitalism and a supporter of unionisation. These are recurring themes in many of his books, most notably in In Dubious Battle (Click on the link to read my review). In Dubious Battle is set to be adapted for the silver screen. It will be directed by James Franco.

Steinbeck is the master of character development. This is on full display in his short novel The Wayward Bus, one of my favourite Steinbeck novels.

My Review – An unlikely group of characters are travelling through rural South California by bus. In his unique style Steinbeck proceeds to explore each personality in intricate detail; their inhibitions, motivations, intimate thoughts and hopes for the future … (More)

Another Steinbeck that I would recommend if you haven’t read it already is The Pearl. Unlike the majority of his books which are set, at least in part in the Salinas Valley, it is set in Mexico. The Pearl is a parable about the darker side of human nature – greed, jealousy, social divisions, the unjust nature of the world and how we are all prisoners of circumstance. Click here to read my review.

One of Steinbeck’s lighter and more optimistic novels is Sweet Thursday. Whilst readers would undoubtedly enjoy this book more having read the prequel Cannery Row first, it is not essential to do so. Click here to read my review.

I stopped reading Steinbeck’s books a couple of years ago as I wanted to save some for my later years, although I am planning to read the episodic novella The Red Pony soon. I hope to visit the Salinas Valley next time I am in the U.S.

I look forward to hearing about your Steinbeck reading experiences.

4 Famous Male Writers’ Writing Styles

Feb 20 2015

Every author has his/her own distinctive writing style. My own evolving writing style utilises dry humour, satirical observations and concise prose.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to 4 famous writers’ writing styles:

James Joyce

(February 2nd 1882 – January 13th 1941)

Notable works: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Ireland’s most famous author is remembered as being one of the most influential writers of the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce embraced an experimental, stream of consciousness writing style. His seminal work Ulysses contains more vocabulary words (30,030) than the entire Shakespearean canon of 38 plays.

The former poet took his experimental style a step further with his final book, Finnegan’s Wake (1939). Written in Paris over a period of 17 years, Finnegan’s Wake utilises a stream of consciousness style, idiosyncratic language and literary allusions. The book is regarded as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language.

William S. Burroughs

(February 5th 1914 – August 2nd 1997)

Notable works: Junkie, Queer, The Soft Machine, The Naked Lunch.

William S. Burroughs was at the forefront of the Beat generation, influencing the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His often-controversial works (c.f. drugs and homosexuality) include 18 novels, in addition to a number of novellas and short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical in nature. Burroughs’s writing is characterised as being sardonic, dark, humorous and confessional.

Burroughs was the pioneer of the collage technique, which entails cutting up text with a pair of scissors and then rearranging it to create new text. His seminal work, the non-linear and highly controversial Naked Lunch was created in this manner.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Junky and Queer.

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Notable works: The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man & the Sea.

Ernest Hemingway won The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). Hemingway embraced the minimalist style of writing that he had been required to use when he had been a journalist. This style, known as The Iceberg Theory (Theory of Omission), utilised short, terse sentences, which was in stark contrast to the ornate prose of the literati of the time. It is this simple and direct writing style that has endeared Hemingway to so many readers down the years.

Click here to read my review of The Old Man and the Sea.

Jack Kerouac

(March 12th 1922 – October 21st 1969)

Notable works: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur.

American novelist, poet and artist Jack Kerouac was a member of the Beat Generation. Kerouac primarily wrote autobiographical novels. His most famous book, On the Road, is set against a backdrop of poetry, jazz and drug use. It was the defining work of the post-war Beat Generation.

Kerouac typed On The Road over a period of 3 weeks in the spring of 1951, on a 3-inch thick, 120-foot long scroll. Through attempting to omit periods from his work and improvising words he created his own innovative, spontaneous prose writing style – a style that was influenced by Jazz music and Bebop.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Maggie Cassidy and On The Road.

The Top 20 Best-Selling Novelists Ever

Jan 09 2015

After hours of arduous research I have concluded that the following are the top 20 best-selling novelists of all time. Unfortunately I didn’t make the list.

20. Dan Brown – (Born: 1964) – Brown is a thriller fiction author, whose seminal work was the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.
Total Books Sold: circa 210 million

19. J. R. R. Tolkien – (1892-1973) – High fantasy novelist Tolkien is best remembered for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Total Books Sold: circa 240 million

18. Horatio Alger – (1832-1899) – All of 19th Century American author Horatio Alger’s books are about boys from poor backgrounds, who become successful.
Total Books Sold: circa 250 million

17. Louis L’Amour – (1908-1988) – L’Amour is the top-selling author of Western novels ever. He wrote 105 books.
Total Books Sold: circa 300 million

16. James Patterson – (Born: 1947) – This American thriller and romance author is one of the World’s bestselling living authors.
Total Books Sold: circa 310 million

15. Stephen King – (Born: 1947) – Contemporary author Stephen King is a prolific author of horror, science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fiction.
Total Books Sold: circa 350 million

14. Robert Ludlum – (1927-2001) – Ludlum wrote 27 thriller novels. His most famous being The Bourne Trilogy.
Total Books Sold: circa 370 million

13. Leo Tolstoy – (1828-1910) – This iconic Russian novelist and short story writer is best remembered for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Total Books Sold: circa 380 million

12. Corin Tellado – (1927-2009) – Tellado published more than 4,000 novels. In 1994 she was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish.
Total Books Sold: circa 400 million

11. Sidney Sheldon – (1917-2007) – After a successful career writing for television Sheldon started writing novels at the age of 50.
Total Books Sold: circa 400 million

10. Dean Koontz – (Born: 1945) – This American author of suspense thrillers is one of the world’s best-selling living authors.
Total Books Sold: circa 450 million

09. J.K. Rowling – (Born: 1965) – Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is the United Kingdom’s best-selling living author.
Total Books Sold: circa 460 million

08. Jackie Collins – (Born: 1937) – English novelist Jackie Collins has written 29 novels, all of which went on to become best-sellers.
Total Books Sold: circa 500 million

07. Georges Simenon – (1903-1989) – This prolific Belgian author wrote nearly 200 novels in addition to many shorter works of fiction.
Total Books Sold: circa 550 million

06. Charles Dickens – (1812-1870) – Widely regarded as the greatest writer of the Victorian era, Dickens is also one of the biggest selling authors ever.
Total Books Sold: circa 550 million

05. Gilbert Patten – (1866-1945) – The King of the dime novels is best remembered as the author of the Frank Merriwell stories.
Total Books Sold: circa 600 million

04. Danielle Steel – (Born: 1947) – American romance and mainstream fiction novelist Danielle Steel is the World’s bestselling living novelist.
Total Books Sold: circa 800 million

03. Harold Robbins – (1916-1997) – The New York born playboy and master of publicity penned 25 bestselling novels.
Total Books Sold: circa 800 million

02. Barbara Cartland – (1901-2000) – This prolific romance author penned 723 novel over the course of her long life.
Total Books Sold: 1 billion

01. Agatha Christie – (1890-1976) – The Guinness Book of World Records lists the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple as the best-selling novelist of all time.
Total Books Sold: 2 billion

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Category - Books

7 Politically Inclined Authors

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Work in Progress Blog Hop

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4 Female Writers’ Writing Styles

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7 Authors Who Overcame Adversity

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7 Literary One Hit Wonders

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5 Books About Drug Addiction

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Happy Birthday Bret Easton Ellis

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Happy Birthday John Steinbeck

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4 Famous Male Writers’ Writing Styles

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The Top 20 Best-Selling Novelists Ever

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