Famous Journalists and Nonfiction Authors a to z

Chemist John Dalton is credited with pioneering modern atomic theory. He was also the first to study color blindness.

Rubén Darío was an acclaimed Nicaraguan poet, essayist and journalist who introduced the style known as modernism to Spanish literature.

Dorothy Day was an activist who worked for such social causes as pacifism and women’s suffrage through the prism of the Catholic Church.

French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a romance with Sartre.

Michel de Montaigne was a 16th century French author best known for his series of philosophical essays, which were published in 1575.

Maximilien de Robespierre was an official during the French Revolution and one of the principal architects of the Reign of Terror.

English novelist, pamphleteer and journalist Daniel Defoe is best known for his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders.

American dancer and choreographer Agnes DeMille further developed the narrative aspect of dance in her choreography of musical plays and ballets.

Jacques Derrida was an influential postmodern French philosopher who developed the analytic method known as Deconstruction.

John Dickinson, an American statesman often referred to as the "Penman of the Revolution," wrote letters that helped turn opinion against the Townshend Acts created by the Parliament of Great Britain.

Author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 mystery stories featuring the wildly popular detective character Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant Watson.

W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most important African-American activists during the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and supported Pan-Africanism.

Alexandre Dumas was a 19th-century French novelist and playwright whose best known works are The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Esther Dyson, named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in American business, is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology.

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist. She was the first female judge in Iran, and won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

Roger Ebert is an American film critic best known as one half of the popular Siskel and Ebert film critic television show.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, promoted Atoms for Peace at the United Nations General Assembly in order to ease Cold War tensions.

Daniel Ellsberg strengthened public opposition to the Vietnam War in 1971 when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American Transcendentalist poet, philosopher and essayist during the 19th century. One of his best-known essays is "Self-Reliance.”

Personality development, in Erik H. Erikson's view, occurs through a series of identity crises that occur in stages that must be overcome and internalized.

Rupert Everett is a British actor known for roles in the films My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shakespeare in Love and a Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Author and activist Myrlie Evers-Williams was the wife of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and served as chair of the NAACP 1995–1998.

American feminist and journalist Susan Faludi wrote Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which argues that the media distort news about women.

Jessie Fauset was a teacher and writer who worked as editor for The Crisis magazine, and penned the novels Comedy: American Style and Plum Bun.

Tim Ferriss is an author, blogger and motivational speaker known for his books The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body.

As press secretary for Ronald Reagan, Marlin Fitzwater helped manage the president’s and the country’s image as the Cold War came to a close.

Ken Follett is the author of numerous best-selling books, including Eye of the Needle, On Wings of Eagles and Whiteout.

Shelby Foote was an American historian and novelist who wrote The Civil War: A Narrative. He was also a significant contributor to the Ken Burns series The Civil War.

Writer John Fowles's works include The French Lieutenant's Woman and combine a respect for the Victorian novel and an interest in contemporary French novels.

Bethenny Frankel starred on the reality-TV show The Real Housewives of New York City and two spinoffs. She also launched the brand Skinnygirl.

Writer James Frey wrote the book, A Million Little Pieces. When The Smoking Gun discredited the book as a memoir, he had to apologize on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Writer, feminist and women's rights activist Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women.

J.F.C. Fuller was a 20th century British military officer, author, advocate of tank warfare and supporter of fascist movements.

Jacques Futrelle was a journalist and mystery writer who created the character Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, also known as "The Thinking Machine." He died in the Titanic disaster.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was an author and one of the leading figures in the women's rights and suffrage movement that began in the mid-1800s.

William Lloyd Garrison was an American journalistic crusader who helped lead the successful abolitionist campaign against slavery in the United States.

Clifford Geertz was a leading proponent of a form of anthropology that stresses the importance of symbols and interpretation in human social life.

Martha Gellhorn was a distinguished war correspondent who covered every war that occurred across the globe over a period extending nearly 60 years.

Philosophical essayist, novelist, poet and artist Khalil Gibran wrote The Prophet, a book of poetic essays that achieved cult status among American youth.

American cartoonist Rube Goldberg was best known for his work satirizing America's obsession with technology. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his editorial cartoon "Peace Today."

Doris Kearns Goodwin is best known for authoring biographies of American presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Photographer and activist Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, co-founded the Parents' Music Resource Center, and was Clinton’s mental health advisor.

Charles Goren was an American lawyer and world champion bridge player known for his books and television program on the game.

Maxim Gorky was a Russian author who wrote about the lower depths of society. He was a critic of both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and died under mysterious circumstances.

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, and the best-selling writer of popular science books.

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Communist Party leader. He was arrested for speaking out against fascism and wrote his Prison Notebooks before dying in jail.

Journalist Horace Greeley launched the New Yorker and the New York Tribune. He also ran for president under the Liberal Republican Party, which he founded.

Abolitionist and feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and her sister Angelina were the first women to testify before a state legislature on the issue of blacks' rights.

Alex Haley was an American writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted the struggles of African Americans.

Alexander Hamilton, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and major author of the Federalist papers, was the United States' first secretary of the treasury.

Jack Hanna, animal expert and former director of the Columbus Zoo, makes regular appearances on TV talk shows to teach people about exotic animals.

Economist F.A. Hayek was noted for his criticisms of the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Journalist Theodor Herzl responded to the anti-Semitism he witnessed while covering the Dreyfus Affair by starting the World Zionist Organization.

Christopher Hitchens was a controversial, thought-provoking British-American writer who covered a range of serious topics, including art and atheism.

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher in the 17th century, was best known for his book Leviathan (1651) and his political views on society.

Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author of memoirs and fiction. Her best known work is The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among the Ghosts.