1. James Joyce
   Mary Shelley
2. Elizabeth Gaskell
   Bram Stoker

"Frankenstein" was born out of a suggestion by another writer for a group of writers to try their hand at horror stories. The alternate title for her great work is "The Modern Prometheus."

1. John Milton
   Victor Hugo
2. William Shakespeare
   Ian Fleming

Shakespeare was not only a writer but he acted and had a financial stake in the Globe Theatre. Today there is a modern version of the Globe Theatre near the same spot as the original, which burned down in 1613.

1. A.A. Milne
   L. Frank Baum
2. Dr. Seuss
   J.M. Barrie

This beloved author has a day marked in his honor. March 2nd (his birthday) has become "Read Across America Day" and celebrates the love of reading.

1. Edgar Allan Poe
   Stephen King
2. H. P. Lovecraft
   Anne Rice

Rice's best known book was made into a film, "The Vampire Lestat," which starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

1. Emily Bronte
   Jane Austen
2. Beatrix Potter
   Virginia Woolf

"Wuthering Heights" was her only novel, but Bronte also wrote a number of poems. Both of her sisters were accomplished writers: Charlotte and Anne.

1. William Faulkner
   Graham Greene
2. Mark Twain
   Nathaniel Hawthorne

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are among his treasured protagonists. He uses regional dialects and realism in his tales.

1. S.E. Hinton
   Judy Blume
2. Barbara Park
   Stephenie Meyer

"Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" are among her popular titles. She has been a favorite among teens since the '70s.

1. Shel Silverstein
   Jack Prelutsky
2. Eric Carle
   Beverly Cleary

Shel Silverstein began his career as a cartoonist. His collection of poems, "Where the Sidewalk Ends," has sold over 6 million copies.

1. James Patterson
   Ernest Hemingway
2. Michael Crichton
   Stephen Crane

Hemingway's novella, "The Old Man and the Sea," won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and followed with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises" are among his successful works.

1. Oscar Wilde
   William Thackeray
2. Victor Hugo
   James Joyce

Wilde's witty quotes still reverberate today. His play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," and novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," are still widely read.

1. George Orwell
   H. G. Wells
2. T. S. Eliot
   Albert Camus

Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984" are allegorical and cautionary. With advances in technology, political turmoil, and media manipulation, "1984" has seen a recent resurgence in popularity.

1. Ursula LeGuin
   Flannery O'Connor
2. Agatha Christie
   Alice Walker

"Murder on the Orient Express" has been recently reprised in a movie starring Kenneth Branagh as Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot.

1. Ezra Pound
   Joseph Conrad
2. Langston Hughes
   F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's greatest work was "The Great Gatsby" which has been made into several movie versions. His wife, Zelda, was also a writer.

1. George Eliot
   D. H. Lawrence
2. J. R. R. Tolkien
   Lewis Carroll

Tolkien had a love of the Old English epic poem, "Beowulf," and he often studied and lectured on the subject.

1. Nicholas Sparks
   Isaac Asimov
2. Orson Scott Card
   Ray Bradbury

Bradbury had a successful radio show as well as television show which featured his short stories. "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451" are his most popular novels.

1. Suzanne Collins
   Marc Brown
2. J. K. Rowling
   Stephenie Meyer

Jennifer Lawrence played the heroic protagonist Katniss Everdene in "The Hunger Games," "Catching Fire," and "Mockingjay" movies.

1. Charles Dickens
   Thomas Hardy
2. Charlotte Bronte
   Aldous Huxley

This prolific British author is responsible for such works as "Great Expectations," "Oliver Twist," and "A Tale of Two Cities."

1. John Steinbeck
   Ambrose Bierce
2. Rod Serling
   William Faulkner

Steinbeck often used the Salinas Valley of California as the setting for his stories. Migrant workers and the everyday man made up the characters in his works.

1. Maurice Sendak
   E. B. White
2. J. K. Rowling
   C.S. Lewis

Rowling was a single parent trying to make ends meet when she began the Harry Potter series. Today she is a celebrated author worth more than $600 million.

1. Jhumpa Lihiri
   Harold Pinter
2. Rudyard Kipling
   William Butler Yeats

Kipling's popular story has been captured by Disney in a successful animated version. It is a story Kipling began writing on the eve of his becoming a father.

1. O. Henry
   Homer
2. Moliere
   Christopher Marlowe

O. Henry's real name is William Sydney Porter. His stories incorporate surprises and coincidence.

1. The Grimm brothers
   The Duffer brothers
2. The James brothers
   The Bronte sisters

The brothers Grimm are credited with many fairy tales, but "Snow White" and "Rapunzel" were actually re-told tales. They told more than 200 stories.

1. Christopher Marlowe
   Jonathan Swift
2. Geoffrey Chaucer
   Thomas Malory

Chaucer intended for each traveler (30) to tell four tales each but only about 20 were completed. "The Miller's Tale" is a humorous tale and one of the more popular ones.

1. Henry James
   Shirley Jackson
2. Edgar Allan Poe
   Joyce Carol Oates

Poe is considered the father of the detective story as well as a master of gothic literature. He is best known for his poem, "The Raven."

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne
   Arthur Miller
2. Tom Clancy
   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson surrounded himself with the intellectuals of the day, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Thomas Carlyle. Many of his quotes are popular, including "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

1. Maya Angelou
   Emily Dickinson
2. Sylvia Plath
   Gwendolyn Brooks

Maya Angelou's autobiographical, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," is her best known work. This multi-award winner's other talents earned her rights as an actress, activist, memoirist, composer, and dancer.

1. Robert Burns
   Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Sir Walter Scott
   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson is an adventurous tale that put pirates on the literary map. He also wrote "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

1. Dean Koontz
   Clive Barker
2. Edgar Allan Poe
   Stephen King

Stephen King is known for his small town Maine settings and developing everyday characters who face the unthinkable. "Cujo" (rabid dog), "Christine" (possessed car), and "Carrie" (prom queen) are three among more than 50 novels.

1. Henry David Thoreau
   Tom Clancy
2. Herman Melville
   Richard Wright

Herman Melville (1819-1891) experienced sea voyages firsthand and created an authentic sea story in "Moby Dick." It relates the story of Captain Ahab who cannot compete with a rival in a white whale.

1. Jack London
   James Thurber
2. Mark Twain
   John Steinbeck

Jack London (1876-1916) is best known for his novels, "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang." He was of the working class and loved travel, which he incorporated into his stories.

1. Laura Ingalls Wilder
   Beatrix Potter
2. Nancy Drew
   Lois Lowry

Potter was known for her lovable characters in "The Tales of Peter Rabbit." She was also a conservationist who donated much of her property in the Lake District to the National Trust.

1. Victor Hugo
   Alexandre Dumas
2. Jules Verne
   Gustave Flaubert

"Around the World in 80 Days" is an adventure story of Phineas Fogg who tries to win a wager by circling the globe in less than three months. Verne created other science fiction tales, including "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island."

1. John Keats
   Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2. William Wordsworth
   Lord Byron

Other odes by this Romantic movement poet include "Ode to Autumn" and "Ode to a Nightingale." Keats (1795-1821) was a contemporary and friend to many other well-known poets of the period, including Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

1. Kurt Vonnegut
   John Cheever
2. J.D. Salinger
   John Updike

Salinger wrote many short stories but it is by his rebellious protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who lingers for readers. Caulfield rages against conformity at a prep school in NYC in "Catcher in the Rye."

1. R. L. Stine
   Bram Stoker
2. Stephen King
   Roald Dahl

Stine has entertained decades of children with his often creepy and ironic endings. More than 60 tales are in the original series.