WRITERS from Ecuador

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Ecuadorean Writers of all time. This list of famous Ecuadorean Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Juan Montalvo (1832 - 1889)

With an HPI of 48.90, Juan Montalvo is the most famous Ecuadorean Writer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Juan María Montalvo Fiallos (13 April 1832 - 17 January 1889) was an Ecuadorian essayist and novelist. His writing was strongly marked by anti-clericalism and opposition to presidents Gabriel García Moreno and Ignacio de Veintemilla. He was the publisher of the magazine El Cosmopolita. One of his best-known books is Las Catilinarias, published in 1880. His essays include Siete tratados (1882) and Geometría Moral (posthumous, 1902). He also wrote a sequel to Don Quixote de la Mancha, called Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes. He was admired by writers, essayists, intellectuals such as Jorge Luis Borges and Miguel de Unamuno. He died in Paris in 1889. His body was embalmed and is exhibited in a mausoleum in his hometown of Ambato.

2. Eugenio Espejo (1747 - 1795)

With an HPI of 48.66, Eugenio Espejo is the 2nd most famous Ecuadorean Writer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo[a] (Royal Audiencia of Quito, February 21, 1747 – December 28, 1795) was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of criollo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in colonial Ecuador. He was Quito's first journalist and hygienist. As a journalist he spread enlightened ideas in the Royal Audiencia, and as a hygienist he composed an important treatise about sanitary conditions in colonial Ecuador that included interesting remarks about microorganisms and the spreading of disease. Espejo was noted in his time for being a satirist. His satirical works, inspired by the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, were critical of the lack of education of the Audiencia of Quito, the way the economy was being handled in the Audiencia, the corruption of its authorities, and aspects of its culture in general. Because of these works he was persecuted and finally imprisoned shortly before his death.

3. Jorge Icaza Coronel (1906 - 1978)

With an HPI of 46.28, Jorge Icaza Coronel is the 3rd most famous Ecuadorean Writer.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Jorge Icaza Coronel (July 10, 1906 – May 26, 1978), commonly referred to as Jorge Icaza, was a writer from Ecuador, best known for his novel Huasipungo, which brought attention to the exploitation of Ecuador's indigenous people by Ecuadorian whites. He was born in Quito in 1906 and died of cancer in the same city in 1978.

4. Jorge Enrique Adoum (1926 - 2009)

With an HPI of 44.26, Jorge Enrique Adoum is the 4th most famous Ecuadorean Writer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Jorge Enrique Adoum (June 29, 1926 in Ambato – July 3, 2009 in Quito) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, politician, and diplomat. He was one of the major exponents of Latin American poetry. His work received such prestigious awards as the first Casa de las Américas Prize in Cuba, the most important honor in Latin American letters. Though hailed by Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda as the best poet of his generation in Latin America, Adoum’s work is unknown in the English-speaking world.