The Most Famous
WRITERS from Philippines
This page contains a list of the greatest Filipino Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 4 of which were born in Philippines. This makes Philippines the birth place of the 90th most number of Writers behind Moldova, and Ecuador.
Top 5
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Filipino Writers of all time. This list of famous Filipino Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Francisco Balagtas (1788 - 1862)
With an HPI of 52.86, Francisco Balagtas is the most famous Filipino Writer. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.
Francisco Balagtas y de la Cruz (April 2, 1788 – February 20, 1862), commonly known as Francisco Balagtas and also as Francisco Baltazar, was a Filipino poet and litterateur of the Tagalog language during the Spanish rule of the Philippines. He is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino literary laureates for his impact on Filipino literature. The famous epic Florante at Laura is regarded as his defining work. Balagtas adopted the legal surname Baltazar in fulfillment of the edict issued by Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua in 1849 that mandated the native population to adopt standard surnames. The name is commonly misspelled as Baltazar and sometimes misinterpreted as his pen name.
2. Lualhati Bautista (1945 - 2023)
With an HPI of 45.34, Lualhati Bautista is the 2nd most famous Filipino Writer. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Lualhati Torres Bautista (December 2, 1945 – February 12, 2023) was a Filipina writer, novelist, liberal activist and political critic. Her most popular novels include Dekada '70; Bata, Bata, Pa'no Ka Ginawa?; and ‘GAPÔ.
3. José Burgos (1837 - 1872)
With an HPI of 44.59, José Burgos is the 3rd most famous Filipino Writer. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
José Apolonio Burgos y García (February 9, 1837 – February 17, 1872) was a Filipino (Spanish blood) Catholic priest, accused of mutiny by the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19th century. He was tried and executed in Manila along with two other clergymen, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora, who are collectively known as the Gomburza.
4. James Cooke Brown (1921 - 2000)
With an HPI of 44.36, James Cooke Brown is the 4th most famous Filipino Writer. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
James Cooke Brown (July 21, 1921 – February 13, 2000) was an American sociologist and science fiction author. He is notable for creating the constructed language Loglan and for designing the Parker Brothers board game Careers. Brown's novel The Troika Incident (Doubleday, 1970) describes a worldwide free knowledge base similar to the Internet. The novel begins with the belief that the world is on the eve of self-destruction, but then it presents a world about a century from now which is a paradise of peace and prosperity, all based on ideas, movements, and knowledge presently available in the world. In its metafictional structure, the novel is a call for social change, not through revolution but through free education and the resilience of human ingenuity. Long out of print and relatively rare, an e-book version (Amazon Kindle) of the novel was released in 2012. The novel envisioned all books and periodicals being viewed on portable electronic devices called "readers" in the year 2070, when it is set. Among his other achievements, Brown designed, and had built, a three-hulled sailboat, called a trimaran. He utilized this boat to sail to many parts of the world. While on a South American cruise with his wife, Brown was admitted to a hospital in Argentina, where he died at the age of 78.
5. F. Sionil José (1924 - 2022)
With an HPI of 40.55, F. Sionil José is the 5th most famous Filipino Writer. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Francisco Sionil José (December 3, 1924 – January 6, 2022) was a Filipino writer who was one of the most widely read in the English language. A National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, which was bestowed upon him in 2001, José's novels and short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. His works—written in English—have been translated into 28 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Czech, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch. He was often considered the leading Filipino candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
People
Pantheon has 5 people classified as Filipino writers born between 1788 and 1945. Of these 5, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Filipino writers include Francisco Balagtas, Lualhati Bautista, and José Burgos. As of April 2024, 1 new Filipino writers have been added to Pantheon including Lualhati Bautista.
Deceased Filipino Writers
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Francisco Balagtas
1788 - 1862
HPI: 52.86
Lualhati Bautista
1945 - 2023
HPI: 45.34
José Burgos
1837 - 1872
HPI: 44.59
James Cooke Brown
1921 - 2000
HPI: 44.36
F. Sionil José
1924 - 2022
HPI: 40.55
Newly Added Filipino Writers (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.
