The Most Famous

WRITERS from Spain

This page contains a list of the greatest Spanish Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 212 of which were born in Spain. This makes Spain the birth place of the 7th most number of Writers behind Russia, and Italy.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Spanish Writers of all time. This list of famous Spanish Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Spanish Writers.

1. Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616)

With an HPI of 85.17, Miguel de Cervantes is the most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 174 different languages on wikipedia.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish: [miˈɣel de θeɾˈβantes saaˈβeðɾa]; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote, a work often cited as both the first modern novel and "the first great novel of world literature". A 2002 poll of 100 well-known authors voted it the "most meaningful book of all time", from among the "best and most central works in world literature".Much of his life was spent in relative poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as "the language of Cervantes". In 1569, Cervantes was forced to leave Spain and move to Rome, where he worked in the household of a cardinal. In 1570, he enlisted in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment, and was badly wounded at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571 and lost the use of his left arm and hand. He served as a soldier until 1575, when he was captured by Barbary pirates; after five years in captivity, he was ransomed, and returned to Madrid. His first significant novel, titled La Galatea, was published in 1585, but he continued to work as a purchasing agent, and later as a government tax collector. Part One of Don Quixote was published in 1605, and Part Two in 1615. Other works include the 12 Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Novels); a long poem, the Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus); and Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses (Eight Plays and Eight Interludes). The novel Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda), was published posthumously in 1616.

2. Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936)

With an HPI of 76.28, Federico García Lorca is the 2nd most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 106 different languages.

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca (English: gar-SEE-ə LOR-kə), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements (such as symbolism, futurism, and surrealism) into Spanish literature.He initially rose to fame with Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads, 1928), a book of poems depicting life in his native Andalusia. His poetry incorporated traditional Andalusian motifs and avant-garde styles. After a sojourn in New York City from 1929 to 1930—documented posthumously in Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York, 1942)—he returned to Spain and wrote his best-known plays, Blood Wedding (1932), Yerma (1934), and The House of Bernarda Alba (1936). García Lorca was homosexual and suffered from depression after the end of his relationship with sculptor Emilio Aladrén Perojo. García Lorca also had a close emotional relationship for a time with Salvador Dalí, who said he rejected García Lorca's sexual advances. García Lorca was assassinated by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His remains have never been found, and the motive remains in dispute; some theorize he was targeted for being gay, a socialist, or both, while others view a personal dispute as the more likely cause.

3. Joan Fuster (1922 - 1992)

With an HPI of 74.49, Joan Fuster is the 3rd most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 90 different languages.

Joan Fuster i Ortells (Valencian pronunciation: [dʒoˈaɱ fusˈteɾ j oɾˈteʎs]; 23 November 1922 – 21 June 1992) was an influential Spanish writer. He is considered a major writer in the Valencian language (a dialect of the Catalan language), and his work contributed to reinvigorate left-wing, pro-Catalan nationalism in Valencia during the Spanish transition to democracy. In his influential political essay Nosaltres, els valencians (1962) he coined the term Països Catalans (Catalan Countries) to refer to the Catalan-speaking territories.

4. Lope de Vega (1562 - 1635)

With an HPI of 72.91, Lope de Vega is the 4th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 94 different languages.

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (25 November 1562 – 27 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Baroque literature. In the literature of Spain, Lope de Vega is second to Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes said that Lope de Vega was “The Phoenix of Wits” (Fénix de los ingenios) and “Monster of Nature” (Monstruo de naturaleza).Lope de Vega renewed the literary life of Spanish theatre when it became mass culture, and with the playwrights Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina defined the characteristics of Spanish Baroque theatre with great insight into the human condition. The literary production of Lope de Vega includes 3,000 sonnets, three novels, four novellas, nine epic poems, and approximately 500 stageplays. Personally and professionally, Lope de Vega was friend to the writer Francisco de Quevedo and arch-enemy of the dramatist Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. The volume of literary works produced by Lope de Vega earned him the envy of his contemporaries, such as Cervantes and Luis de Góngora, and the admiration of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for such a vast and colourful oeuvre. Lope de Vega was also a close friend of Sebastian Francisco de Medrano, founder and president of the Poetic Academy of Madrid. He would attend Medrano's Academy from 1616 to 1626, and his relationship with Medrano is evident in his El Laurel de Apolo (1630) in silva VII.

5. Quintilian (35 - 96)

With an HPI of 72.12, Quintilian is the 5th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (Latin: [kᶣiːn.tɪ.li.ˈaː.nʊs]; c. 35 – c. 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilian (), although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen, the latter in older texts.

6. Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600 - 1681)

With an HPI of 71.23, Pedro Calderón de la Barca is the 6th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 79 different languages.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (17 January 1600 – 25 May 1681) (UK: , US: ; Spanish: [ˈpeðɾo kaldeˈɾon de la ˈβaɾka]; full name: Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque writers of the Spanish Golden Age, especially for his plays. Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid, where he spent most of his life. During his life, he served as soldier and he was a Roman Catholic priest. Born when the Spanish Golden Age theatre was being defined by Lope de Vega, he developed it further, his work being regarded as the culmination of the Spanish Baroque theatre. As such, he is regarded as one of Spain's foremost dramatists and one of the finest playwrights of world literature.

7. Bartolomé de las Casas (1484 - 1566)

With an HPI of 70.78, Bartolomé de las Casas is the 7th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 55 different languages.

Bartolomé de las Casas, OP (US: lahss KAH-səss; Spanish: [baɾtoloˈme ðe las ˈkasas] ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a Spanish clergyman, writer, and activist best known for his work as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman, then became a Dominican friar. He was appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies. He described the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.Arriving as one of the first Spanish settlers in the Americas, Las Casas initially participated in, but eventually felt compelled to oppose, the abuses committed by European colonists against the indigenous peoples of the Americas. As a result, in 1515 he gave up his Native American slaves and encomienda, and he then advocated, before Charles V, on behalf of rights for the natives. In his early writings, he advocated the use of African and white slaves instead of Natives in the West Indian colonies but did so without knowing that the Portuguese were carrying out "brutal and unjust wars in the name of spreading the faith". Later in life, he retracted this position, as he regarded both forms of slavery as equally wrong. In 1522, he tried to launch a new kind of peaceful colonialism on the coast of Venezuela, but this venture failed. Las Casas entered the Dominican Order and became a friar, leaving public life for a decade. He traveled to Central America, acting as a missionary among the Maya of Guatemala and participating in debates among colonial churchmen about how best to bring the natives to the Christian faith. Travelling back to Spain to recruit more missionaries, he continued lobbying for the abolition of the encomienda, gaining an important victory by the passage of the New Laws in 1542. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas, but served only for a short time before he was forced to return to Spain because of resistance to the New Laws by the encomenderos, and conflicts with Spanish settlers because of his pro-Indian policies and activist religious stance. He served in the Spanish court for the remainder of his life; there he held great influence over Indies-related issues. In 1550, he participated in the Valladolid debate, in which Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that the Indians were less than human, and required Spanish masters to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human, and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable. Bartolomé de las Casas spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and the colonial abuse of indigenous peoples, especially by trying to convince the Spanish court to adopt a more humane policy of colonization. Unlike some other priests who sought to destroy the indigenous peoples' native books and writings, he strictly opposed this action. Although he did not completely succeed in changing Spanish views on colonization, his efforts did result in improvement of the legal status of the natives, and in an increased colonial focus on the ethics of colonialism.

8. Alfonso X of Castile (1221 - 1284)

With an HPI of 70.55, Alfonso X of Castile is the 8th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, Spanish: el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in 1275, and in creating an alliance with the Kingdom of England in 1254, his claim on the Duchy of Gascony as well Alfonso was a prolific sponsor of Galician poetry, such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which are equally notable for their musical content as for their literary merit. Alfonso's scientific interests—he is sometimes nicknamed the Astrologer (el Astrólogo)—led him to sponsor the creation of the Alfonsine tables, and the Alphonsus crater on the Moon is named after him. He also sponsored the work of historians, who for the first time placed Spain—he would have called it that—in the context of world history. As a lawmaker he introduced the first vernacular law code in Castile, the Siete Partidas. He created the Mesta, an association of sheep farmers in the central plain, but debased the coinage to finance his claim to the German crown. He fought a successful war with Portugal, but a less successful one with Granada. The end of his reign was marred by a civil war with his eldest surviving son, the future Sancho IV, which continued after his death.

9. Lucan (39 - 65)

With an HPI of 70.30, Lucan is the 9th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 59 different languages.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period, known in particular for his epic Pharsalia. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets.

10. Seneca the Elder (-54 - 39)

With an HPI of 68.04, Seneca the Elder is the 10th most famous Spanish Writer. His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder ( SEN-ik-ə; c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, six books of which are extant in a more or less complete state and five others in epitome only. His principal work, a history of Roman affairs from the beginning of the Civil Wars until the last years of his life, is almost entirely lost to posterity. Seneca lived through the reigns of three significant emperors; Augustus (ruled 27 BC – 14 AD), Tiberius (ruled 14–37 AD) and Caligula (ruled 37–41 AD). He was the father of Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, best known as a Proconsul of Achaia; his second son was the dramatist and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger (Lucius), who was tutor of Nero, and his third son, Marcus Annaeus Mela, became the father of the poet Lucan.

People

Pantheon has 226 people classified as Spanish writers born between 64 BC and 2002. Of these 226, 38 (16.81%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Spanish writers include Fernando Arrabal, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and Jaume Cabré. The most famous deceased Spanish writers include Miguel de Cervantes, Federico García Lorca, and Joan Fuster. As of April 2024, 14 new Spanish writers have been added to Pantheon including Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, Juan Boscán Almogáver, and María de Zayas.