WRITER

Barbara Kingsolver

1955 - Today

Photo of Barbara Kingsolver

Icon of person Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Barbara Kingsolver has received more than 1,388,324 page views. Her biography is available in 23 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 17 in 2019). Barbara Kingsolver is the 6,420th most popular writer (down from 6,240th in 2019), the 11,910th most popular biography from United States (up from 13,972nd in 2019) and the 873rd most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 41.16

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 23

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 1.57

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.08

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Animal Dreams
literary fiction, political fiction, Courage
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What she finds is a town threatened by a silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends, Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments. With this work, the acclaimed author of The Bean Trees and Homeland and Other Stories sustains her familiar voice while giving readers her most remarkable book yet.
1990
Unsheltered
Fiction, nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-fiction=2018-11-04, New York Times bestseller
Willa Knox has always prided herself on being the embodiment of responsibility for her family. Which is why it's so unnerving that she's arrived at middle age with nothing to show for her hard work and dedication but a stack of unpaid bills and an inherited brick home in Vineland, New Jersey, that is literally falling apart. The magazine where she worked has folded, and the college where her husband had tenure has closed. The dilapidated house is also home to her ailing and cantankerous Greek father-in-law and her two grown children: her stubborn, free-spirited daughter, Tig, and her dutiful debt-ridden, ivy educated son, Zeke, who has arrived with his unplanned baby in the wake of a life-shattering development. In an act of desperation, Willa begins to investigate the history of her home, hoping that the local historical preservation society might take an interest and provide funding for its direly needed repairs. Through her research into Vineland's past and its creation as a Utopian community, she discovers a kindred spirit from the 1880s, Thatcher Greenwood.
2018
The Poisonwood Bible
Missionaries, Fiction, Americans
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
1998
The Bean Trees
Indian children, Friendship in fiction, Literature
Taylor, a poor Kentuckian making her way west with an abandoned baby girl, stops in Tucson where she finds friends and discovers resources in apparently empty places.
1988
Pigs in heaven
Literature, Cherokee Indians, Orphans
A phenomenal bestseller and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction, Pigs in Heaven continues the story of Taylor and Turtle, first introduced in The Bean Trees.
1993
Prodigal Summer
Southern appalachian Region in fiction, Literature, Domestic fiction
This lush tale interweaves the narratives of three women in southern Appalachia, where the reproductive urge rages through the verdant natural world, but where science and economics play their prominent roles, also. Barbara Kingsolver shows her highest powers in this impressive and vibrant piece. Her technical expertise teaches us a great deal about wildlife management and agricultual economics, but so much more about the indomitable human spirit.
2000

Page views of Barbara Kingsolvers by language

Over the past year Barbara Kingsolver has had the most page views in the with 479,270 views, followed by French (15,824), and German (13,215). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Polish (739.60%), Italian (563.71%), and Simple English (537.57%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Barbara Kingsolver ranks 6,420 out of 7,302. Before her are Frances Wright, Michal Šanda, Thomas Hood, Klas Östergren, Tana French, and Jenny Erpenbeck. After her are Rick Yancey, Anna Löwenstein, Jonathan Rosenbaum, James Lipton, Ruth Graham, and Samuel Daniel.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1955, Barbara Kingsolver ranks 551. Before her are Marek Dziuba, Gerard Nijboer, Heribert Weber, Philippe Lafontaine, Steven M. Greer, and Klas Östergren. After her are Natalya Petrusyova, David Murray, Dorji Wangmo, Thelma Aldana, Hans-Jürgen Riediger, and Douglas Crockford.

Others Born in 1955

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Barbara Kingsolver ranks 11,910 out of 20,380. Before her are Sharon Lawrence (1961), John Taylor (1883), Matthew Barney (1967), Alex Kurtzman (1973), Tito Santana (1953), and Charles Sprague Sargent (1841). After her are Rick Yancey (1962), Lydia Lunch (1959), Elizabeth Marvel (1969), John Boozman (1950), Jonathan Rosenbaum (1943), and Teresa Edwards (1964).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Barbara Kingsolver ranks 873. Before her are Janet Evanovich (1943), Joe Hill (1972), James Branch Cabell (1879), Michael McClure (1932), Andrew Sarris (1928), and Tana French (1973). After her are Rick Yancey (1962), Jonathan Rosenbaum (1943), James Lipton (1926), Daniel Handler (1970), Helen Gurley Brown (1922), and J. P. Donleavy (1926).

American born Writers

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