Best American authors
American authors ranked by the scores readers give their books. From Stephen King's horror to Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy and Ursula K. Le Guin's thoughtful science fiction, the United States has shaped nearly every popular genre. This list gathers the American writers whose books earn the highest ratings, so you can see at a glance which names readers rate most highly right now.
Ranked by each author’s score — the average of their books’ reader ratings on BookRank. Citizenship data: Wikidata.
This country in the Atlas: books set here and places from books →
- 1Art Spiegelman9.09.0
- 2Chanel Miller9.09.0
- 3Bryan Stevenson8.98.9
- 4Patrick Rothfuss8.98.9
- 5Michelle Alexander8.88.8
- 6Daniel Keyes8.88.8
- 7Michelle Obama8.88.8
- 8Matthew Desmond8.88.8
- 9Robin Wall Kimmerer8.78.7
- 10Matt Dinniman8.78.7
- 11Phil Knight8.78.7
- 12Yaa Gyasi8.78.7
- 13Percival Everett8.78.7
- 14Ronan Farrow8.78.7
- 15Pierce Brown8.68.6
- 16Paul Kalanithi8.68.6
- 17Maia Kobabe8.68.6
- 18Scott McCloud8.68.6
- 19Alice Winn8.58.5
- 20Atul Gawande8.58.5
- 21Anthony Doerr8.58.5
- 22Larry McMurtry8.58.5
- 23Patrick Radden Keefe8.58.5
- 24Amor Towles8.58.5
- 25Cece Bell8.58.5
- 26Kristin Hannah8.58.5
- 27Angie Thomas8.58.5
- 28Carl Sagan8.58.5
- 29Barbara Kingsolver8.58.5
- 30Tomie dePaola8.58.5
- 31Douglas Stuart8.48.4
- 32Patti Smith8.48.4
- 33Rebecca Makkai8.48.4
- 34Shel Silverstein8.48.4
- 35Madeline Miller8.48.4
- 36Ibram X. Kendi8.48.4
- 37Alice Walker8.48.4
- 38Brandon Sanderson8.48.4
- 39Helene Hanff8.48.4
- 40Alex Haley8.48.4
- 41Elizabeth Acevedo8.48.4
- 42Loung Ung8.48.4
- 43Andy Weir8.48.4
- 44Randall Munroe8.48.4
- 45Timothy Snyder8.48.4
- 46Alison Bechdel8.48.4
- 47Becky Chambers8.38.3
- 48Brian McClellan8.38.3
- 49Michelle Zauner8.38.3
- 50James Baldwin8.38.3
- 51Maurice Sendak8.38.3
- 52Norton Juster8.38.3
- 53R. J. Palacio8.38.3
- 54Edward Tufte8.38.3
- 55Arnold Lobel8.38.3
- 56James Clavell8.38.3
- 57Siddhartha Mukherjee8.38.3
- 58Jonathan Haidt8.38.3
- 59Michael Shaara8.38.3
- 60Maya Angelou8.38.3
- 61Howard Zinn8.38.3
- 62Rebecca Skloot8.38.3
- 63Eric Carle8.38.3
- 64David Small8.38.3
- 65Craig Thompson8.38.3
- 66Ta-Nehisi Coates8.38.3
- 67Katherine Mack8.38.3
- 68Elie Wiesel8.38.3
- 69Jim Butcher8.38.3
- 70Raina Telgemeier8.38.3
- 71Aiden Thomas8.38.3
- 72David Goggins8.38.3
- 73Robin Hobb8.38.3
- 74Walter Isaacson8.38.3
- 75Laini Taylor8.38.3
- 76Kathryn Stockett8.28.2
- 77Robert McCloskey8.28.2
- 78Robert N. Munsch8.28.2
- 79Douglas Hofstadter8.28.2
- 80Viet Thanh Nguyen8.28.2
- 81Brian Greene8.28.2
- 82Charles C. Mann8.28.2
- 83Angeline Boulley8.28.2
- 84Kwame Alexander8.28.2
- 85Brit Bennett8.28.2
- 86Cormac McCarthy8.28.2
- 87David Foster Wallace8.28.2
- 88Don Freeman8.28.2
- 89Brad Meltzer8.28.2
- 90Neil H. Shubin8.28.2
- 91Taylor Jenkins Reid8.28.2
- 92James Clear8.28.2
- 93Aldo Leopold8.28.2
- 94Charles Portis8.28.2
- 95Robert Jackson Bennett8.28.2
- 96Chris Colfer8.28.2
- 97Will Durant8.28.2
- 98John Howard Griffin8.28.2
- 99Arlene Mosel8.28.2
- 100Esphyr Slobodkina8.28.2
- 101David Wiesner8.28.2
- 102Daniel Kahneman8.28.2
- 103Clement Clarke Moore8.28.2
- 104Stephen Chbosky8.28.2
- 105Crockett Johnson8.28.2
- 106Frank Miller8.28.2
- 107Harold McGee8.28.2
- 108Chris Van Allsburg8.28.2
- 109David Graeber8.28.2
- 110Mark Z. Danielewski8.28.2
- 111Tim O'Brien8.28.2
- 112Irving Stone8.28.2
- 113Sue Klebold8.28.2
- 114Ashlee Vance8.28.2
- 115Delia Owens8.28.2
- 116Rick Riordan8.18.1
- 117Sarah J. Maas8.18.1
- 118N. K. Jemisin8.18.1
- 119Barack Obama8.18.1
- 120Thomas Kuhn8.18.1
- 121Bruce Springsteen8.18.1
- 122Grace Lin8.18.1
- 123Robert Jordan8.18.1
- 124Neal Shusterman8.18.1
- 125Mario Puzo8.18.1
- 126Elizabeth Kolbert8.18.1
- 127Jane Yolen8.18.1
- 128Sabaa Tahir8.18.1
- 129Donna Tartt8.18.1
- 130Ted Chiang8.18.1
- 131Hank Green8.18.1
- 132Margaret Mitchell8.18.1
- 133Truman Capote8.18.1
- 134Robert Heilbroner8.18.1
- 135Susannah Cahalan8.18.1
- 136Carmen Maria Machado8.18.1
- 137Rachel Carson8.18.1
- 138Hannah Arendt8.18.1
- 139Tony Kushner8.18.1
- 140Simon Jimenez8.18.1
- 141Benjamin Graham8.18.1
- 142David Wallace-Wells8.18.1
- 143Marissa Meyer8.18.1
- 144Else Holmelund Minarik8.18.1
- 145George R. R. Martin8.18.1
- 146Suzanne Collins8.18.1
- 147Arkady Martine8.18.1
- 148Jared Diamond8.18.1
- 149Steven Pinker8.18.1
- 150Walter Dean Myers8.18.1
- 151Tamora Pierce8.18.1
- 152Patricia Briggs8.18.1
- 153Kate DiCamillo8.18.1
- 154Dale Carnegie8.18.1
- 155Elizabeth E. Wein8.18.1
- 156Dr. Seuss8.08.0
- 157Octavia E. Butler8.08.0
- 158V. E. Schwab8.08.0
- 159Lloyd Alexander8.08.0
- 160Louis Sachar8.08.0
- 161Margaret Wise Brown8.08.0
- 162Joseph Heller8.08.0
- 163George Samuel Clason8.08.0
- 164Fannie Flagg8.08.0
- 165Mark Manson8.08.0
- 166Neil deGrasse Tyson8.08.0
- 167Dan Simmons8.08.0
- 168Patricia Wrede8.08.0
- 169Jhumpa Lahiri8.08.0
- 170Mark Bittman8.08.0
- 171Toni Morrison8.08.0
- 172Frances Hodgson Burnett8.08.0
- 173Bill Martin Jr.8.08.0
- 174William Peter Blatty8.08.0
- 175Virginia Lee Burton8.08.0
- 176Gene Zion8.08.0
- 177Cassandra Clare8.08.0
- 178Diana Gabaldon8.08.0
- 179Brené Brown8.08.0
- 180Ruth Stiles Gannett8.08.0
- 181Ryka Aoki8.08.0
- 182Edgar Allan Poe8.08.0
- 183Andrew Ross Sorkin8.08.0
- 184Gabrielle Zevin8.08.0
- 185Shannon Hale8.08.0
- 186Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah8.08.0
- 187Judith Viorst8.08.0
- 188Wallace Stegner8.08.0
- 189Richelle Mead8.08.0
- 190Jon Krakauer8.08.0
- 191Casey McQuiston8.08.0
- 192David Grann8.08.0
- 193Mike Mignola8.08.0
- 194Anne Tyler8.08.0
- 195Joseph Campbell8.08.0
- 196Alan Watts8.08.0
- 197Raymond Carver8.08.0
- 198Eric Schlosser8.08.0
- 199Ernest Becker8.08.0
- 200Patrick Ness8.08.0
- 201Mitch Albom8.08.0
- 202Robert Greene8.08.0
- 203Hanya Yanagihara8.08.0
- 204Katherine Paterson8.08.0
- 205Isaac Asimov8.08.0
- 206Ursula K. Le Guin8.08.0
- 207Walter M. Miller8.08.0
- 208Arthur Golden8.08.0
- 209Benjamin Franklin8.08.0
- 210Hernán Díaz8.08.0
- 211Lois McMaster Bujold8.08.0
- 212Laurie Halse Anderson8.08.0
- 213Jennette McCurdy8.08.0
- 214Michael Finkel8.08.0
- 215Eric Ries8.08.0
- 216Axie Oh8.08.0
- 217John Scalzi7.97.9
- 218Nghi Vo7.97.9
- 219Jean Craighead George7.97.9
- 220Joan Didion7.97.9
- 221André Aciman7.97.9
- 222Leigh Bardugo7.97.9
- 223Seanan McGuire7.97.9
- 224Beverly Cleary7.97.9
- 225Ann Leckie7.97.9
- 226Dan Heath7.97.9
- 227Joshua Foer7.97.9
- 228P. D. Eastman7.97.9
- 229Dav Pilkey7.97.9
- 230Sylvia Plath7.97.9
- 231Thomas Paine7.97.9
- 232Peter S. Beagle7.97.9
- 233Leigh Eddings7.97.9
- 234Emily St. John Mandel7.97.9
- 235Kelly Barnhill7.97.9
- 236W. E. B. Du Bois7.97.9
- 237Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi7.97.9
- 238Michael Lewis7.97.9
- 239Elizabeth George Speare7.97.9
- 240Robert Cialdini7.97.9
- 241Pearl S. Buck7.97.9
- 242Megan Abbott7.97.9
- 243John Steinbeck7.97.9
- 244S. E. Hinton7.97.9
- 245Harriet Jacobs7.97.9
- 246Frank McCourt7.97.9
- 247Nancy Garden7.97.9
- 248R. A. Salvatore7.97.9
- 249Charles Duhigg7.97.9
- 250Joe Haldeman7.97.9
- 251Wilson Rawls7.97.9
- 252Thornton Wilder7.97.9
- 253Vicki Robin7.97.9
- 254Roxane Gay7.97.9
- 255Kurt Vonnegut7.97.9
- 256Neal Stephenson7.97.9
- 257Ray Bradbury7.97.9
- 258Emily Henry7.97.9
- 259George Saunders7.97.9
- 260Andrea Stewart7.97.9
- 261Carol Ryrie Brink7.97.9
- 262Colson Whitehead7.97.9
- 263Ursula Vernon7.97.9
- 264Robert M. Pirsig7.97.9
- 265Margaret Peterson Haddix7.97.9
- 266E. B. White7.97.9
- 267Torrey Peters7.97.9
- 268Kristin Cashore7.87.8
- 269Clifford D. Simak7.87.8
- 270Gail Carson Levine7.87.8
- 271Audrey Niffenegger7.87.8
- 272Jean Webster7.87.8
- 273Michael Connelly7.87.8
- 274Thomas Pynchon7.87.8
- 275Frank Herbert7.87.8
- 276Marie Lu7.87.8
- 277Ransom Riggs7.87.8
- 278Nnedi Okorafor7.87.8
- 279Sherman Alexie7.87.8
- 280E. D. Baker7.87.8
- 281Holly Black7.87.8
- 282Laura Ingalls Wilder7.87.8
- 283Ambrose Bierce7.87.8
- 284David Allen7.87.8
- 285R.F. Kuang7.87.8
- 286Nassim Nicholas Taleb7.87.8
- 287Jennifer Niven7.87.8
- 288Robert R. McCammon7.87.8
- 289John Kennedy Toole7.87.8
- 290Mildred D. Taylor7.87.8
- 291John Gardner7.87.8
- 292Cal Newport7.87.8
- 293Dennis Lehane7.87.8
- 294Rivers Solomon7.87.8
- 295Meg Cabot7.87.8
- 296Justin Cronin7.87.8
- 297Tomi Adeyemi7.87.8
- 298Celeste Ng7.87.8
- 299Jack London7.87.8
- 300Richard Thaler7.87.8
- 301Patricia MacLachlan7.87.8
- 302Terry Brooks7.87.8
- 303Katherine Applegate7.87.8
- 304Sheryl Sandberg7.87.8
- 305Sidney Sheldon7.87.8
- 306Alan Weisman7.87.8
- 307Vladimir Nabokov7.87.8
- 308David Byrne7.87.8
- 309Cheryl Strayed7.87.8
- 310Rainbow Rowell7.87.8
- 311Christopher Buehlman7.87.8
- 312David Levithan7.87.8
- 313Zora Neale Hurston7.87.8
- 314Paolo Bacigalupi7.87.8
- 315William Faulkner7.87.8
- 316Charlotte Perkins Gilman7.87.8
- 317Marion Zimmer Bradley7.87.8
- 318Fred Gipson7.87.8
- 319Jennifer Egan7.77.7
- 320Gertrude Chandler Warner7.77.7
- 321Upton Sinclair7.77.7
- 322Avi7.77.7
- 323Erich Fromm7.77.7
- 324Jonathan Franzen7.77.7
- 325Sara Gruen7.77.7
- 326Ted Kaczynski7.77.7
- 327Lois Lowry7.77.7
- 328James Ellroy7.77.7
- 329Jenny Han7.77.7
- 330Willa Cather7.77.7
- 331Edward Bernays7.77.7
- 332Jason Matthews7.77.7
- 333Benjamin Hoff7.77.7
- 334Satya Nadella7.77.7
- 335Anne McCaffrey7.77.7
- 336Michael Chabon7.77.7
- 337Steven D. Levitt7.77.7
- 338Nicola Yoon7.77.7
- 339Donald J. Sobol7.77.7
- 340Thomas J. Stanley7.77.7
- 341Ira Levin7.77.7
- 342Tennessee Williams7.77.7
- 343Sid Fleischman7.77.7
- 344Sharon Creech7.77.7
- 345Philip K. Dick7.77.7
- 346Tess Gerritsen7.77.7
- 347Louisa May Alcott7.77.7
- 348J. D. Salinger7.77.7
- 349Gary Paulsen7.77.7
- 350Maggie Stiefvater7.77.7
- 351Caleb Carr7.77.7
- 352Clive Cussler7.77.7
- 353William Gibson7.77.7
- 354Jean M. Auel7.77.7
- 355Raymond Chandler7.77.7
- 356Robin Sloan7.77.7
- 357Sue Monk Kidd7.77.7
- 358Christopher Paolini7.77.7
- 359L. Frank Baum7.77.7
- 360Tana French7.77.7
- 361Junot Díaz7.77.7
- 362Mindy Kaling7.77.7
- 363Sinclair Lewis7.77.7
- 364Rachel Caine7.77.7
- 365Jonathan Safran Foer7.77.7
- 366Natalie Babbitt7.77.7
- 367Jessica Bird7.77.7
- 368Madeleine L'Engle7.77.7
- 369Stephen Graham Jones7.77.7
- 370Mark Twain7.77.7
- 371Catherynne M. Valente7.77.7
- 372Kalynn Bayron7.77.7
- 373Scott Turow7.77.7
- 374Terry Goodkind7.77.7
- 375Gillian Flynn7.77.7
- 376Victor LaValle7.77.7
- 377Esther Forbes7.77.7
- 378Thomas Rockwell7.77.7
- 379Napoleon Hill7.77.7
- 380Mary Higgins Clark7.77.7
- 381David Baldacci7.77.7
- 382Janet Evanovich7.77.7
- 383Edgar Rice Burroughs7.77.7
- 384H. Beam Piper7.77.7
- 385Thomas Harris7.67.6
- 386Patricia Highsmith7.67.6
- 387John Green7.67.6
- 388Amy Poehler7.67.6
- 389Stephen King7.67.6
- 390Greg Bear7.67.6
- 391Nelson DeMille7.67.6
- 392Sarah Dessen7.67.6
- 393Frank Beddor7.67.6
- 394Caro Claire Burke7.67.6
- 395Ernest Hemingway7.67.6
- 396Max Brooks7.67.6
- 397Ally Carter7.67.6
- 398Lorraine Hansberry7.67.6
- 399Harlan Coben7.67.6
- 400Robert A. Heinlein7.67.6
- 401Tom Clancy7.67.6
- 402Patricia Cornwell7.67.6
- 403Kim Stanley Robinson7.67.6
- 404Karen M. McManus7.67.6
- 405Edward Ashton7.67.6
- 406Fritz Leiber7.67.6
- 407Amy Tan7.67.6
- 408Joan D. Vinge7.67.6
- 409Colleen Hoover7.67.6
- 410Grady Hendrix7.67.6
- 411Dashiell Hammett7.67.6
- 412Jerry Spinelli7.67.6
- 413Theodore Dreiser7.67.6
- 414Andrew Sean Greer7.67.6
- 415Larry Niven7.67.6
- 416Robert Ludlum7.67.6
- 417Charles Bukowski7.67.6
- 418William Styron7.67.6
- 419Charlie N. Holmberg7.67.6
- 420Nicholas Sparks7.67.6
- 421Carl Hiaasen7.67.6
- 422Harry Harrison7.67.6
- 423Tracy Chevalier7.67.6
- 424Martin Cruz Smith7.67.6
- 425Kevin Kwan7.67.6
- 426Owen King7.67.6
- 427Nora Ephron7.67.6
- 428Julia Cameron7.67.6
- 429James Patterson7.57.5
- 430Tahereh Mafi7.57.5
- 431Dean Koontz7.57.5
- 432Edith Wharton7.57.5
- 433Walker Percy7.57.5
- 434Caroline B. Cooney7.57.5
- 435Sequoia Nagamatsu7.57.5
- 436Jenny Odell7.57.5
- 437John Grisham7.57.5
- 438Samuel R. Delany7.57.5
- 439Elizabeth Gilbert7.57.5
- 440Scott O'Dell7.57.5
- 441Jeanne DuPrau7.57.5
- 442James Frey7.57.5
- 443Marisha Pessl7.57.5
- 444Carrie Fisher7.57.5
- 445Sue Grafton7.57.5
- 446F. Paul Wilson7.57.5
- 447M. T. Anderson7.57.5
- 448F. Scott Fitzgerald7.57.5
- 449Sandra Cisneros7.57.5
- 450Kristin Cast7.57.5
- 451Lauren Oliver7.47.4
- 452Eric Berne7.47.4
- 453Michael Crichton7.47.4
- 454Anne Rice7.47.4
- 455James Dashner7.47.4
- 456Victoria Aveyard7.47.4
- 457Charlie Jane Anders7.47.4
- 458Caitlin Starling7.47.4
- 459James Fenimore Cooper7.47.4
- 460Tim Ferriss7.47.4
- 461Veronica Roth7.47.4
- 462Todd Ritter7.47.4
- 463Gayle Forman7.47.4
- 464Harriet Beecher Stowe7.47.4
- 465Meg Rosoff7.47.4
- 466Jeff VanderMeer7.47.4
- 467Ottessa Moshfegh7.47.4
- 468Rick Yancey7.47.4
- 469Henry David Thoreau7.47.4
- 470Julia Quinn7.47.4
- 471Becca Fitzpatrick7.47.4
- 472Olivie Blake7.47.4
- 473Arthur Miller7.47.4
- 474Chuck Palahniuk7.47.4
- 475V. C. Andrews7.47.4
- 476Erich Segal7.47.4
- 477Scott Smith7.37.3
- 478Washington Irving7.37.3
- 479Bret Easton Ellis7.37.3
- 480Poppy Z. Brite7.37.3
- 481Dave Eggers7.37.3
- 482Kate Chopin7.37.3
- 483Dan Brown7.27.2
- 484Ernest Cline7.27.2
- 485Alice Sebold7.27.2
- 486Jay Asher7.17.1
- 487Seth Grahame-Smith7.17.1
- 488Charles Yu7.17.1
- 489Jack Kerouac7.07.0
- 490Ally Condie7.07.0
- 491Beatrice Sparks6.86.8
- 492Henry James6.76.7
- 493Stephenie Meyer6.66.6
- 494Nathaniel Hawthorne6.66.6
